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MotoGP, Rossi: "We still have to understand if the 2020 M1 is better than the old bike"

"The new Yamaha should have been a clear step forward, but I find it similar to the 2019 bike. Mir is incredibly talented, he deserves the title"

MotoGP: Rossi: "We still have to understand if the 2020 M1 is better than the old bike"

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Yamaha seems to have lost its way again at Valencia, just take a look at the classification at the end of the first day of testing. At the moment, only Vinales has gained access to Q2, Morbidelli is 13th, Quartararo 16th and Rossi 17th. At the moment there is little to be happy about even if the gaps are so close and Valentino is all in all only seven-tenths and a half behind Miller. However, something is clearly wrong…

“I talked to Maverick, we have more or less the same problems - the Doctor began - The bike moves a lot at the rear and we have no grip. Out of all of us, Franco is the one with the best pace and the old bike, but the performance compared to ours is not so different ”.

Still the same old story about the fact that the previous year's bike seems better than the new one?

“We had a lot of expectations about the 2020 M1, because we were told that Yamaha had worked hard, that the engine would be faster, that it would be much better. Instead we are at the penultimate race and we still have to figure out if it is better than the one of the previous year. It depends on the tracks, they seem more or less the same to me ”.

Does everything have to be done over?

“This year the Yamaha has been competitive on some circuits, it has won 6 races, but on the most difficult tracks for us the same problems always arise. In addition to this, we have to work hard on the engine because there we are in difficulty compared to everyone else".

It has been a strange season in many ways…

"I didn't expect the Covid emergency to change the championship so much, but it was more complicated than normal. It is difficult to do everything, starting with travelling. We raced on some tracks, we did it twice in a row and we often found ourselves in a different season than usual. I hope and believe that 2021 will be better, the key will be to race in the European circuits in the classic races, if that happens we will have a good championship. Maybe leaving Europe will be more difficult ".

After Dovizioso, Crutchlow also announced that he will not race next year. Is a generational change taking place?

“Cal and Andrea, the two oldest riders after me, have left me, now the age difference from the others increases (laughs). In recent years everyone wants to get to MotoGP as soon as possible, while in the past there were riders who continued to race in the lower classes, or were in any case in less of a hurry to make the leap. It's normal, because this is the Formula 1 for motorcycles and everyone wants to get there ”.

Mir also wasn’t in Moto2 very long and now he is one step away from the World Championship…

“At the beginning of the season, no one would have bet on him, even though he had improved a lot at the end of last year and also in the winter tests. I find him a very mature rider, considering the fact that he is only in his second year in MotoGP and he only did one in Moto2. He is incredibly talented and if he wins the title he will deserve it 100% because he was the most consistent rider. He has only won one race, but he would have done it already in Austria if the race hadn't been interrupted by the red flag ”.

 

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