Yamaha Motor Europe (YME) is pleased to announce its line-up for the 2025 FIM Supersport World Championship, featuring three supported teams campaigning the all-new R9 WorldSSP machine.
Stefano Manzi will spearhead Yamaha’s assault on the 2025 FIM Supersport World Championship, racing once again for the Pata Yamaha Ten Kate team with whom he has twice finished as vice-champion in the immediate class. The Italian will be joined by Japan’s Yuki Okamoto, who steps up to the world championship after an impressive season in the All Japan Road Racing Championship saw him win the JSB1000 title.
Five-time WorldSBK race winner Michael Ruben Rinaldi will race with Christophe Guyot’s GMT94 Yamaha as he makes his debut in the Supersport class. He’ll join former FIM Supersport World Champion Lucas Mahias in GMT94’s 2025 line-up.
Twice world champions for Yamaha, the Evan Bros team will take on a new-look for 2025, becoming part of Yamaha’s bLU cRU program to introduce young riders to WorldSSP. 21-year-old Can Öncü, a former Red Bull Rookies Cup champion, joins the new team as he looks to build on a WorldSSP career that’s seen him achieve a race victory and 14 further podiums.
Öncü will be joined in the Evan Bros team by reigning FIM Supersport 300 World Champion, 18-year-old Aldi Satya Mahendra. This is a clear example of Yamaha’s step-up philosophy, which has seen Mahendra progress from the R3 bLU cRU World Cup, to WorldSSP300 and now to WorldSSP, and Okamoto promoted onto the world stage after winning the JSB1000 title this season.
Launched by Yamaha Motor earlier this year, the R9 represents a new generation of Supersport motorcycle powered by Yamaha’s award-winning 890cc three-cylinder engine. Engineers at Yamaha Motor Racing Europe (YMRE) have been working on developing the R9 for Next Generation WorldSSP rules for over a year with the project unveiled at the final round of the 2024 season at Jerez.
The R9 will make its race debut in the WorldSSP Championship, while Yamaha Motor Europe works alongside its teams and riders to develop the package before releasing a race kit for national championships ahead of the 2026 season.
The new WorldSSP line-up will get their first real taste of the R9 WorldSSP in a shakedown test at Cremona between 7-8 November, before the teams then embark on their own winter testing schedule ahead of the opening round of 2025, set to take place at Phillip Island, Australia between 21-23 February.
Andrea Dosoli, Division Manager, Motorsport Division, Yamaha Motor Europe
“We are pleased to announce our new line-up for the 2025 Supersport World Championship, which marks a new approach for us in the Supersport category. The R9 is a very important new model, so to have such a strong line-up in our first year is important. We believe this is the best strategy for us to launch this new era of Supersport for Yamaha. Not only does having a diverse line-up, comprising a mix of experience and youth, give us the greatest chance of achieving the best results possible for the R9 in its first year of competition, but it also means we have significant input for the development of this brand new model, which is important as we prepare to roll out the race kit for national championships ahead of the 2026 season. The global role of our WorldSBK programme is also emphasised by the support from YMC in the signing of Aldi Mahendra and Yuki Okamoto, two promising young riders who have risen through the ranks with Yamaha.”
