Speaking to the official MotoGP website at Estoril, legendary crewchief Jeremy Burgess said:“When Valentino makes the decision that he no longer wants to continue racing that will be the point where I will make my own decision about what I do in the future.
But as long as he is competitive he certainly will continue to race, I am sure of that.
I am 56 years of age, so if Valentino does four more years I will be 60 and we could make a decision then.
”If anyone in the MotoGP paddock has heard these words from Burgess, there’s going to be a lot of groaning and swearing, because the Aussie crewchief, is one of the best – maybe even the best – at what he does.
The combination Rossi/Burgess, with their deep and mutual admiration of each other, are always on the top of the game and it’s more than likely that this will continue until Rossi decides to say stop to motorcycle racing.
Many MotoGP wags were already seeing Rossi retiring at the end of 2010 when the Italian rider in a recent interview with MCN said: “For me it is also important what Jerry thinks.
I don’t know if Jerry wants to continue after next year.
If Jerry says to me that he wants to stop, it is another story to continue without him and it would be a big question mark and very difficult.
To restart with another chief mechanic after more than ten years would be very difficult and something I would have to consider a lot.
” but Burgess has set that record straight.
It also means that if Rossi wants to continue racing and truly be the GOAT and try to beat Giacomo Agostini’s win records, (officially 122, but Agostini says they’re 123) he’ll have his ‘Jerry’ with him, and if Valentino should decide to leave Yamaha as he has been hinting at lately, any other team who wants the 8 times World Champion will have to make room for Burgess, because Rossi will never part with his crewchief and winning team and that’s not going to be cheap in these economic times.
Ducati and Honda are warned.
You can read the rest of the Burgess interview at the official website here.