Valencia MotoGP: Yamaha engine as bad as Michelin tyres admits Valentino Rossi

Valentino Rossi has admitted the slow performance of Yamaha’s YZR-M1 800cc motor has contributed to his 2007 problems as much as Michelin’s failure to compete with Bridgestone.

Rossi ended a tough first day in Valencia languishing down in eighth position as his factory Fiat Yamaha was again blown away in a straight line. Casey Stoner’s impressively quick Ducati GP7 was nearly 10km/h faster than Rossi’s struggling YZR-M1, as the Australian again dominated proceedings in Spain.

And the Italian said today’s top speed figures on a tight and twisty track like Valencia should be another wake up call for Yamaha’s under pressure engineers.
Rossi has recently rounded on Yamaha, threatening to quit unless his demands for major engine improvements in 2008 are met.

“We are 10km/h slower than the Ducati and we are at the bottom. The Kawasaki has an engine like us, a four inline but it is a lot faster than us. I hope this data and speed is clear to the Yamaha guys. The tyres aren’t everything. We need a better engine also. Our engine performance is the same level problem as tyres this year. At the end of last year the performance of my bike wasn’t a big disaster like this year. The difference is a lot less than last year. We lost the championship through bad luck and some mistakes. We have a big, big margin to improve. Yamaha have to demonstrate to me next year that it’s possible to be competitive to help decide my future, “said the 28-year-old.

Rossi reckons he’s got plenty of room for improvement after the end of the first day that saw him lucky not to crash after a huge scare with the front-end of his Yamaha.

He added: “It is a little difficult for us. Our setting is not at the maximum. We start quite well, but unfortunately this afternoon when I was going quite fast, pushing a lot with a good rear tyre I had a big front slide in the fast corner. It was very, very fast. I was close to crashing at 258km/h, so it was a little bit scary. From that moment we had some problems,”

“It’s possible to improve quite a lot because Dani (Pedrosa) with Michelin isn’t so far from Casey, so I think we have some problems with settings. I don’t have a lot of traction; I also lose time in the entry of the corners because I slide too much. This time we must try not to give up because in Malaysia I was very fast in the race but starting from ninth it was impossible to fight for victory. The plan is to try to start on the front row and then we will see what happens on Sunday.”

• See MCN’s biggest issue of new motorcycle launches on Wednesday, November 7, 2007, with at least 23 new bikes.
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