Moto Matter’s David Emmett and Moto-Journal’s Thomas Baujard have revealed that the story of Rossi being seen at Yamaha HQ has turned out to be a hoax (and we all fell for it – I personally will recite a couple of mea culpas and apologize) because the account was hacked.
You can read how it happened on one of the links above.
————————————It looks like the internal tug-of-war that Valentino Rossi was having on whether to stay at Ducati for another season and try to solve the myraid of problems that he has been having with the Italian machine or tuck his tail between his legs, take his large suitcase of sponsors with him and return to a competitive Yamaha, is finally over.
Rossi was spotted by former rider Niall MacKenzie entering Yamaha Europe headquarters in the Netherlands.
MacKenzie was at Yamaha trying to get a deal for his son Tarran and tweeted “Done deal! A well known Italian will definitely be on a blue bike next year, woo hoo!” and he confirmed the sighting to French journalist Thomas Baujurd, who writes for Moto-Journal.
The former World Champion has never ever gelled with the Ducati and after 28 races of almost pure misery and failure (every problem that a bike can have he has named it) the last being at Laguna Seca where the front of his GP12 gave out on him, Rossi has decided to call it quits and the marriage that supposedly was to be made in heaven will be annuled and the two parties involved will start out all over again with someone new and try to forget the embarassment of these past two seasons.
With Rossi walking out the door, this could mean that Cal Crutchlow who has been on Ducati’s radar will now probably get the second seat, but the team has no plan B – if we are to believe Vitto Guareschi – while a highly disappointed and probably more deserving Andrea Dovizioso will be left with a choice of continuing with a satellite machine or a switch to World Superbikes.