Friday 10th August 2012

PH2: Rossi quits Ducati...

...and goes back to old team Yamaha in an effort to rekindle his fire

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Yamaha has confirmed the rumours that seven-time world champion Valentino Rossi will move from Ducati to his old Moto GP team from next season after signing a two-year contract.

The announcement corroborates the impeccable sources of PHer MrKipling43, who first floated the idea of Rossi's move back to Yamaha on August 1 after hearing it from a well-connected mate. (read the thread here).

It should have been a match made in heaven...

The stalwarts of Biker Banter will not need telling about the significance of the move. Rossi has not fared well in his two years at the Italian team, chalking up just two podiums in 27 races. Despite major changes made to the Desmosedici bike, it has proved as hard to ride as ever, and Rossi has been unable to transform the team in the same way he did at Yamaha when he first moved there from Honda in 2004.

The Ducati's tricky handling resulted in a series of crashes for Rossi, most recently at Laguna Seca, which must have had some bearing on his decision. He's is 33 after all and none of us are rubbery at that age.

It was at Yamaha that he went from being merely World Champion to Global Superstar and all-around Biking God. He won 46 races for the team (neat bit of symmetry, given that he wears number 46) and took the championship four times. So he should be comfortable there, but the move also throws up a series of interesting questions. Like when he left he really wasn't getting on well with teammate Jorge Lorenzo, so how will the two gel next year? The on-form Spaniard is unlikely to give Rossi any quarter, and is currently leading the championship (Rossi is down in eighth).

Back in day... Happier times with Yamaha

It also throws the spotlight back on Ducati, which currently only has Nicky Hayden signed up for next year. The rumours are that Andrea Dovizioso might shift over from his Yamaha Tech 3 seat after Brit Cal Crutchlow's once-mooted move doesn't look like it'll happen. Even Hayden himself might move on.

Ducati's new owner VW, rich as Croesus it may be, is famously hard-nosed when it comes to motorsport. There's not a chance in hell it will be happy with its bikes trundling around in eighth or ninth, so it has to make a decision on whether to fund the mother of all turnarounds or pull out altogether. Given that it's officially Audi who owns Ducati, let's hope it goes down the Le Mans-style domination route rather than VW's long-term, look-the-other-way attitude to F1.

All of which means Rossi has either got out at exactly the right time, or precisely the wrong time. One thing's for sure, 2013's hotting up nicely already.

 

[Dan Trent]

FYI the official announcement from Yamaha reads thus:

Yamaha said:

Yamaha Factory Racing Press Statement

It is with great pleasure that Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd confirms the signing of Valentino Rossi to ride for the
Yamaha Factory Racing MotoGP Team for 2013 and 2014.

Valentino Rossi first joined Yamaha in 2004 and achieved four MotoGP World Champion titles with the
Yamaha YZR-M1 in 2004 & 2005 and again in 2008 & 2009. He won 46 Grand Prix races with Yamaha over a
7 year period before leaving at the end of the 2010 MotoGP season. Rossi, who is presently 8th in the Championship standings, will partner Jorge Lorenzo who currently leads the
2012 MotoGP World Championship by 23 points, having taken five victories from the first ten completed
races of the 18 race series.

Lin Jarvis – Managing Director, Yamaha Motor Racing
“This announcement is once again excellent news for Yamaha. In June we were able to sign Jorge Lorenzo for
the 2013-14 campaign and now we are able to confirm Valentino Rossi for the next two years. In doing so we
have been able to put together the strongest possible team to challenge for victories and to promote the
Yamaha brand.

We have run this ‘super team’ together in 2008, 2009 and 2010 and during that time we achieved the ‘triple
crown’ titles with Rider, Manufacturer and Team World Championship victories for three consecutive years.

The target for the future is obvious and we will do our utmost to achieve our goals.
I have no doubt that with the experience, knowledge, skills and speed of these two great champion riders we
will be able to challenge for many race wins and for the 2013 & 2014 World Championship titles.

The signing of Valentino completes our future planning for the Yamaha Factory Racing MotoGP Team. Now
that this is done we will put our 100% efforts into completing the job at hand and to supporting Ben Spies
and Jorge Lorenzo in their search for race victories and for Jorge’s 2012 World Championship title challenge.”

