Yamaha and Tech3 decided to split after the 2018 season.
Tech3 boss Herve Pocharal announced on thursday that they were offered a deal that includes something they have been looking for since the team started and they couldn't say no.
Yamaha general manager Kouichi Tsuji said it was “clear that he [Poncharal] has chosen to align with a new partner for the future, while Poncharal himself stated: “We’ve been offered a deal, that includes something we’ve been waiting for almost since we started with Tech 3, and I couldn’t say no.”
While there are theoretically five alternative manufacturers to choose from for Tech 3, there are only two realistic candidates: Suzuki and KTM.
Of these, KTM has to be regarded by far the more likely suitor, with a budget that dwarves that of Suzuki and a clearly-stated desire to expand to a four-bike presence in MotoGP sooner rather than later
What of Yamaha? Already, two of Ducati's satellite squads, Angel Nieto (nee Aspar) and Avintia, have indicated that they could take Tech 3’s place.
But, there’s one major obstacle when it comes to signing a new partner, and that’s the looming arrival of Valentino Rossi’s VR46 team in MotoGP.
Poncharal himself revealed last year that Yamaha had already informed him that, when it came to the crunch, VR46 would be favoured over his team whenever it wished to graduate to the premier class, and that Yamaha had no desire to supply two customer outfits.
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