MotoGP – Rossi Switches to Ducati, Replaced by Spies
Reigning world champion Valentino Rossi announced a week ago that he will be switching rides for 2011 season to Ducati. The 31 year-old will complete an Italian combo with the Bologna factory next season after agreeing on a two-year deal. And replacing the 9-time world champion at Yamaha is American Ben Spies, who won the World Superbike Championship with Yamaha back in 2009. The 26-year-old is currently the leading rookie and the top satellite rider in this year’s MotoGP, lying seventh in the championship.
After weeks of speculation in the MotoGP paddock official confirmation came from Yamaha, Ducati and Rossi that the charismatic multiple champion would make the switch from the Japanese to the Italian factory for the 2011 season. The arrival of Rossi at Ducati opens a new and exciting chapter for the whole MotoGP Championship.
The whole MotoGP is very excited to see what Rossi will bring to the Italian outfit, after scoring MotoGP championships for his previous teams Fiat Yamaha and Repsol Honda.
Valentino Rossi : “It is very difficult to explain in just a few words what my relationship with Yamaha has been in these past seven years. Many things have changed since that far-off time in 2004, but especially ‘she’, my M1, has changed. At that time she was a poor middle-grid position MotoGP bike, derided by most of the riders and the MotoGP workers. Now, after having helped her to grow and improve, you can see her smiling in her garage, courted and admired, treated as the ‘top of the class’. The list of the people that made this transformation possible is very long, but I would like to thank anyway Masao Furusawa, Masahiko Nakajima and ‘my’ Hiroya Atsumi, as representatives of all the engineers that worked hard to change the face of our M1. Then Jeremy Burgess and all my guys in the garage, who took care of her with love on all the tracks of the world and also all the men and women that have worked in the Yamaha team during these years. Now the moment has come to look for new challenges; my work here at Yamaha is finished. Unfortunately even the most beautiful love stories finish, but they leave a lot of wonderful memories, like when my M1 and I kissed for the first time on the grass at Welkom, when she looked straight in my eyes and told me ‘I love you!’”
Rossi’s letter to his fan.
Yamaha’s Lin Jarvis, Ben Spies and Herve Poncharal.
Meanwhile Spies’s solid debut season were rewarded with confirmation that the American will ride for the factory Yamaha team in 2011. Having tested the early 2011 M1 prototype at the official Brno test Yamaha Motor Racing MD, Lin Jarvis confirmed that talks were underway to promote him from Herve Poncharal’s Yamaha Tech 3 satellite team. The form of Spies in his first season in the premier class has seen him take a podium finish at Silverstone.
Ben Spies : “My first year in MotoGP has been a great learning curve and for that I have to thank Herve Poncharal, all the team at Tech 3 and especially my American mechanics who have stuck by me throughout this great journey so far. Having previously been to only four of the ten tracks to date, I have to be pleased with where I am and with having achieved my first podium so soon. I’m especially pleased that Yamaha have recognized the potential in me and given me the opportunity to step up to the Factory Team so early in my GP career. I believe that by working closely with the Yamaha staff and my mechanics we will be able to help develop the M1 and make the next step of challenging for regular podiums, followed by future championships.”
Photo : Fiat Yamah Team / MotoGP