[Dakkon]

But as the article states, how will Georgous George and GOAT get along one wonders?

[Fleegle]

Keep up

[em177]

Time for a full time writer for PH2 me thinks?

[nickz32]

Its fairly sad that it didnt work with ducati. I would guess that Rossi's talks with AUDI didnt exactly fill him with confidence with them funding Ducati MotoGP

As much as I really really really want Rossi to win again, he's going to have a REALLY hard time beating Lorenzo, hes just sooo bloody consistent and smooth!

Time will tell, but my pinkies are definitely crossed!

[boyse7en]

I'm interested to see what Ducati will do with the bike next year. They spent a lot of time and effort on developing the carbon-fibre chassis, only to junk most of it at Rossi's behest to create an aluminium spar chassis similar to everyone else's (especially Yamaha's).

Rossi didn't manage any better on the designed-for-him bike, so will Ducati now go back to the Carbon chassis (which at least had good results with Stoner on board) or try to continue development of the current bike. With the Panigale using a carbon chassis, from a marketing point of view, it would make sense to go back to that for the MotoGP bike, but it is also likely to put them a couple of years back in the development race.

[RX7]

Why is it everyone thinks Rossi turned Yamaha round.....Yamahas have always been good, just not as consistent with their bikes as Honda!

Why did Rossi and Lorenzo fall out, because George started beating him and for the first time ever, Rossi played 2nd fiddle to his team mate!

After all that though, it was rumoured Ducati offered him 16 million to stay, so he must want to win again pretty bad, although i doubt 16 million will make a lot of difference to his life!

Please, please, please for Stoner to now decided to postpone his retirement and swing a leg back over a Ducati, at the very least it will be entertaining to watch rather than Rossi and Lorenzo taking most of next years wins!

[Dangermouse58]

Will ducati change the angle of V in the new duke engine for motogp? That's the last stumbling block imo. Anyhow I cant wait to see the goat back on a competitive bike-he'll have no excuses next year.

I'm putting £500 on at the bookies for no 46 for the title in 2013 today!

[nickz32]

RX7 said:

Why is it everyone thinks Rossi turned Yamaha round.....Yamahas have always been good, just not as consistent with their bikes as Honda!

Sorry but,

WRONG. The average placing for a Yamaha in 2003 was 10th! They hadnt won a championship for YEARS (Before rossi, the last manufacturers title was 2000, 1999 then 1991) And despite fielding 6 M1's in 2003, they didnt win a single race!

RX7 said:

Why did Rossi and Lorenzo fall out, because George started beating him and for the first time ever, Rossi played 2nd fiddle to his team mate!

They fell out because Rossi got the arse with Yamaha for 1) Giving the pay cut he took to help Yamaha out to Lorenzo and 2) For hiring Lorenzo in the first place. He publicly stated he wasnt a fan or Lorenzo while Lorenzo was in 250's. All Lorenzo did in the first season (2008) was crash.... LOTS!!!. Rossi beat him in 2009 by nearly 100 points, and 2010 was the season Rossi broke his leg and busted his shoulder. So 2 out of 3 seasons, Rossi did better than Lorenzo

Hardly the ass whopping you describe!

Im not a lorenzo basher by any means (even though im not a fan) but you cant say Rossi played second fiddle to Lorenzo when that clearly wasnt the case

[bubney72]

[quote=RX7]Why is it everyone thinks Rossi turned Yamaha round.....Yamahas have always been good, just not as consistent with their bikes as Honda!
quote]

It's because Yamaha hadn't won a championship in 13 years! Rossi turned that all around. Unfortunately the same couldn't be done on the Ducati, and Honda's 2011 bike was way out front, but this year Yamaha again have a good machine.
Be good to see Rossi back on a competitive bike

[MrKipling43]

Fame at last!

I should say, it was being bandied about on BB long before I posted that it was happening. But thanks for the props.

em177 said:

Time for a full time writer for PH2 me thinks?

I'LL DO IT! :P

[nickz32]

Who reckons Vale sung this to his M1 before resigning to Yam

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2ICtCO8TCw

:P

[Steve Evil]

Dangermouse58 said:

I'm putting £500 on at the bookies for no 46 for the title in 2013 today!

