Memories of a “p****** off” Valentino Rossi grumbling at home during a crucial MotoGP have been shared.
Rossi was not permitted by Honda to test the Yamaha in late-2003, ahead of switching manufacturers, in a key part of MotoGP folklore.
Instead he sat angrily, watching rival Max Biaggi lay down a marker for the next season by smashing the 2003 postseason test.
“During his last year at HRC, Vale was no longer having fun,” Uccio Salucci told GPOne.
“In fact, he was starting to get tired. We were going slower, and he really didn’t feel like going to the races anymore.
“That’s why I told him we had to change. We decided to go to Yamaha.
“Honda didn’t give us permission to test the M1 as soon as the championship was over.
“During that year, Biaggi did the opposite - from Yamaha to Honda.
“The fact remains that, in the tests, Biaggi immediately made record times.
“Vale was p***** off, since he was at home on the couch, unable to test the M1.
“He told me ‘I think we screwed up’.”
Rossi’s first time on the Yamaha was delayed until early 2004 in Sepang.
Salucci recalled: “After three or four laps, Vale came to the garage and said ‘we can do it!’
“He said to everyone in the garage ‘guys, there is something to improve but this bike isn’t that bad’.”
He joked: “After hearing Valentino’s words, some engineers fainted! We all started laughing!”
Rossi famously won the first race of 2004 in South Africa, his debut on a Yamaha, after a titanic scrap with Biaggi.
“At the end of FP2, he said ‘we are going to win here’,” Salucci insisted.
“He won the race and I took that photo of him laughing near his bike.
“Many people think he cried on that occasion. Instead, he laughed because, during those months, Vale suffered a lot. That victory was liberation.
“In the race that followed, he told me ‘let’s not make the mistake of 2000’. Let’s believe because I want to win the championship.”
Rossi would, indeed, claim the title in 2004 in his first year with Yamaha.
He would follow it up the next year, too, meaning Yamaha became synonymous with his success.
Rossi won a total of nine world championships but the first with Yamaha, under its unique starting point, will remain famous.
