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Rossi hands ultimatum to Yamaha

Rossi and Lorenzo may not be team-mates beyond next season
World champion Valentino Rossi has hinted he will leave Yamaha if they do not drop Jorge Lorenzo in 2011.

Italian Rossi, who won his ninth world crown this year, has also revealed he could switch allegiance to Ducati.

Lorenzo recently signed a new one-year deal with the Japanese firm but Rossi does not think there is room for the two riders in the same team.

"Yamaha have to decide between me and Jorge for 2011," Rossi told BBC Two. "I have a great option to join Ducati."

The pair have fought some incredible battles on the track this season, with the 30-year-old Rossi coming out on top and clinching the title with one race of the season to spare, while Lorenzo, 22, as runner-up.

But Lorenzo has said that he has not always felt appreciated at Yamaha and revealed he had received offers from other manufacturers before signing his new deal.

Now Rossi, who signed a two-year deal with Yamaha in August 2008, has made it clear he could make a switch.

"I am not sure 100% if I will stay with Yamaha," said Rossi. "It depends on what happens next year. It depends on my performance and the fight with Jorge Lorenzo and the decision of Yamaha for 2011.

"I could change bike, ride for Ducati and try to win the world championship with an Italian bike. That would be a great motivation.

"But I prefer at this moment to stay with Yamaha because the love between me and Yamaha, our relationship, is something special.

"To change bike would feel unfaithful. So for Yamaha it is important that I finish my career with them and for me it is also important.

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Personally I think that Rossi should go to Ducati , an finish off his career on an Italian bike .
Winning the world championship with 3 different manufacturers may just be the thing that keeps him in the sport for a few more years since he turned down the chance to join the Ferarri F1 going to an Italian team may be even more attractive.

He will go to Ducati in 2011 and this has been strongly rumoured for a while now.
But changes are needed, and already happening. Suppo and Marlboro.

1. Suppo, the team manager. They don't get on. Suppo has quit/been fired, so there goes one obsticle. Strongly rumoured that it was Stoner who forced this action, as he got the blame for the Donnington disaster, and there are rumours that he tried a bit of the Eyetie flair on Stoner's Mrs. Tardozzi has quit as Ducati's very succesfull WSB manager, so must be going to manage the MotoGp team.

2. Cigarette sponsorship. Rossi didn't like it with Gauloises Yamaha, so i think he may opt for his own seperate team. This i think is very likely, as he prefers to work alone.
He will get a full factory Ducati, and it will be easy for him to get his own sponsorship. But, he would want Burgess and co to go with him.

As he states himself, the main motovation will be to win on a 3rd different manufacturers bike, and especially an Italian on an Italian bike.

The reason he doesn't want Lorenzo at Yamaha, apart from the fact he is a major threat, is he feels he has developed the bike and Lorezo is gaining from this.
I think Yamaha would be better sticking with Lorenzo for 2011. He is younger, is going to run anyone close to the title in 2010. Rossi will race maybe 1-3 years more, Lorenzo, another 8-10.
But will Lorenzo be able to be the main man in a team, and keep up rider input for developement, will only become clear once Rossi goes.

i think rossi should grow up and stop being a spoilt brat. he can be such a jester at times

when Rossi left Honda he walked away from a partnership that was supremely strong

alot of the motorcycle press said they thought he had made a huge mistake by opting for the Yamaha team that hadnt even won one race in MotoGP

he proved everyone wrong by winning his first race on the Yamaha and winning 4 world titles in 6 years

Repsol Honda have only won 12 races (Dani 8 wins , Hayden 3 wins , Dovi 1 win) since Valentino left

im not sure the works Yamaha team will enjoy the success they have been used to if Valentino/Burgess + co leave to join Ducati , i firmly believe history will repeat itself

alot of folks rant on about haw Stoner is the only man who can race the Ducati , i firmly believe Valentino would crush Stoner if they were on the same bike , Valentino has proved he can win on any bike

after Stoners performance today by binning his bike on the warm up lap i think his days at Ducati are numbered

major shake ups at Ducati must be needed as they have won nothing this year after starting this year with such strong line ups and huge potential

Valentinos interview with Suzy Perry was interesting , he didnt rule out a move to Ducati , he did however suggest such a move would make him unfaithful to Yamaha as he loves riding for them and he is very happy where he is

doogle wrote:i think rossi should grow up and stop being a spoilt brat. he can be such a jester at times

Think they should keep lorenzo, and bin rossi he's had his time in the spotlight and now he's just annoying now.