I don't think you'll see any of it back personally. One thing Lorenzo doesn't lack these days is consistency and Rossi might take a while to gel with the Yamaha again. I think Lorenzo is very much going to be the Darth Vader to Rossi's Obi-Wan.

[hughcam]

Yamaha brought out a fantastic base bike in 2004. IMO Rossis was very lucky and talented to land the right rides at the right time. He was never as quick as Stoner though but a very good tactician non the less.

[sprinter1050]

Congrats to our own "Scoop" CakeBoy. (still not convinced it was yer ACTUAL fact or just coincidental guesswork by his mate)
Like all journos he has guarded his source jealously & not revealed who told him so we can't verify it.

As for RX7's comment above- was that a wind up? Or were you watching a parallel version of GP's for last 10 years prior to VR joining Yamaha?

[LoonR1]

hughcam said:

Yamaha brought out a fantastic base bike in 2004. IMO Rossis was very lucky and talented to land the right rides at the right time. He was never as quick as Stoner though but a very good tactician.

Seriously? Rossi is one of the best riders out there at development. He left a Honda that was as good as perfect and went to a poor Yamaha to disprove Honda's view that the bike was the be all and end all.

Winning the first race at Welkom and the Championship in his first year on the M1 was an epic performance.

He is past his best now, the new crop of riders are riding faster than he ever has. Stomer by wrestling the bike into submission, Lorenzo by being the smoothest rider ever. Either way Rossi retunring to Yamaha will not guarantee him any wins, if anything it will confirm that it's time to call it quits.

[Johno]

Steve Evil said:

Dangermouse58 said:

I'm putting £500 on at the bookies for no 46 for the title in 2013 today!

I don't think you'll see any of it back personally. One thing Lorenzo doesn't lack these days is consistency and Rossi might take a while to gel with the Yamaha again. I think Lorenzo is very much going to be the Darth Vader to Rossi's Obi-Wan.

Perhaps . . But the one thing Rossi has always brought to the party has been a level of racecraft that wasn't possessed by this current protagonists.

Rossi on Stoner at Laguna is a classic example, Rossi on lorenzo at catalunya, Rossi on Lorenzo at Motegi.

Not solely tough overtakes, but due to having a strategy about having to do it to upset, unnerve, distract or whatever his competitors. Not necessarily dangerous although sure some will debate it.

Rossi will know he will start 2013 not as the favourite, that Lorenzo will have the position, Rossi will therefore tackle the close season media fest, the first tests, the first race and everything he now does from now to the end of the first race with the singular purpose of knocking Lorenzo off his stride and setting about asserting himself as yamaha's number one rider.

Lorenzo will have to stand up to the pressure, it could be fascinating to watch. I certainly think there'll be blood on the garage floor next year . . .

[Steve Evil]

Johno said:

Perhaps . . But the one thing Rossi has always brought to the party has been a level of racecraft that wasn't possessed by this current protagonists.

Rossi on Stoner at Laguna is a classic example, Rossi on lorenzo at catalunya, Rossi on Lorenzo at Motegi.

Not solely tough overtakes, but due to having a strategy about having to do it to upset, unnerve, distract or whatever his competitors. Not necessarily dangerous although sure some will debate it.

Rossi will know he will start 2013 not as the favourite, that Lorenzo will have the position, Rossi will therefore tackle the close season media fest, the first tests, the first race and everything he now does from now to the end of the first race with the singular purpose of knocking Lorenzo off his stride and setting about asserting himself as yamaha's number one rider.

Lorenzo will have to stand up to the pressure, it could be fascinating to watch. I certainly think there'll be blood on the garage floor next year . . .

I totally agree with you there, in another thread I said that I hoped we'd see some of the old Rossi genius at least once or twice next year. Rossi will get a few wins next year, but I think over the course of the year, Lorenzo will be 1st or 2nd in almost every race, with Pedrosa only really joining the party at tracks where he excels, like Sachsenring.

[Woody]

Is he taking JB and his crew with him again?

[Steve Evil]

Woody said:

Is he taking JB and his crew with him again?

I read that he's only taking the Australian members of his crew, JB obviously included there.