On August the 15th 2010, Rossi announced that he’s leaving Yamaha and he signed a two year contract with Ducati. This August the 15th 2012, Valentino Rossi will (most likely) announce that he’s coming back to Yamaha squad and that he’s leaving the troubled Ducati. Coincidence or just a firm statement, it doesn’t matter in the end. Rossi will ride the Yamaha M1 in the 2013 MotoGP alongside (MotoGP Champion for 2012?) Jorge Lorenzo.
The rumors started last week with Niall Mackenzie and his tweet that Rossi was spotted at Yamaha HQ in Amsterdam. Later in the week, the “hacked tweets and emails” all appeared to be a hoax. But as they say, “where there’s smoke, there’s fire”, and a long string of Ducati and 46Vale failures – culminating with the crash at Laguna Seca (caused by Ducati’s prototype lack of ability to put some heat in the front tire – resulting in a “ridiculous” crash by front wheel lock) cleared one thing. Rossi will leave Ducati.
The puzzles of the 2013 riders lineup slowly starts to fit into place. Marquez and Pedrosa are in the HRC Honda team, Rossi and Lorenzo will ride for Yamaha, Nicky Hayden and Cal Crutchlow will ride for Ducati. We say this pretty confidently as we think Dovizioso will be too “pissed off” for not getting his chance with a competitive factory bike – that he would go to WSBK (just a presumption). Ben Spies, having one of the worst cases of bad luck in the history of the MotoGP, will eventually move to WSBK as well – or so we think.
Tags: 2013, 46Vale, Amsterdam, August 15th, HQ, Indianapolis GP, Jorge Lorenzo, MotoGP, season, tweet, Valentino Rossi, Yamaha
Only problem Ducati has is that Rossi’s past it. Done nothing since he broke his leg at Yamaha. Nicky and Hector out qualify and out race him. You can’t blame it all on the bike.
You’re right Arthur, we can’t blame everything on the bike. But we are not writing Vale off quite yet. In our opinion, and a bit foolishly and arrogant, Rossi and his technical team though they could make any bike competitive. They’ve done it with Honda, then Yamaha, but Ducati got them at the end…let’s see
Ciao Ducati, Hello Yamaha again! Valentino Rossi made the decision to head back to the Yamaha Factory team, because he believes he will be able to challenge at the front with his Yamaha YZR-M1 bike in 2013. I think so too! It was unpleasant to see him struggle on the Ducati Desmosedici GP11 and GP12 for the past two years. It would’ve been great if Casey Stoner could’ve gone back to Ducati instead of quitting MotoGP. He was the only one who could master the Ducati in the past years. I think Valentino will be winning races again next season.