ElectroFunkDaddy wrote:

doogle wrote:i think rossi should grow up and stop being a spoilt brat. he can be such a jester at times

Think they should keep lorenzo, and bin rossi he's had his time in the spotlight and now he's just annoying now.

well said

Personnally I'd love to see him go to Ducati. It'd be good to see him alongside Stoner but that probably wouldn't happen.

I don't Rossi's had his and neither do I consider him as acting like a spoilt brat when I consider other riders. A few folk thought his time was up a couple fo years ago. How wrong he proved them all. And amongst all of the riders, Vale is the most respectful in defeat and very rarely blames anybody other than himself......


Cue all the Google merchants who will now drag up obsolete quotations that disprove that final statement.......

what i dont understand is why he has such a pick on lorenzo and whats him out. there both good riders

doogle wrote:what i dont understand is why he has such a pick on lorenzo and whats him out. there both good riders

Because he is a big threat.
Also, because he thinks Lorenzo has walked into the team, and recieved the best bike, which Rossi developed.
Oh, and they don't like one another.

typical rossi has a team mate who,s up to it and now wants rid of him.wants edwards back right he would couldnt beat him in a month of sundays.try Ducati without burgess then he,d show the real rossi and for jerry and the goat to complain about lorenzo just getting on rossi,s bike and winning hello what about dohaans 500 5 times winning bike rossi inherited!bubbly fa-goat bout time he went to wrc or f1 to massage his ego. doug

end of the day you can never have a team with 2 big egos going on and expect it to run as a happy ship
both are good riders, lorenzo has the upper hand in long term appeal for a team though
whether the bike is inherited or not the fact remains lorenzo i would expect is liable with his race engineer for his own setups just the same as rossi
id like to see rossi go to Ducati to be fair, lorenzo would inevitably still do very well however give rossi and co a year with the bike and who knows, a final year on a duc winning the title again??? i would never rule that out with the doctor!
possibly the best way to end what has been a great career!!!

Rossi could surely only make demands like this if he wins the world championship next year. He would hardly be in a good position to demand anything if lorenzo wins the championship or leads rossi on points and stoner wins the title. Ducati may not want the expense of having him if they already had the no1 plate in there garage. i would like to see rossi win on a duc but he might end up getting egg on his face if he cant ride the thing either.

It would be interesting to see what Rossi could do with the Ducati. Not so much in terms of him wining on it but more from seeing what he could do with the bike development wise. Obviously, the current Ducati has been developed with Stoner leading the way and, give him his credit, he has managed to make it work but at the same time they have created a bike that others struggle to get on with.

It would be interesting to see how the bike could develop with Rossi taking the lead. I don't doubt that he could ride it in it's current form but if the other Ducatis in the field then became more competitive then it would highlight his skill in developing the bike and not just for being a good rider. Before he went to Yamaha the M1 was struggling but it came on in leaps and bounds when Rossi took over from Biaggi.

Big Kneed Al (master of the emergency stop & "stand up" comedian).

Big Kneed Al (master of the emergency stop & "stand up" comedian) wrote:It would be interesting to see what Rossi could do with the Ducati. Not so much in terms of him wining on it but more from seeing what he could do with the bike development wise. Obviously, the current Ducati has been developed with Stoner leading the way and, give him his credit, he has managed to make it work but at the same time they have created a bike that others struggle to get on with.

It would be interesting to see how the bike could develop with Rossi taking the lead. I don't doubt that he could ride it in it's current form but if the other Ducatis in the field then became more competitive then it would highlight his skill in developing the bike and not just for being a good rider. Before he went to Yamaha the M1 was struggling but it came on in leaps and bounds when Rossi took over from Biaggi.

Big Kneed Al (master of the emergency stop & "stand up" comedian)(master of the known universe).

Remeber Mr Burgess also stepped into the M1 development as well at that stage. I think he has a big part to play.
Rossi seems to like Lorenzo as a racer as he gives him a hard time, its just off the track they dont see eye to eye. To be honest he does have the right to put demands in like that, his record speaks for itself.

the one thing that would stop the rossi - duc move would be the reason he left honda
no freedom to do what he got to do at Yamaha

if he did do the swap would Ducati really allow him a huge amount of freedom to change the bike round given the time and money getting stoner etc?

I think Rossi should go to Ducati, best way to end his career, by that time im sure Ben Spies will be ready for a ride with Lorenzo as team mate.
I dont think it would be that expensive for Rossi as he makes more money from his sponsors than his riding.
he did make $35 million dollars this year making him the 5th highest earning sportsman in the world for 2009.