McWilliams: Incredible Rossi can never be written off

Jeremy McWilliams says Valentino Rossi's impressive start to the 2015 MotoGP World Championship bears further testament to the Movistar Yamaha rider's 'incredible' ability.

The 36-year-old currently leads the championship ahead of this weekend's third round in Argentina after clinching a victory in Qatar and finishing third in Austin on the factory M1 and McWilliams - who famously shared the podium with Rossi at the British Grand Prix in 2000 - is in awe of the Italian star's longevity at the top level in motorcycle racing.

"I'm just happy to see a guy who has obviously got an incredible amount of ability - mentally and physically to be able to do what he's doing at that age - to be able to go out and show them all the way round in Qatar," McWilliams told Crash.net.

"I'd love to see the Ducati get a win too because I knew Gigi Dall'Igna years ago when I was at Aprilia and he's come through and changed it around. It was definitely one of the best races of all time in Qatar and more power to Rossi because you can't rule him out.

"It was incredible to see that the oldest man in the pack had more steam than the rest of them at the end of the race in Qatar. Rossi is and has been a very special rider for many, many years and people should never write him off," added the Ulsterman.

"If it wasn't for [Marc] Marquez and the special ability that he has got, I think Rossi would be an eight-time MotoGP world champion."

McWilliams believes Rossi takes extra motivation from those critics who have dismissed his chances of securing another premier class crown because of his age and admits he hopes more victories follow for The Doctor this season.

"Whenever he hears journalists writing him off because of his age that's what gives him even more determination than anything else and I think that happened at the first race," said McWilliams.

"You can't buy that kind of determination; it doesn't matter how much money you have or how many cars or girlfriends you have, nothing comes close to getting out there and beating the young riders and that feeling has just got better and better for him.

"I hope to see more of it and maybe Yamaha have refined that bike just that little bit more this year but Marquez is something special and what he does with a bike is more than anyone else does with a bike. You can't write him off either because he's got more will to win than any rider I've ever seen.

"We're talking about the oldest guy and the youngest guy in the championship here but you can't forget about the riders in between and you've got [Andrea] Dovizioso who is on the best machinery he's been on for some time and he's hungry, and [Jorge] Lorenzo will come back," he added.

"It's going to be one of the best years in MotoGP and most people I've spoken to want to see Rossi doing well and let's hope he will."