MotoGP test livery helped Maverick Vinales settle in at Yamaha

Vinales joins Yamaha in 2017 from Suzuki, as Jorge Lorenzo's replacement, and started work in last November's post-season test at Valencia.

Lacking sponsor logos as is the protocol with rider swaps, Lorenzo rode a plain black Ducati across the two days, while Yamaha devised a bespoke livery for his successor.

Vinales settled in immediately, topping the two days of running, and Jarvis says the livery was among the touches designed to help.

"It's about the human connection and the personality of the rider, respecting the personality," he said at Yamaha's 2017 launch.

"In the Valencia test, we created for him a very special livery, because his name is quite special - Maverick from the Top Gun movie.

"We created a bike immediately that was his, an environment he would feel comfortable with, and it seems to have worked.

"He felt comfortable straight away, very quickly adapted to the bike."

Vinales joins what is essentially Lorenzo's 2016 crew, with team members electing to stay put rather than follow the three-time champion to Ducati.

Jarvis believes that continuity within Vinales' side of the garage is also important.

"One of the key points was that basically our team stayed the same," he said.

"Effectively we only lost one man in the winter break, so Maverick effectively comes in and joins an existing team of experts. That makes life easier.

"There's not this learning process as well, between not only the rider but also the engineers and mechanics.

"We provided him with this perfectly-working, functioning team to come into.

"The teamwork between Ramon Forcada and his crew and our engineers was immediately good.

"We achieved our initial goals and it's really, really nice to have new, young blood on board for us."