Maverick Vinales’ shock departure from the Yamaha MotoGP roster in 2022 will not impact Petronas SRT Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi’s future, the seven-time premier-class champion insists.
Vinales has unexpectedly freed up a plum Yamaha ride by agreeing with the team to terminate his current two-year deal early.
The split was announced on Monday after news of such a possibility became public during the Dutch TT weekend.
The seat made vacant by Vinales is expected to be filled by currently-injured Petronas Yamaha rider Franco Morbidelli, who finished runner-up in the MotoGP title race last year and has been dissatisfied over being saddled with an older-spec Yamaha package in 2021.
A Morbidelli promotion could theoretically strengthen Rossi’s case to stay as an incumbent Petronas rider for 2022, despite the fact good results have been very hard to come by this season.
But when asked about a potential knock-on impact of the Vinales situation on Sunday, Rossi said he didn’t see there being any.
“So looks like that in the next week, looks like something changes, no? I don’t know very well but maybe something will change that we don’t expect,” he said.
“But sincerely, for me, it doesn’t change my decision, because my decision is correlated to the results.
“What happens in the other team, with the other Yamahas, for me is not a big difference.”
Rossi crashed out of the Dutch TT at Assen while running 17th, ruing a poor start that left him with an overheating front tyre in traffic – but also admitting he and his team “don’t understand very well” the crash.
“I’m lucky because it was just a slide but it was high-speed and I’m OK, this is important,” he said of what was a bike-shredding tumble through the gravel at Ruskenhoek.
No Assen heroics this time for @ValeYellow46! 😞
A crash at Turn 7 for The Doctor! 💢#DutchGP 🇳🇱 pic.twitter.com/XFjlmSnpLY
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) June 27, 2021
Rossi said the specific Dutch TT crash and result won’t play a big role in his future decision, but reiterated that it would be results-based as a whole, and that the current results “don’t help us” in terms of deciding to extend his career.
The 42-year-old is currently 19th in the standings as MotoGP begins a six-week summer break between races.
“Now is not the moment [for a ’22 decision] because I said from the beginning of the season that I will decide in the next weeks, about next year,” he said. “It will be like this, and we’ll let you know when I decide.”
Rossi will have a two-bike MotoGP team running Ducatis on the grid next year, and has been asked by the team backer, Saudi Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah Al Saud, to consider riding for his own team – but played down the possibility.
He is expected to take his talents to four wheels full-time next year, and join the World Endurance Championship.
