MotoGP – Jerry Burgess hopes Valentino Rossi stays at Yamaha

Yesterday the 2011 motorcycle market officially began. The news of Casey Stoner's possible signing of a pre-contract with Honda has triggered a series of speculations, including that which sees Ducati offering a motorbike to Valentino Rossi. We remind you that at the end of this season the contracts of the "fantastic 4", namely Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo, Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner, will expire. Stoner's move to Honda (which would then be a return given that he already raced there in 2006, albeit with Lucio Cecchinello's customer structure) would effectively open a waltz that would bring new life to the world championship. Rossi in Ducati, Pedrosa in Yamaha and so on.

Jerry Burgess, Australian crew chief and guru who has followed Rossi since his move to the premier class as well as world champion with Wayne Gardner and Mick Doohan, Freddie Spencer's crew chief and Randy Mamola's mechanic, hopes that Rossi remains in Yamaha, here are his words.

“I would be much more “comfortable” with him in Yamaha than elsewhere if I can be selfish. There are a lot of people who would like to see him finish his career at Yamaha. Masao Furusawa has said this many times. From a marketing point of view he would be remembered as a Yamaha rider. If he instead changed bikes it would only be a very short part of his career and he cannot be successful. The loss for Yamaha would be great, but for the balance of part of the team they could focus on a young rider. In a normal relationship the young man should be taken over by someone with more experience, but this is not the case with Jorge (Lorenzo). In 2011 I would see Valentino (Rossi) and Spies as good, but it would also be good to be a couple made up of Rossi and Lorenzo or Spies and Lorenzo.”