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I'm starting to look like a Gatedrop pr-assistent, but they are posting a lot of rumours/stories... Now they say Hutten would lose the Yamaha MX2 factory deal at the end of the year when the contract would end.
What will Yamaha then be looking for as MX2 team?
Yeah my comment regarding him was in context to the Factory KTM MX2 situation. He would've been a perfect pick for them for -27 if he would've performed better this season. And i guess they could choose him despite his performances this year, because there is obviously potential there and i think he is working with Smets?
Listening to Big Lew it sounds like they have been seen as under delivering by Yamaha Japan. I think he said Yam Japan are going to take on a larger role with the Yamaha programs moving forward.
I think he's living with Joel from a video I saw recently...
I did think Zanocz was going to be better this year but I understand he didn't realise the step up from EMX250 to MX2.
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I understand that Dirt Store Triumph have opted out of continuing in MXGP this year. Both Watson and Askew were absent last weekend.
Watson didn't want to go as he feels he needed more testing with suspension and mapping, as he's struggling at the moment. No breakup with his team, according to Lewis Phillips on the VitalMX podcast.
What a shit career move that was from Watson. And i said it when it got announced, i did not understand how some people (incl. Lewis) were excited by the move. Still to this day i haven't seen a guy go from being a full-time GP rider to European rounds only and become better/take steps forward in their careers.
I hear this as well and it’s not only Hutten but also Kemea that might lose their factory status. Apparently Yamaha will operate from a structure in Italy and maybe Star Racing is getting directly involved as well.
Hutten has announced it on mxvice that they have parted from Yamaha
A Englishman on a English triumph had big Lew tickled pink
No, I'm not.
😉
Watson is overrated and that’s coming from a Brit.
The Dirt Store Team skipped Montiavarchi to do a local race here in the UK, at Blaxhall, which had a pretty decent field.
Blaxhall will host the final round of the Motul ACU British Championship, in september which the team have as a priority over MXGP at this point for their UK sponsors.
With Watson riding for Euro Teams for a long time, he has not ridden a lot of these UK tracks recently, and the 1 day format has been a problem for him , according to the podium interviews we have done with him.
So choosing to do that , over a trip to Italy, makes a lot of sense.
They 'should' be in Portugal.
In my opinion at the time, he was so disillusioned with Beta (understandably so) that any change was good...
I appreciated that it was a backwards move on paper, but felt it'd give him a mental spurt to push on again.
Hopefully it still does. I'd like to see Watson and Triumph find success, together or apart.
Blame pie - 70 percent Yamaha NL, 30 percent Wim Hutten.
2025 was a horrible year with the team using the underwhelming and sometimes unreliable Rinaldi R&D engines, and Hutten not pushing back much when they knew the bike was not good.
250 and 450 motor failures at numerous races including two in the span of one hour literally right in front of me at Lommel in the first motos.
Monster was going to pull team sponsorship as well possibly.
near the end of 25 riders were limited on testing and training due to blown budgets, sometimes limited to 1 training day per week.
Shit behind the scenes was not good for morale.
I wonder if Hutten will start a new team, the facility was just expanded in 2023 and is fairly nice...
Yamaha Europe should’ve never stopped leasing the Star motors that had Geerts up front
So his Mx1 victory at MXoN was just luck then?
It he had got a second season on the Yamaha, it would have been epic, instead he got destroyed by the Green Pig.
There is so much you will never know.
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Here lies the problem. Let’s say I’m an outside sponsor looking to throw cash at a team cause I like rider “A” but rider A isn’t doing to good he looks like he’s lost it. I take said cash to another team. Holding back on info is a two way street.
i read that 4 times and it makes no sense.
Reading that, how on earth did they get Gajser to sign?
That was nearly 6 years ago, 2020 or was it 21? Yamaha didn’t retain him for a reason.
What he’s basically saying is, if a sponsor was looking at Watson, said sponsor wouldn’t throw money at a rider that cannot perform.
Its clear that Yamaha has been a mess, but tbh i'm not sure why an oem would look at team Hutten and say: Yep, thats the team that is going to win me a world championship, i need them.
Thats not a dig at Hutten, its just that if Martens, F&H, Standing etc all lose factory status/dont get it then why would Hutten be a better option?
I wish he would see the value and enjoyment in doing a privateer setup. Something like a better version of Mikula or last years Oliver. The sport would be better with a strong private team in mx2 getting near top 5 with a combo of for example Valk and Mikula.
Remember Hutten was Yamaha’s EMX250 team for many years. They got allot succes in that series with many wins an titles.
When Kemea went 450 the 250 side openend up, so its not that crazy and a pretty logically move from Yamaha to give that effort to Hutten.
They also got rewarded for their succes and investment they made into the Yamaha pyramid.
At the end of the day Ben is a good rider but he is not elite level, I think that’s a fair comment based on his results over his career. You can also say he had bad luck not getting the factory ride 450 on Yamaha but it what it is.
So far his 2026 season hasn’t been great 1st round ofXGP was good and the British was good. Again the truth is Conrad is more of an elite level rider and you can see that in the results. Ben IMO has always struggled with that raw speed that’s needed over the 1st 4/5 laps, at the end of the race his pace is good when everyone has settled into the race but at that point it’s to late in MXGP he’d be looking at anything from 12-18
Because Hutten was ran really well under another manager for years with lots of success in emx and had a great bike. Yamaha then just moved kemea up one spot and Hutten up one spot. Easy transition. The biggest problem with Yamaha is….Rinaldi. They have WAY too much control over Yamaha Europe and their lack of results show. Wilvo as a privateer team…better. Gebben as a privateer team as good. Hutten as an emx 250 team, better. Star racing…better. But yet Rinaldi dictates what they do.
I think you will see Hutten pick up some sort of deal, heck would be great for Fantic to take them.
Then tell us what you know?
Ben was and still is a solid 8-12 place guy on his day and that's good going in MXGP. I like Ben and wish him the best whatever he rides.
In 2021 on the Yam he finished 11th in the standings, scoring 300 points over 18 rounds.
In 2022 on the Kawi he finished 12th, scoring 275 points over 18 rounds. 25 points less over the season, less than a point per moto.
So blaming the bike doesn't carry much weight here. Saying a second season on the Yamaha would have been epic, well, we'll never know.
He could ride any current factory bike and maybe he'd improve to sixth in the odd race, but the level is just way higher than it was. That's the reality.
Who replaces Farres at Triumph MX2?
Imo Watson who would have benefited doing what Horgmo is doing now or what Calvin Vlaanderen did for years: Ride for a supported team in stead of a factory team, where they are happy with you going 11, 15, 10, 12, 13 for races and have a massive party twice a year when you finish 4th or 6th.
Now he is 29 so i think his current setup is good for him: focus on uk and do a bunch of gp's if you feel good.
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