Silverstone, MotoGP, J2, Valentino Rossi Conference: Yamaha's progress, racing, retirement, etc. (Entire)

The conference held after qualifying for the MotoGP British Grand Prix at the Silverstone circuit welcomed Marc Márquez, Valentino Rossi, Jack Miller, Álex Márquez and Tony Arbolino.

As usual, we report here the raw words of Valentino Rossi, without the slightest journalistic interpretation.

Valentino, welcome back to the Saturday press conference. You had a good qualifying, but generally speaking, you must be delighted to have had a very solid weekend, because it's not just a single lap...

Valentino Rossi : “yes, yes, I've been feeling good with the bike since Friday and I have a pretty good pace. We worked well during testing trying to progress, and I was also strong in FP4. So I know that qualifying is very important because today if you want to fight for the podium, you have to start from 5th or 6th place at most. Afterwards, qualifying was a bit tricky because I started last with the first tire but everyone was waiting on the back straight, so starting last, I arrived first on the grid and I didn't want to pull all the stops. world. So I slowed down but I knew I only had one card to play and, in the end, I was with Marc and Jack but I tried in the last round, and it was a very good one. round. I really enjoyed it.”

“I didn’t want to tow everyone around the lap” 🎙️ – @ValeYellow46

A waiting game for Rossi in qualifying, but the strategy was good enough to put him on the front row 💪#BritishGP 🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/FBJp5Oj0jn

- MotoGP @ 🏁 (@MotoGP) August 24

This is a great opportunity for you to get back on the podium…

“Yes, it seems that I am quite competitive and that is very important because we suffered a lot in the middle of the season. I was very slow and I was not able to ride the bike at the limit. But after the break, starting in Brno, we changed a lot of things on the bike and, little by little, I was able to get the feeling back. So it's good to be strong here because Austria was better from Brno, and here it's a little better than in Austria. But you know, the list is very long: I want to fight for the podium but in my opinion there are 5 or 6 drivers who have very good pace. It will therefore be important to do everything as much as possible, from the start.”

Valentino, is there no longer any question today of a hypothetical retirement at the end of the season?

“(Laughs) today, no! There’s still time (laughs).”

Why does your Yamaha perform better on this track?

“Good question… The layout of the circuit, the radius of the turns which is good for our bike, medium-fast, and of course the new asphalt which has good grip helps us. I think the bumps don't help us much. I mean our bike is very good on bumps, it is stable and we can be strong even with bumps. It seems that in the last period, finally, Yamaha started working in the right direction. It's definitely not easy, but they've started to do smart things. This changes the situation a lot, compared to the last 2 years, and it seems that already, with just a few small adjustments, the bike is better, we can accelerate better and it is easier to ride in almost all parts of the corner. So even though we're still not fast enough in a straight line, I think we've improved the rest in general. And this track also helps us.”

Have you used the period you describe as difficult to strengthen your motivation? And are you afraid of tomorrow's race which will be long and with high temperatures?

“Yes, 20 laps is a very long time at Silverstone. It's true. And it will be hot but we can't complain because it's usually 5° here with rain for 3 days. So we’re not going to complain about the sun (laughs) especially since I feel very good when it’s hot, much better than when it’s cold.”
“I know I have the motivation and that I can be strong because I feel good physically. I'm not bad. But it depends a lot on the feeling on the bike because in the middle of the season, honestly, I was optimistic since it was about tracks that I liked, like Mugello, Sachsenring, Assen, Barcelona, but we were in a very bad situation and we got a little lost, since I was not able to pilot the bike. You also see it with Lorenzo: if you are not at 100% and if you are not riding your bike at 100%, today you are no longer P7, you are P18 because everyone is strong. So it's normal that at my age and at this point in my career, if I have 3 very bad races people start to say "He's old and it's time he stayed home". It's like that. For this reason I am even happier because I know that if I drive well I can be competitive. So this is already a good result but we will try tomorrow. The important thing is tomorrow, to try to have a good race and to fight for the podium.”

What has Yamaha done to the bikes to make them work better in the last two or three races?

“We worked well on acceleration and, in particular, we tried to be quite fast but to preserve the tire. Because we have always suffered from this in recent years. Maybe you can do 5 laps, but after that we were suffering from tire degradation, especially compared to the Hondas and the Ducatis. So we started working in a smarter way. Here at Silverstone it's good for Yamaha but it wasn't so bad in Austria and Quartararo had a podium. We were a little too far from Dovi and Marc, but anyway, much better than the last years.”

2 years ago, you had a very good race here: you led a lot of laps but you ultimately didn't win the race. Is it possible to use the same tactics but win tomorrow?

“In 2017, it was the same: Marc was on pole and I was 2nd. At the start I was able to stay in front and, as I felt good on the bike, I stayed in the lead for a lot of laps, 16 or 17. But towards the end we suffered more with the tires and it was difficult . So Dovi was a little faster than us, even if in the end we arrived on the line together with Dovi and Viñales. But it's difficult to try to analyze the race on Saturday. You can have an idea, but the important thing will be to see how the start goes, and how you feel during the first lap with the tires. I think this time 4 or 5 drivers have a very good pace, so we will see.”

The Yamaha returns 10 or 11 km/h in top speed to its competitors. Is it obligatory tomorrow to start in front of Marc to try to have a chance of containing him?

" Yes. Of course, it is difficult to overtake with our top speed. We have suffered greatly on many occasions. We suffered a lot getting stuck behind slower drivers because top speed is a big problem for us. Because today, I think we are the slowest in general, not just behind 4 or 5 motorcycles. But you know, to stay in front and try to block Márquez, you have to be very, very fast, because it seems like he's the guy with the most pace anyway. So I do not know. We will see. I think Quartararo and Viñales, but also Jack, Rins, and Dovi, and Crutchlow, have good rhythm. So the list is very long (laughs). Maybe we’ll all stay together.”