The Yamaha R9 is the next go-to middleweight SuperSport

It’s been quite some time since a Yamaha racer, at least on the world stage, has won a riders championship. However, that’s set to change in 2025 with Stefan Manzi in a very dominant position with three rounds to go.

And yes, Manzi, as does his Ten Kate Racing Team, deserves a lot of credit for a truly brilliant 2025 campaign, but we’re here to delve into the Yamaha R9 and how it managed to achieve such brilliant results in its debut season.

You might like to read our Yamaha R9 review.

You see, when a new model comes into a racing series and replaces a bike like the R6, which was accustomed to winning races and championships in the same World SuperSport (WSS) series that the R9 has done so this year, there’s normally some sort of bedding in process that takes place.

But the R9 said to hell with that, as it instead won its first race in the series at Phillip Island. What’s just as impressive, is the fact that the R9, with no experience against the bikes it was going up against, including the dominant Ducati Panigale V2 of the last two seasons, has carried on that trend as it has won a total of 14 out of 18 races.

That’s not just arriving on the scene and being competitive, that’s arriving on the scene and making one of the biggest statements a new bike has ever managed to make in its first season.

The R6, while the bike to beat for many years, had begun to run out of steam prior to the R9 being introduced for 2025. It was still a bike capable of challenging for wins, but the new R9, which has kept with Yamaha’s racing tradition of being a very rider-friendly bike, has clearly benefited from its bigger, more developed 890cc engine.

The success has been mightily impressive, and Michael van Zomeren, Marketing & Motorsport Director, Yamaha Motor Europe, said:

“This is a hugely important and significant moment for Yamaha as we celebrate victory in the WorldSSP manufacturers’ championship with the all-new R9 in its very first season. It has been a remarkable year for the R9, which started out with Stefano Manzi taking victory in the very first race back in Australia. The package has impressed across the season, with a combined 14 victories.”

What Yamaha has done in WSS this season shouldn’t be underestimated, and with that, don’t expect every brand that brings a new bike to the party to have immediate success.

Yamaha’s winning strategy in 2025 is because of many factors, but two of those are likely to be because of tireless development of the R9 in race trim, and through having years of data to call upon from the R6.

That means Yamaha was already starting in an advantageous position because it could take things the R6 did well, monitor what its rivals like Kawasaki and Ducati did well, and then build the R9 to be better than its own bikes of the past and the competition, all in one swoop.

In its standard trim the Yamaha R9 features a completely new Deltabox frame and chassis geometry. It benefits from multi-adjustable KYB suspension, and delivers its smooth power through the same CP3 engine that’s housed by the MT-09.

But as we mentioned in our extensive review above, everything else is nearly new. This includes a six-axis IMU and a wide configuration of lean-sensitive rider aids, such as ABS, along with Brembo Stylema calipers.

Of course, to go racing Yamaha will have beefed up the R9 to feature all the racy specs it needed, but whether it’s racing, track or on the road, the Japanese brand seems to have a winner on its hands with the R9.

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