Nine-time World Champion Valentino Rossi Sees Light (and More Capable Bike) at End of Tunnel

The Yamaha MotoGP team may have their luck turned around soon.

(Image taken from AutoSport)

Nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi and his teammate Maverick Viñales have not tasted victory in months, due to reported issues like their bikes’ grip levels. But Rossi says that after the French Grand Prix, he finally sees light at the end of the tunnel.

This development came at the Le Mans races where Rossi felt their pace shows that the issues they thought they had are now gone.

Speaking to Motorcycle News, Rossi said: “In Le Mans, historically you spin less because the corners are short and the asphalt is good. When you get those two things together, the electronics are less important. It shows that this bike is good, that we just have to improve in some other areas that aren’t easy.”

But the upgrading of the bikes may take some time.

Yamaha’s engineers have spent 18 months trying to develop MotoGP’s control system, instead of bringing in outside experts as their rivals Honda had done. But now, the Japanese engineers from Yamaha has gained some experience in understanding how to get the best out of the new system.

The only gripe Rossi has, though, is that while Yamaha has time on their side to enhance their race machines, he might not.

“I hope we’ll have something after the Barcelona test, but I don’t know for sure. But it’s a long time from Barcelona to Brno, and we need something soon. I trust in Yamaha, and it’s a difficult moment for them too. But I’m in more of a rush than they are, because maybe they’ll race for another hundred years. I know that I don’t have a lot more time to win, so I'm pushing them to shorten the time that it takes,” the Italian racer explained.

He may not have to fear after all, because even his fellow Yamaha racer Viñales said recently that the MotoGP team has its ‘fire’ back.

According to AutoSport, Viñales believes that he had made some decent progress on Yamaha’s bike at the Barcelona test races.

The weight distribution change yielded positive results, with Viñales saying: “From the morning even in cool conditions I was struggling so much - then when we made that change it was nearly the hottest moment on the day and with used tyres I could ride like [I had] new tyres in the morning.”

“It seems like we did a really big step,” the Spaniard said.

Fans of the Yamaha MotoGP team, perhaps it is time to celebrate.