Rossi: I will have to decide MotoGP future before racing in 2020

Valentino Rossi has revised his plan on deciding his MotoGP future as he admits he will have to make a call on whether to continue into 2021 before racing can start this year.

The nine-time world champion has been keen to asses both his own and Yamaha’s competitive levels against his MotoGP rivals over the opening five or six races before making a call on his future.

Rossi has already been offered a factory-specification bike at the satellite Petronas Yamaha squad for 2021 with Fabio Quartararo set to step up and replace him at the factory Monster Energy Yamaha team.

But with the 2020 MotoGP season delayed indefinitely amid the coronavirus pandemic, Rossi’s plans have been put on hold waiting for racing to resume.

Speaking in a Yamaha Q&A video, Rossi says he will now make a decision on his future before racing in 2020 and is leaning towards continuing so he doesn’t retire after a truncated 2020 campaign.

“The problem is no racing! So with the news as it is we cannot race,” Rossi said. “I think that I will have to decide before racing because in the most optimistic situation we can race in the second half of the season, so around August or September, we do if everything is good.

“But I have to make my decision before. I want to continue but I have to make a decision without any races.

“It is not the best way to stop as the situation is maybe we also don’t race in 2020. It is fairer to make another championship and maybe stop at the end of the next. I hope to continue in 2021.”

Despite edging his feelings towards carrying on next year, Rossi would still prefer to have a handful of MotoGP races before making a final call to allow him to understand how successful Yamaha’s M1 upgrades have been and what impact the changes to his team make including the influence of new crew chief David Munoz.

“I am in a difficult situation because like I said my first option is to try to continue because I have enough motivation and I want to continue,” he explained. “But it is very important to understand the level of competitivity, especially in the second part of last year we suffered very much and too many times I was too slow and I have to fight not for the first position.

“So, in my mind I have another year with the factory team and I need time to decide. For me I need five or six races to understand with the new chief mechanic and some modifying in the team to see if I can be stronger.”

As things stand the 2020 MotoGP season is scheduled to start at Sachsenring on June 21 but the German round remains in doubt, along with both the subsequent races in the Netherlands and the new Finland event, due to restrictions on public events in the respective countries.

MotoGP is yet to officially confirm the delay for Sachsenring, Assen or KymiRing but is currently understood to be aiming for a best-case scenario of around ten races this season, most if not all taking place behind closed doors.