Rossi says he will be taking three of his current crew members at Yamaha to Petronas for 2021 MotoGP season. This comes as he prepares to announce his new deal before the end of the 2020 MotoGP season.
The three current crew members that will be joining Rossi for the 2021 MotoGP season include crew chief David Munoz, data engineer Matteo Flamigni, and rider coach Idalio Gavira. This means that the current veteran Southern Hemisphere major crew members Alex Briggs and Brent Stephens, won’t be working with him in 2021 for the first time since he made his premier class debut in 2000.
Valentino Rossi’s new petronas deal is expected to be announced officially on Thursday and the 7-time world champion also announced that the new contract signing will be formalised later in the Barcelona MotoGP weekend.
“Like I said last week, we tried to sign during the weekend [at the Grand Prix of Emilia Romagna] because between the two races at Misano we fixed all the details,” said Rossi.
“The situation is very clear, I will race with Petronas next year, but the contract is long and we’re in no hurry.
“During this weekend, I will sign it and I will continue next year with Yamaha and Petronas, and we’ll let you know as soon as possible!”
He also brushed off the latest delay as simply being due to all parties taking their time in ensuring that the deal is perfect before pens are finally put to paper.
“Sometimes in MotoGP we sign the contract for next year too early and sometimes you’re already thinking of next season before the current one is over. Step by step, everyone is signing a lot earlier – for example, we sign a lot earlier than Formula One,” he added.
“I agreed with Yamaha and with Petronas from Jerez, but because we are OK we haven’t made the deal in a hurry. It’s an important contract so there are things to fix: the technical details, the bike, the team.
“In general we’re not in a hurry and I’m happy.”
