Six-time grand prix winner Álex Rins will join the factory Yamaha team for the 2024 MotoGP season, it has been announced. He has been signed to race alongside 2021 MotoGP champion Fabio Quartararo, who has raced for Yamaha since he joined the premier motorcycle class in 2019.
The move will see Rins leave LCR Honda after just a single season – he joined the team on a two-year contract after Suzuki pulled out of the sport at the end of 2022. He will replace the outgoing Franco Morbidelli, who leaves the Yamaha factory team after joining mid-way through the 2021.
Rins’ stay at LCR has already been curtailed thanks to a badly broken leg sustained during the Italian Grand Prix sprint race that has seen him miss three races already as he underwent substantial surgeries, and it’s currently unknown when we can expect him to return to the track.
He will race for a factory outfit once again in 2024, no doubt with hopes of fighting for regular wins, albeit with a Yamaha team that has struggled to compete with the dominant Ducatis so far this year.
The 27-year-old Spaniard has a career-best finish of 3rd in the MotoGP championship during the truncated 2020 season. During six seasons in MotoGP, he has scored 18 podium finishes, and his most recent victory came somewhat surprisingly at this year’s Grand Prix of the Americas.
Lin Jarvis, Managing Director of Yamaha Motor Racing said: “We are delighted that Alex is joining the Yamaha line-up, and we warmly welcome him to the Yamaha MotoGP group.
“We expect Alex to be a great asset. He has vast experience as a MotoGP rider and is known to be a natural talent and a multi-time MotoGP class race winner.”
MotoGP
Alex Rins
Yamaha