Winner of the French National Open 250cc Championship and third in the European series in 2000, Sylvain Guintoli made his World Championship debut the following season with the Equipe de France GP team. After one season in the 250cc championship for the French team he was given a wildcard ride in MotoGP with the Yamaha Tech 3 team in 2002, debuting at Brno. After four consecutive seasons impressing as a 250cc privateer, Guintoli joined the Yamaha satellite team for a full MotoGP season in 2007, only missing the points three times from seventeen rounds. He made the move to the satellite Alice Ducati team in 2008, finishing the season in 13th.  The Frenchman had another wildcard appearance in 2011 with the satellite Pramac Ducati team at Sachsenring. In 2014 Guintoli took the WorldSBK crown, and returned to the MotoGP™ grid to replace Alex Rins in 2017 at Team Suzuki Ecstar as the Spaniard recovered from a broken wrist.