Valentino Rossi’s boss expecting stronger Jorge Lorenzo challenge

Valentino Rossi’s Fiat Yamaha team manager Davide Brivio is expecting a much stronger title challenge from team-mate Jorge Lorenzo in 2009.

Lorenzo was a title contender for the early part of last season before his challenge wilted as he spent much of the campaign recovering from injury after a series of spectacular crashes.

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But Brivio is expecting a more consistent threat from the Spaniard next season and he said: “Lorenzo will be one of the toughest adversaries in the challenge for the title.

“He showed this last year although he committed a few errors due to slight inexperience besides some unlucky falls. He’s certainly thinking about his 2008 mistakes this winter and he’ll try not to repeat them; he will be one of the toughest rivals, but we already knew this. He is very motivated.

“For him and for the other riders beating Valentino Rossi is an achievement, so we’ll have to put up a defence, or even attack these young riders who are hoping for the recognition they would receive if they managed to beat Valentino Rossi.”

Like Rossi though, Brivio is anticipating the biggest threat to come from 2007 world champion Casey Stoner, but also refused to rule out Repsol Honda star Dani Pedrosa from the reckoning.

“Looking back at 2008, Stoner is certainly the main rival. Then Pedrosa and Lorenzo, but we must also keep an eye on Andrea Dovizioso, who’s joined the official team, has one year of experience behind him and is very constant in his results. We’ll see how Hayden will adapt to the new bike.

“I expect a very hard-fought championship, with at least these six riders capable of fighting for victory in every race. The consistency in the results that was our winning weapon in 2008, with our 9 victories, will be very important.

“However the season is going to be very tough and unpredictable, therefore exciting from this point of view.”

Brivio also believes that the introduction of a single tyre rule for 2009 will help spice up the action at the front in MotoGP, with every rider now on Bridgestone rubber.

“This year we saw some very hard-fought races, between riders with the same tyres and with different tyres.

“The race in Laguna Seca between Stoner and Valentino was great, but in other races Valentino was racing against Lorenzo, who had different tyres, or against Pedrosa. There won’t be a great difference.

“The top riders will be the same, but at least they will compete on an equal footing, which is good from a sporting and an audience’s point of view.

“We paid the consequences of the tyre rule in 2007, but it also happened in 2008, when some riders couldn’t fight for victory because they had the wrong tyres.

“This won’t happen next year, so the championship will be even more hard-fought because all the riders will have the possibility to race competitively, “added Brivio.