When Valentino Rossi joined Yamaha in 2004, the manufacturer had not won a MotoGP (and 500cc) riders' championship in over a decade. The Italian made an immediate impact, winning the title in his first year with the team.
Yamaha's philosophy at the time was to believe in building a competitive motorcycle capable of winning with any rider – somewhat downplaying the importance of the human factor.
Former Yamaha team principal Davide Brivio, now head of Trackhouse Racing, told Crash.net that without Rossi's arrival it could have taken Yamaha much longer to succeed:
– Probably if Valentino hadn't left, probably Yamaha would have tried to make a good bike. It probably would have taken longer because maybe we would have needed to create a good bike, try to create confidence in the best riders and maybe in the next two, three years try to invite a top rider to Yamaha and win. So it would have taken longer. Maybe Jorge Lorenzo would have come later or maybe someone else and probably would have won, but maybe two, three, four years later.
