Masao Furusawa may have said that Valentino Rossi is a genius and that he wants the Italian superstar to finish his career in Yamaha and Rossi has said confirmed several times that he too would like to finish his career with the Iwata company, but since Jorge Lorenzo has resigned for another year, the Italian rider has been talking differently and sending out signals to both Yamaha and Ducati.
The factory Yamaha team has been a Rossi stronghold since his sensational switch from Honda back in 2004 and Lorenzo’s presence in the garage despite the wall, is starting to annoy the 8 times world champion.
Lorenzo as a team mate has become one of Rossi’s most formidable rivals on track, the Italian has voiced his opinion about the fact that the Spaniard will now have a say in part of the development of the M1 as part of his contract agreement and that the team will now two top riders instead of the usual one that all of the other teams have.
According to Rossi this is good for Yamaha who has two fast riders and is important for the constructors campionship, but it’s certainly more risky.
The Italian who usually is a straight talker and doesn’t beat around the bush also added that he has another year with Yamaha and then he’ll decide his future in June 2010, a step backwards from ‘I want to finish my career in Yamaha, because I’m happy here.
’Rossi has also been making subtle overtures towards Ducati since Lorenzo resigned.
He’s always admired Filippo Preziosi and just last week called the ‘father’ of the Ducati Desmosedici a phenomenal person and also stated that he is sure that he could tame the D16 if he could set it up the way he likes, but wouldn’t want to leave Jeremy Burgess and the rest of his team after ten years of challenges and so may wins.
Ducati has twice contacted Rossi in the past asking him to ride for them, but no deal ever went beyond the simple talking stage and Preziosi talking during today’s qualifying session once again said that he would like to see Rossi on his red bike.
If Ducati’s sponsor Marlboro was willing to pull out seven million euro for frontrunners Jorge Lorenzo or Dani Pedrosa, what would they willing pay and what concessions would they give for a proven 8 times world champion, sponsor darling and media and fan idol such as Rossi is?Ducati seems to finally have realized that they will have to allow riders to have a greater say in development of their bike if they want to get top riders to take a big career chance on the red devil and not have only the best of the rest on their bikes, and maybe getting Rossi and his crew would be the solution to their problems.