Two more years? Rossi responds to VR46 MotoGP rumours

The recent announcement that Tech3 is to end its long association with Yamaha renewed speculation that Valentino Rossi's VR46 team could enter MotoGP and take over the satellite M1 supply.

Such a partnership has long been expected, whenever Rossi retires as a rider.

That is probably also one of the reasons why Tech3 took matters into its own hands and decided on - what is understood to be - a new relationship with KTM next year.

Given the direct link between the start of a VR46 MotoGP team and end of Rossi's own career, his reaction to the Tech3 news was eagerly sought after the opening day of MotoGP testing in Qatar.

But Rossi confirmed what the VR46 team had told Crash.net earlier this week; that there are currently no plans for MotoGP - adding that he intends to race on at the factory Yamaha team for another two seasons.

"The situation is clear," Rossi told Italian media at Losail. "I did not expect Poncharal to leave Yamaha.

"We thought about it [a VR46 team in MotoGP] and it would have been a great opportunity, but in the next two years we will not make a MotoGP team with Yamaha.

"I'll probably race for the next two years, so hopefully we'll talk about the team later when I stop - but not in 2019 or in 2020."

With VR46 out of the running, Yamaha's main options to replace Tech3 rest with the likes of Marc VDS, Aspar or Avintia. But the same issue, of being a stop-gap until VR46 arrives, remains - unless they were to merge with Rossi's team in the future…

Rossi, 39 last month, briefly led the timesheets on his way to the joint sixth fastest lap time on Thursday, just 0.379s behind pace setting team-mate Maverick Vinales.

"The first day was quite good. We are always very, very close. At the end I think I am sixth position so it's nothing fantastic, but at this track I feel better from the first moment compared to Thailand," Rossi said.

"I think I was quite competitive in Sepang, a little bit more problem in Thailand, here in Qatar it is more similar to Sepang fortunately. But looks like also this year it can change a lot from one track and another, because it depends very much on which way you can make the tyre work.

"So sometimes you have to suffer, some other times maybe you have to be stronger.

"Our first impression here is not-so-bad, but anyway we have to work a lot on the balance of the bike and also in the electronics because we are still not fast enough."

Vinales has already re-signed with Yamaha for 2019 and 2020.