Pata Maxus Yamaha Begin January Testing with Wild Weather in Jerez

Andrea Locatelli and new Yamaha signing Xavi Vierge returned to the track for the first time in 2026 with two days of very mixed weather conditions in pre-season winter testing at Circuito de Jerez in Andalucia, Spain.

Both riders sported one-off black, grey and blue camo-coloured test leathers, taking design cues from the 2026 Yamaha Racing Paddock Blue clothing range, as the final elements of this year’s R1 WorldSBK performance package come together.

Vierge continued to get up to speed with his #97 crew working alongside him, noting the importance of wet mileage yesterday to compliment the speed already achieved in dry conditions in November. The Spaniard was the fastest Yamaha on track once again, finishing the test third overall with a quickest lap time of 1’39.770 on a dry but changeable surface.

On the other side of the pit box, Locatelli also utilised the wet conditions on Wednesday before turning his focus to dry development today. A small crash at Turn 5 cut short his day before the rain returned this afternoon, and the Italian turns his focus to the next test with an eye both on performance improvements and the weather forecast.

Pata Maxus Yamaha will reveal its 2026 livery, highlighting the team’s new and returning key team partners, as well as the first look at Vierge alongside teammate Locatelli in Yamaha Racing blue, on Monday, 26 January at 8am CET. This preceeds one final European winter test at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve (Portimão) next week.

Xavi Vierge:

“I’m very happy, now it is the fifth day that I’ve jumped on the R1 and I start to really feel like it’s my bike. The Yamaha turns very well, which fits my riding style and we match on our strong points I think. I’m super happy with the team and the way they have been working since the beginning, I’m working with people that it feels like we have been working together for a long time and it’s just the first tests! Yesterday, we made my first laps in wet conditions which is important before the season starts. Of course, we need more time and better track conditions, because yesterday the rain was massive, really windy and too cold, but at least we could make a start – and today, we had 30 laps in the dry. This was also very important for us to reconfirm the feeling we had last year and some development that has yet to be decided. I recovered the feeling and the pace has been good since the beginning, so I am also happy with that. Right now, I still need to discover the limits of the bike because we’ve just ridden in Jerez, and I can say that we are quite fast here but it will be important to move on to a different track to see what is our reality there. Now, we move on to Portimão and I hope the weather will be a bit better!”

Andrea Locatelli:

“Strange winter test conditions in Jerez, more or less like always at this time of year! We rode a little bit yesterday in the wet, the feeling was not 100% but it was enough to ride and take a rhythm on the bike after the break from the last November test. Today, we had better weather and track conditions to try and take a better feeling. During the improvements, I crashed at Turn 5 and then it started raining again so we missed a bit of track time to continue on our work. We will look forward and wait for Portimão next week where we have some extra days. I’m quite confident, I know the R1 very well now, so the plan is to keep going – push hard – and then we will see what we can do at the last winter test.”