With the new year, Valentino Rossi is now officially a Yamaha factory rider and the Iwata manufacturer – or rather Yamaha’s marketing and PR departments who pushed hard to have the Italian return to the team – is already going into PR mode and have released this special video welcoming back the former World champion with footage of his previous exploits on the YZR-M1.
From his victorious debut at Welkom in 2004 to his goodbye at the end of the 2010 season at Valencia and in between four World titles, 84 podiums, 46 victories and 29 pole positions before two disastrous seasons with Ducati and his reputation as ‘The Doctor’ in tatters.
To see if Rossi can deserve to be called the goat again we’ll have to wait until April for the season opener at Qatar, but judging from the video Yamaha has already decided that they have the perfect PR winner.