Australian MotoGP: Yamaha to continue fighting with Michelin

Valentino Rossi’s factory Yamaha boss Davide Brivio says the Japanese factory will continue as if they are going to be using Michelin tyres in 2008, despite a controversial one-make tyre rule proposal now under discussion in MotoGP.

Davide Brivio said Yamaha would continue to work on the basis Valentino Rossi and new team-mate Jorge Lorenzo will ride on Michelin rubber in 2008 until they are told otherwise, with a decision on the one-make tyre rule due to be made on October 20, 2007 at the Malaysian MotoGP in Sepang.

Yamaha and Michelin bosses met several times last month over the course of the Japanese MotoGP weekend in the Twin Ring Motegi, with Michelin bosses desperate to convince both Yamaha and Honda to stay on the French rubber.

Dorna boss Carmelo Ezpeleta confirmed in Japan that his proposal for the one-make tyre rule had come following Honda and Yamaha’s failure to secure a 2008 deal with Bridgestone.

“We are still working with Michelin and we are still working thinking we are using Michelin nest year. The one-make proposal might change things but for the time being we are working closely with development, and we did this at the last test in Japan.

“We had meetings with Michelin in Japan and they explained to us the development plan for the future and now we will see what happens. There are internal discussions on-going at Yamaha about the one-make tyre rule, as we have been asked for our opinion on this issue,” Davide Brivio told MCN.

Brivio confirmed that an official request had been made to Bridgestone, but like Honda, the request had been rejected.

He added: “Yamaha has a very good relationship with Bridgestone from a commercial point of view. Yamaha did explore that route just to check if it was a possibility or not.

“But this was quite difficult to get anyway. It is not just a matter of knocking on a door and getting tyres.