The gossiping continues in the MotoGP silly season, but it’s still the same undercurrent moving the conversation: Valentino Rossi will return to race for Yamaha.
It’s been getting ridiculous recently; former MotoGP rider Niall Mackenzie’s Twitter account was even hacked, so some jokester could spread misinformation that Rossi had been seen at Yamaha’s European HQ, supposedly to ink a new deal.
That fabrication was quickly dispelled, but the story hasn’t died away. The latest news has an Italian moto-mag printing quotes from a Ducati official that seemed to indicate they’d given up hope on re-signing Rossi, and that his move to Yamaha was a done deal. Juicy stuff, for sure, but the story mysteriously disappeared once interest picked up.
Everyone is expecting Rossi to announce his move to Yamaha in a week’s time. – supposedly Ducati was working overtime to prevent this, flying the company president to Laguna Seca to talk Rossi into staying, even trying to sign away Yamaha bigwigs to help Ducati improve their bike.
Hopefully we’ll know for sure either way by then, whether he’s staying with Ducati or going. Whatever the result, next season should be interesting; nobody knows for sure if Rossi’s still got what it takes to win
