MotoGP Portimao, Valentino Rossi speaks: “The M1 has not worked since 2017”

For Valentino Rossi, the Portugal GP on the Portimao track will be the last GP in the official Yamaha team, as from next year he will move to Petronas. Time to take stock, but above all thanks: “It was a difficult year – Rossi said -, but in Misano in the first race we had a good moment even though Mir overtook me on the last lap and I finished 4th. It was a great day for the Academy because I was competitive and in Moto3 there was the Marini-Bezzecchi double. With the factory Yamaha I close here, it is the last stage of a great two-stroke journey, like a movie: the first sporty unforgettable and the second very important. I have great memories of the official team, since I arrived in 2004 with my team with Burgess and the others. The thing I am most grateful for, however, is when Jarvis at the end of 2012 I he welcomed back into the factory team in 2013 giving me another chance: I was quite desperate, at a very difficult moment in my career and if I hadn’t had this chance I would probably have stopped. I’ll be grateful to him forever. ”

Grateful for the return

Rossi then touches the key of Yamaha’s competitiveness, trying to go to the roots of the difficulties of the Iwata team: “I think 2016 was a crucial year for Yamaha: from then on we started to suffer, while as long as we had the 2016 bikes you could win races and championships – Vale’s words – Changing that bike was a mistake, but we didn’t understand how much Yamaha’s fault or the improvement of the other manufacturers are: maybe we should grow as they did the others”. The technical aspect has an important key in appreciating the world success of Suzuki, world champion with Mir in the riders: “Suzuki has done a great job, it is certainly a simpler bike than Ducati that always tries to do new things: they have their strengths have improved and it is a friendly, easy bike, which is important throughout the championship “.

Vinales and the grip

Yamaha’s involution is also a sore point for Maverick Vinales: “My season was a disaster, I give myself a 4 as a vote: I don’t think about third place in the championship, but to do my best in the race and I wasn’t never reached the finish line as badly as in Valencia1 – says the Yamaha Spaniard -. Now we just have to be smart in choosing the material for 2021: I don’t know which bike Quartararo has chosen, but in my opinion the 2019 one is not enough, we need to improve the level of this year’s. For me the best bike was the 2016 M1, the one I tested in Malaysia after the Valencia tests at the end of the year: I was going very fast. Now I’m not going to talk about who will have to do the development, but the the most important thing will be to improve during the season, which has not happened this year. I inquire every day with the technicians in Japan to know everything about the bike: you don’t need more power, but grip on the rear, which we have lost in the last years. If we have it we can be fast and it becomes difficult for the opponents to beat. This is the priority problem to be solved and we hope that Crutchlow can be of help. “