MotoGP, Jorge Lorenzo: "At Yamaha they preferred Valentino Rossi. They disregarded me”

For most of his MotoGP career, from 2008 to 2016, Jorge Lorenzo wore factory Yamaha colours. In this time he won three world titles, in 2010, 2012 and in 2015, when he battled it out against team-mate Valentino Rossi. As reported by the Gazzetta dello Sport, Lorenzo has talked in his podcast, "Tengo un plan", about some of what went on behind the scenes and particularly about what pushed him to leave the Japanese manufacturer for Ducati.

Lorenzo had no doubts: "I knew Dall'Igna would make Ducati the best bike"

The marriage with the Bolognese manufacturer was far from rosy, but the Majorcan had clear reasons for moving to Ducati: "After many years with the same team and the same bike, I was lacking in motivation and needed new stimuli". His choice fell to Ducati, where he found a person with whom he’d worked in 250 cc and whom he trusted: "I did it for motivation, because I knew that Luigi Dall'Igna would make the Ducati the best bike: he’s very hardheaded and achieves everything he sets out to".

And then there was behaviour on Yamaha's side that Lorenzo did not appreciate: "They didn’t behave properly with me in 2015: they had a preference for Valentino Rossi and this was clear at Valencia. They ‘disregarded’ me in some ways..."

Lorenzo like Hamilton: here’s why

Although he didn’t achieve the desired results in the two-year period with Ducati, Lorenzo had complete faith in the project and draws a comparison with a Formula 1 driver: "Lewis Hamilton left McLaren to go to Mercedes, a team that hadn’t won anything. But he knew it would become the best car in the Circus. I had the same intuition with Ducati".

Ducati hired him for an astronomical sum, 25 million over two years, but Lorenzo denies that this was what convinced him: "I signed a contract that gave me 15% more than I earned at Yamaha. I didn’t make the change for money, though some think that I did. That 15% didn’t change my life".