No joyride with Sepang for legend Rossi

PETALING JAYA: Veteran MotoGP rider Valentino Rossi (pic) could be heading to Petronas Yamaha Sepang Racing Team (SRT) next year but it will be anything but a joy ride with the Malaysian-owned team.

Team principal Datuk Razlan Razali has revealed that discussions over the prospect of running the nine-time world champion rider in the 2021 MotoGP world championship are going well but stressed that Rossi must still be prepared to deliver the results if he signs.

Rossi came into the 2020 MotoGP season intending to use the opening few rounds to determine whether to hang up his helmet in 2020 or to continue into 2021.

But things changed with the

Valentino is not any other rider, he is a living legend.

Datuk Razlan Razali

Covid-19 pandemic sweeping the world. Rossi has made it clear that he will race on next season and there is a vacant seat in SRT with Frenchman Fabio Quartararo moving to take Rossi’s seat in the factory Yamaha team next year.

“We had a good number of discussions with Yamaha to discuss the technical aspects of Valentino coming to us – we’re talking about the bikes, the costs.

“We also discussed with Petronas on the possibility of Valentino joining us but we have yet to have a meeting with Rossi himself.

“Valentino is not any other rider, he is a living legend.

“He knows a lot. But at the same time for us, I’m sorry, no one is above the team. For me, the team is important.

“What we had last year was great in terms of the structure. We are in our second year and we don’t want to change 360º for one person.

“We don’t want Valentino just to finish off his career with us. We want him to do well and perform and be competitive and fight for the podium,” he said.