Yamaha MotoGP head cheese Lin Jarvis has confirmed that Franco Morbidelli and Fabio Quartararo will line-up for the new Petronas-backed satellite squad in 2019.

Rumours have been circulating about the pair for many weeks but there has been no announcement from the team, which doesn't yet seem to have a manager. The squad is being run by the same operation that runs the SIC Moto3 team which will likely field John McPhee next year too.

"They’re an tndependent team. Of course, any rider they select needs to be finally approved by us at being at the level and the capacity to ride the M1," said Jarvis.

"So they’ve chosen to go for Franco Morbidelli, who is a rider who is very interesting to us because he’s a World Champion, he’s an Academy rider and he definitely has talent. I think he’ll do better on the M1 than he is doing this year on the Honda so in the case of Franco there was no doubt at all from the beginning

“In the case of Quartararo he will be a rookie, but he’s young – only 19 – and he’s definitely talented. He lost his way maybe for a year or two but he’s showing promise again this year. But I think he could be one of the very good riders for the future.

"I think the case of Syahrin has shown that sometimes you can take a choice and if the guy’s got talent and is brought in without expectation, he can deliver. So we’re quite comfortable with the choice.”