I won four titles with Valentino Rossi - this was his secret

Valentino Rossi’s long hours of studying and holding meetings was crucial to his success, insists the ally who was there to see his heyday.

In contrast to Rossi’s fun-loving exterior, he was cold and calculating inside the box when it was time to work.

This is the quality that Davide Brivio remembers so well.

"I was at Yamaha, he was at Honda and we convinced him to come with us,” Brivio told Relevo.

“He had a mentality only to win, in fact, even a second place for him was not good.

“So he put a very different approach at Yamaha. He incorporated that mentality of always aspiring to win, always aspiring to the maximum.

"What Valentino was very good at was the professionalism he had in the box, on the motorcycle. He was very professional.

“He worked long hours, held meetings, studied, but then outside the box you could go to dinner, have fun.

“He was very professional but also very fun. So it was a great lesson for me too that you can do both.”

Rossi left Honda as the MotoGP champion to join Yamaha in 2004, taking somewhat of a chance with his career.

But The Doctor won further championships in each of his first two seasons on the Yamaha, alongside team boss Brivio.

'Above all, we had fun'

“The first victory or the first world championship,” Brivio remembered as highlights of their alliance.

“Some races like Barcelona 2009, Laguna Seca 2008…”

But their was feistiness too, none more so than when Jorge Lorenzo joined the team.

"Lorenzo's arrival at Yamaha was a special moment,” Brivio insisted.

“Valentino was the man who changed the history of Yamaha and, obviously, he felt a bit like number one.

“When there is a number one and another number one arrives…

“It was still a good experience . He managed it well."

Rossi and Lorenzo notoriously built a wall to divide their garage and hide data from each other, as they waged war for the MotoGP title.

"Valentino has a special place in my heart,” Brivio said.

“We won four titles, we did many things together but above all we had a lot of fun.”