Jarvis: Three reasons why Lorenzo chose Ducati
Movistar Yamaha managing director Lin Jarvis highlighted the three factors he believes were pivotal in Jorge Lorenzo's decision to join rival manufacturer Ducati on a two-year deal at Jerez on Thursday.
Jarvis admitted his disappointment over losing reigning MotoGP world champion Lorenzo, using a light-hearted analogy to summarise the Mallorcan's choice, and outlined the reasons he felt convinced the 28-year-old to move to join the Italians.
"It's like when you go into a discotheque and you ask a girl to dance and she chooses the guy next to you," Jarvis said of Lorenzo's decision.
"Of course we would've preferred Jorge to stay, there's no doubt about that, and hopefully we can finish off this season in the style that we have over the past eight years together.
"This is our ninth season together and we've had a very good run. I was very involved when Jorge came to Yamaha so of course when you reach the end of an era it's a sad moment for sure.
"We made our best proposal as a company and Jorge obviously was looking for new stimulus and I think there were probably three factors that helped him make that decision," he added.
"He probably got an extremely good proposal, probably better than ours - that was the important factor. I think the Ducati is currently a very competitive bike, so it's less daunting to make a change.
"And in addition to that, probably to be the number one in the future team was probably something that was attractive, so I think that's probably the reasons I think for the change."
Jarvis said that while it was no easy task fielding two riders of the calibre of Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi in the same team, both had always been 'treated equally'.
"Within Yamaha, we've run Valentino and Jorge together for many years, so we have the experience: it's not easy, trust me, to run with two top dogs in the same team, but we've always treated them fairly and equally and we will continue to do that for the rest of the year," said Jarvis.
"We put our best package forward to Jorge and we had a negotiation with his management and said 'this is the best programme we can put together'.
"I don't know if number one status was important but we could not offer that because we have two top riders, with a second in the championship last year with Valentino and Jorge as the world champion and this will continue for this year," he added.
"Changing the rider package was not an option and I believe we have always had a very fair relationship together in all aspects, sporting and on the human side. We've always been very honest and I'm comfortable that Yamaha put their best package together."
