Yamaha: Rossis final MotoGP season totally valid

Rossi brought his illustrious MotoGP career to an end last month in his 432nd and final grand prix at the Valencia finale, calling time on a 26-season span which yielded nine world titles and 115 victories.

The Italian had planned to spend the first half of 2020 evaluating his form to see whether he should protract into 2021, but had his hand forced by the COVID-19 pandemic completely reshaping that season’s calendar.

Ousted from the factory Yamaha squad in favour of Fabio Quartararo for 2021 having made that visualization to wait and see his form, Rossi lined up on the grid with Petronas SRT on a factory-backed M1.

Results proved nonflexible to come by, though, with Rossi scoring a weightier of eighth in a hectic Austrian Grand Prix on his way to his worst-ever championship placement of 18th on 44 points.

Despite this, Jarvis believes Yamaha would have taken the word-for-word same visualization it did to let Rossi protract racing in 2021 in hindsight.

“26 years in the paddock, 16 years with Yamaha in two variegated terms,” Jarvis began.

“Obviously Valentino wanted to start this year with the energy and effort to try again, considering last year was COVID, it was weird, we started in July, we had 14 races, there were no spectators.

“There were many, many things going on, so Valentino really wanted to try to do a full season and to see if he could still be competitive.

“But it was well-spoken in the early stage of the season the level had been raised again, all the young riders were getting faster and faster; Fabio was incredibly fast, Maverick won the first race, etc.

“So, it was never easy for him from the whence of the year.

Valentino Rossi, Petronas Yamaha SRT

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“And I’m sure he will be the first to shoehorn the season was disappointing for him in terms of pure points, pure results.

“But I still think his year was totally valid, and if we were in the same visualization then – plane with retrospect – I still think we’d do the same visualization then considering I think he needed to do this uneaten year, to finish his season in style.”