Valentino Rossi shares money details of his fractious Honda exit

Valentino Rossi has shed light on the fall-out which led to his Honda exit.

Rossi was already a five-time world champion when he bizarrely walked away from Honda at the end of 2003, to join the unfancied Yamaha.

The rest is history - but Rossi has described his bitter feeling with Honda which led to his departure.

“When I signed the second contract with Honda, in 2002, I was already ‘Valentino Rossi’,” he told Andrea Migno’s podcast.

“My manager pushed, we asked for a lot of money. Honda arm-wrestled us.

“Honda said ‘okay’ then [waited, waited, waited]...

“In January they called and said ‘we will give you this money, it’s the end of January, what the f*** else are you going to do?’

“They screwed us economically. I should have earned more."

Honda was like Ducati now

“The Honda then was like the Ducati now," Rossi said.

"The first bikes were all Hondas.

“Let’s say now that Pecco Bagnaia decides to go to Yamaha - it would be madness!

“But Honda were not very nice. It was ‘Valentino Rossi only won because of the Honda’.

“In every interview, they said ‘the first five bikes are all Hondas, so if Rossi is there? Then okay…’

“Honda are tough and strong. We decided to go to Yamaha…”

Honda notoriously would not let Rossi test his new Yamaha at the 2003 postseason test.

It meant Rossi could not try his new package until early-2004, giving him a major disadvantage heading into the season.

But he sensationally won the first race in South Africa, which he still regards his greatest moment, before capturing a sixth world championship that year.