Valentino Rossi marked an era in MotoGP and with Yamaha he lived some of his best years and rivalries, including the legendary one with Jorge Lorenzo that led to the famous creation of a “wall” between the two sides of the garage. Lin Jarvis, who recently bid farewell to the manufacturer, recalled precisely the hiring of the Spaniard.
Before talking about Lorenzo, Jarvis recalled, in words to MotoGP World, how Rossi’s triumphant arrival also quickly brought some doubts given the rider’s interest… in four wheels: ‘When Vale arrived, we won in 2004, then we won again in 2005, the first two years, but after 2005 Valentino was seriously thinking about going to Formula 1’.
And he continued: ‘So, it was just rediscovering MotoGP for Yamaha, we had just won in the first and second year and then what if he left? What if he gave up on us?’.
Jarvis then spoke specifically about the signing process with Lorenzo, and how the structure tried to safeguard against a potential Rossi farewell: ‘We had to have the next rider who could win, we had to bring him in and grow with him. And actually Jorge started racing for us in 2008, but we already had a contract with him in 2006!’.
And he justified it with the idea and fear that Rossi would actually go to F1: ‘We hired him to be ready if and when Valentino went to Formula 1 and so we would have the next one, because we could see that Lorenzo was a killer’.