|
Valentino Rossi’s talents to partner develop his Yamaha YZR-M1 closely with his Head Mechanic at Fiat Yamaha, Jeremy
Burgess, has claimed the base of the duo’s success says the Aussie.
Ahead of the Iveco Australian Grand Prix
at Phillip Island in mid October in his homeland, Burgess has commented on the importance of Rossi’s feedback in keeping
his bike into a three-time world title winning engine to date.
Burgess united with Rossi in his swap from Honda
to Yamaha for the 2004 year as they followed on with their winning formula, Burgess insists the World Champion’s input
is as much crucial as his own technical experience.
“I think Motorcycling will never be the same because
Valentino Rossi showed that he could win on a Honda that other riders could win on, and he could then take the Yamaha machine
that no other riders could consistently win on and win on it,” says Burgess.
“I couldn’t go into
Yamaha and scream and yell and change the way they did things, it was necessary to work together with Valentino and the Yamaha
Engineers to solve the problems they had. We had to take a step back and analyse why we at that time, or they at that time,
had not been as competitive as their opposition. We had to diplomatically change the direction without making anybody look
as if they had been making mistakes.”
Burgess adds, “Certainly, my objective from an engineering perspective
is to make a bike that all riders can ride. It’s a very well tuned bike which has been developed by Valentino Rossi,
and any rider coming in to ride this bike doesn’t have to worry about development. They have the ability and the information
that we have put together over many years, combined with the settings we have from the last two especially – and particularly
with the Bridgestone tyres – so it’s not as easy to develop the bike as it is to ride the bike. We have a rider
in Valentino who develops the bike and we have on the other side of the garage one guy who just has to ride.”
|
