"It is true that in some senses we are taking a risk [in signing Valentino]," said team director Davide Brivio at the time. "With Valentino riding our bike we can make no excuses if we are off the pace. However, we are ready to accept that challenge and we have every confidence that we can deliver a good package."
With Rossi sensationally winning the world title during his first year at Yamaha, successfully defending his crown in 2005 - and ultimately only losing the 2006 championship due to a mistake at the final round - Yamaha has, until now, largely enjoyed all the benefits of signing one of the most popular riders of all time.
However, this season, Rossi has often been helpless to resist
Casey Stoner and Ducati. Indeed, the seven times world champion has only finished on the podium six times from 13 rounds, leaving him on the brink of losing the
MotoGP crown for a second season in succession.
With the YZR-M1's technical weaknesses apparent from the first race, but still to be solved by Yamaha, and Rossi's most recent victory having been back in June's Dutch TT, the 'Rossi risk' referred to by Brivio in late 2003 seems to have come to fruition.
"We know we have a rider who is capable of winning races and he deserves to be winning much more than he is now so we can only try our best to give him the equipment he needs to do that," an under-pressure Brivio admitted recently.
The good news for Yamaha is that, according to a
Crash.net poll, 61% of fans believe tyre supplier Michelin is the primary cause of Rossi's 2007 woes, with 22% blaming Yamaha and 17% Valentino himself.
