Over the last 25 years, the R6 has been Yamaha’s main WorldSSP challenger and to a lot of success. In its two and a half decades on the racetrack, the R6 achieved no fewer than ten rider world championships, ten manufacturer crowns and 147 race victories. And even in the last three seasons, following the introduction of the ‘Next Generation’ Supersport class, the R6 has remained competitive, even winning its last two races in Jerez in the final round of the 2024 season.

The new R9 made its public debut at the final round of the 2024 FIM Superbike World Championship at Jerez this weekend, where both the road-going bike and the new R9 WorldSSP were uncovered in a special presentation before James Whitham (the first ever WorldSSP winner on an R6) and Stefano Manzi (the last ever WorldSSP winner on an R6) took the bikes on a dedicated parade lap ahead of WorldSBK Race 1.

While the R9 has only recently been announced, engineers at Yamaha Motor Europe Motorsport Research & Development have been secretly working on developing this new Supersport machine into a WorldSSP contender for some time. Receiving the first pre-production unit last April, for more than a year, the team led by Yamaha Motor Europe Motorsport Road Racing Technical Manager Riccardo Tisci, has undergone a number of secret tests as well as development processes in house at Yamaha Motor Racing Europe (YMRE), based in Lesmo, Italy.

“When we received the pre-production unit the first thing we did was put Stefano Manzi, our leading WorldSSP rider, on the bike at a local circuit in secret,” explains Tisci, talking about the R9 for the first time in Jerez.

“During this test, we did a direct comparison between the standard pre-production R9 and the WorldSSP-spec R6 Manzi was racing at the time. This gave us an understanding of the strengths of the new bike and the areas we needed to work on.

“Following this test, we went back to YMRE and started to develop the race kit from what we had learned, in line with the WorldSSP regulations. The rules allow you to work on triple clamps, linkage, suspension, radiators and engine, among some other areas including bodywork. When we were about 80% there, we took the bike back to the racetrack, this time with WorldSBK rider and 2020 WorldSSP champion Andrea Locatelli to see how we were getting on. The feedback was very positive, especially in terms of engine character – we were actually quite surprised to see the progress in just our second test.”

Developing a new race bike from a brand-new standard machine is no easy task, so YMRE’s engineers decided to deploy new, high-tech methods they’ve never used before including doing a lot of their development via computer simulation.

“We have a very good relationship with YMC and have worked with them closely on developing the bike. They provided the CAD drawings of the standard bike well in advance, these included every part of the bike up to every bolt and washer, so we had a complete modelling of the entire bike.

“From this model, we could then apply computer simulations to see how we could enhance the performance of the machine. We had three types of simulation to run; for the chassis there were stiffness and stress simulations, and for the engine performance we had engine simulations.

“We could simulate things we wanted to try via the computer and see what result this would achieve. Following this, we could then test this on the dyno and what we found was the results on the dyno were very close to what the simulation had suggested. The results were impressive, especially in terms of engine development so this is a procedure we will adopt more regularly in future, including in WorldSBK as we look to further develop the R1.”

Since the early tests, official test rider Niccolò Canepa has ridden the R9 as YMRE have worked on refining the package. The next stage will be for Yamaha’s 2025 Supersport line-up to ride the bikes – the line-up will feature three supported teams with six riders, all of whom will be confirmed in due course. This test takes place at Cremona in the first week of November.

“The bike is obviously still under development, so it will be interesting to hear the feedback of the official riders in the first test,” Tisci continued.

“It is possible we may need to adjust some parts as we head towards the season, we have the first test in early November and then have a few months to see if we need to make some adjustments before further testing next year. We still have time to make changes if needed, but it feels like we are in a good place.”

The R9 will make its debut in the FIM Supersport World Championship in 2025, where Yamaha Motor Europe’s engineers will continue to develop the bike ahead of rolling out a dedicated race kit for national championships for 2026.

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