It’s not a secret that the General Manager of Yamaha Motor Company’s Technology Development Division, Masao Furusawa and Valentino Rossi have a special relationship, and that the Japanese manager may well be Valentino’s number one fan, stating in the past that he trusts and respects the Italian super champion and describing him as the genius behind the M1.
Rossi has another year on his contract is making noises about staying in MotoGP another a couple of years and Furusawa, wants Rossi to remain as a Yamaha ambassador when the Italian does decide to quit:“I’m happy, because I think that Valentino is a strong legend of Yamaha, so hopefully I don’t need to ask him if he wants to stay in Yamaha.
Right now he’s pretty much happy.
I want to keep him as a legend of Yamaha, even when he will retire.
But the one thing I would like to ask him is, please stop with Yamaha in MotoGP.
He can go to Formula One or rally, whatever he likes, but when racing in MotoGP I’d ask him to stop with Yamaha.
”Furusawa went on the clarify the truth behind the paddock gossip that wanted Rossi as the person behind the decision of not wanting Casey Stoner in their team back in 2007.
“Valentino never told me that he didn’t like Stoner when we were negotiating with the Australian.
He did explain his relationship with Edwards.
He never asked me not to hire Stoner, those decisions are left to Yamaha.
It was Stoner’s conditions that were unacceptable.
”When asked about getting not only Rossi but also his team in 2004, Furusawa explained:“I hope Jeremy doesn’t misunderstand me, but if I had to choose between the two of them based on the results, I’d say Valentino is more important.
When he arrived in 2004, the bike was already designed for him and principally Rossi chose the the engine.
”Asked about struggling James Toseland, Furusawa answered in a round about way:“When Rossi rode the the Yamaha for the first time he had to change his riding style.
There are riders who adapt easily and others take more time.
For example Jorge in the begining was very aggressive and we changed the electronics for him and then I told him he had to change his approach and he did.
”Furusawa also added that there is no deadline to sign on riders for the 2010 season:“We have all the time we want, it’s the riders who are in a hurry.
At the moment there are a lot of them knocking on our door.
Regarding the second team, Tech 3, we would like young and inexpensive riders, but if we have to do without Lorenzo, we’ll simply move Colin back next to Rossi, that way we’ll make room for Ben Spies who wants to come to MotoGP, but we don’t want to spend more.
If our M1 was a bad bike then we’d have to.
”