- New red and white paint scheme
- To debut at the Suzuka 8 Hours endurance race to be held from 27 to 29 July.
- Paint scheme likely to be carried to production version soon.
Yamaha has revealed the 20th Anniversary edition YZF-R1 for the Suzuka 8 Hours. Obvious to its name, the 41st edition of the 8-hour long endurance race will be held from 27 to 29 July.
The bike gets a white and red paint scheme reminiscent of the first YZF-R1 which was introduced 20 years ago. Last year’s Suzuka bike sported the all-blue colour scheme. Katsuyuki Nakasuga, Alex Lowes and Michael van der Mark from the Yamaha Factory Racing team will be seen astride the special edition bike. The same livery will also be used by YART Yamaha and GMT94 Yamaha at this year’s race. The YART Yamaha team riders are Broc Parkes, Max Neukirchner, Marvin Fritz, and Takuya Fujita. Whereas David Checa, Mike Di Meglio as well Niccolo Canepa will be riding for the GMT94 Yamaha team.
While this paint scheme will debut on the Suzuka bike, we can expect it to be carried forward to the production version as well. However, the 20th Anniversary YZF-R1 is unlikely to be officially launched in India anytime soon.