This article recounts the events leading to Valentino Rossi's switch from Honda to Yamaha in 2004, highlighting the tensions between Rossi's ego and Honda's claim of sole credit for his success.
MotoGP celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2024 and since that maiden grand prix season in 1949, the world championship has been shaped by many major moments. One of those came 20 years ago in 2004 when Valentino Rossi won his fourth premier class crown. By that point, Rossi was motorcycle racing’s superstar. Winning the final title of the 500cc era in 2001 with Honda in just his second season, Rossi kicked off the new four-stroke MotoGP era as all-conquering on the factory Honda RC211V.
Rossi won 11 grands prix in 2002 and finished second in the rest, registering only one non-score that year. He cruised to a second premier class title, and added a third in similarly dominant fashion in 2003 with nine victories. But as the world heralded the genius of Rossi, that sentiment wasn’t being championed within Honda’s Japanese base. The credit for Rossi’s success, as far as HRC was concerned, belonged fully to the RC211V. Naturally, that kind of thing never really sits well with the massive ego motorcycle racers carry around with them. As 2003 wore on, Rossi’s management began to engage Yamaha in discussions - going to great lengths to keep it as secret as possible. Then team manager Davide Brivio revealed several years ago that he and Lin Jarvis were forced to hide under a table ahead of one such meeting as they thought someone was about to enter the tent they were in. A deal was eventually reached to bring Rossi to Yamaha in 2004. But Honda wouldn’t make things easy for the Italian, who was held to his HRC contract right to its conclusion, meaning he could do no testing of the M1 until the early months of 2004. While Yamaha and the Rossi camp had to get their heads together on the financial aspect of the deal, as well as which crew members would join the Italian, there was also a culture within the Japanese marque not dissimilar to Honda’s way of thinking that could have stopped this era-defining move altogethe
VALENTINO ROSSI YAMAHA HONDA MOTOGP TRANSFER
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