Ronald Ten Kate has categorically denied his squad are planning to make a switch to Yamaha machinery for the 2016 World Superbike championship.

The legendary Dutch tuner, who has been fettling and racing Hondas since before all this was fields, said there are no plans to move away from Honda in the near future and probably never will be.

“There are no talks within Ten Kate to move ship. We are Honda. We have been Honda. And I think we will be Honda for the rest of our racing career,” he said.

This deletes one team from those circling Yamaha Europe to get the WSBK gig. Rumours put Crescent Suzuki front and centre with Shaun Muir’s Milwaukee outfit also in the mix.

It also heightens speculation that Honda may bring forward its new Fireblade launch from the middle of next year to the end of this in order to get it homologated in time for the 2016 season.