Your teammate is always your first rival. And nowhere is this truer than in the Movistar Yamaha MotoGP garage. Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo are not friends. How could they be? They differ in personality, riding style, and approach. These rivals have two things in common: the Yamaha M1 MotoGP bike and a hunger for the world title. Against all odds, 36-year-old Rossi has been leading the championship since the first round. With three wins and 10 podium finish out of 10 races, the Number 46 is still on top with a 1-point advantage over Lorenzo, who won four times in a row (Spain, France, Italy, Catalunya) after a difficult start of the season. The battle for the 2015 MotoGP title is unquestionably between them. As such, we at Cycle World wondered about the atmosphere inside the Yamaha team. How is the rivalry between these two champions being lived out? From top management to the last mechanic, the answer is surprisingly the same. “The atmosphere is actually really good,” said Lin Jarvis, Yamaha Motor Racing Managing Director. “We have two very mature champions in the team and we haven’t had yet a head to head confrontation in the race. They have a lot of respect for each other, they both know the game, and our main competition is basically Honda. Right now [at the mid-season break, after the Sachsenring], we have a big step on Honda, so if this continues for the rest of the season, as we hope it will, then, as the season goes on, the tension will build.” 
Managing the rivalry between two riders with 13 world titles between them is not an easy game. “If it really becomes a battle between our two riders, then obviously there will more tension,” Jarvis continued. “The key is to anticipate. This year we worked a lot in advance, because the best way to prevent future tension is to build strong foundations. It’s about respect, philosophy, equal sharing of materials. We don’t want to repeat 2009. As long as it is a clean and fair fight, and first of all safe.... this is the most important thing. Both riders have equal rights to challenge the maximum”. The wall that separated the Yamaha garage in 2009 is a classic image of how tension can build. Rossi didn’t like that Yamaha signed Lorenzo, such a strong and young teammate. And because of different tire suppliers (Michelin for Rossi, Bridgestone for Lorenzo), that wall was even bigger. “At the beginning it was not easy,” Rossi confessed. “In 2009 I didn’t like that Yamaha signed such a young and competitive teammate. But now everything is different. We are more mature. Each of us knows his role and position. Things are clear. Together, we work well for the development of the bike. Then, of course, we are both competitive and we want to win.” “When I joined Yamaha, Valentino was the King, in the garage and in the paddock,” replied Lorenzo. “He tried to save and mark his territory. Of course, this didn’t help to create a good atmosphere. When he returned in 2013 after two years with Ducati, the situation was different. We cannot say that we are friends, but there is a lot of respect. We are two champions. We both want to win and to beat each other.” 
Respect is the key word also of Wilco Zeelenberg, the team’s rider performance analyst. “In 2009, we also had head-to-head battles, in Barcelona for example. It was a hot duel but fair. It was not like hitting each other at the very last corner. The Barcelona battle is will go down in history as one of the greatest ever, with Rossi triumphing with an audacious last-corner move that saw him win by just thousandths of a second. This is the way these two guys are racing. Jorge can concentrate on his own pace and be faster than the rest. Valentino is very good in battling. He can follow the riders in front, without letting them go and beat them in the last lap. They are both fast but in a different way: Valentino is a very late braker; Jorge is smoother, he wants to pick his own lane”. With eight races left in the 2015 season, a lot of points are still available, and the battle is still on the track. Yet the atmosphere in the garage remains positive, as confirmed by the two chief mechanics. Ramon Forcada joined Yamaha at the end of 2008 with Lorenzo. “The wall was not good for the image and the sponsors, but it helped the rider to concentrate only on his own” Forcada said. “What really counts is sharing the data, and this is what we do. Back in 2009, it was a physical but also a psychological barrier. It didn’t work, so they removed it. The battle is on track, not in the garage. The riders have to manage the tension on the track. Then in the garage, we may have two different ways of working but—among us, we mechanics –we help each other. We set up the garage together, we prepare the fly cases all together, as one squad.” “It’s not a family,” Forcada stressed. “It’s more a professional relationship.” Forcada has been alongside Lorenzo since 2009. “Jorge is very demanding. When things go well, he thinks how we can improve it. If they go wrong, we analyze what we did wrong.” 
The feeling is similar on Rossi’s side with Silvano Galbusera, who in 2014 replaced the legendary crew chief Jeremy Burgess. “We are working hard as usual trying to give the rider the best possible machine. The tension will build as both sides of the garage will try to do the best to win the world title, but usually, unless something really bad happens, the battle is limited to the track”. One thing is clear: Rossi has left nothing to chance. “I see Valentino totally focused on the goal. I see him in a better shape compared to last season, as if he had planned one year of apprenticeship and preparation to finally attack this year at the highest level. He is so focused that he looks relaxed. He is training a lot and spends many hours in the garage with us analyzing data and studying how we can improve. He watches all the practices to check where he makes mistakes and how he can improve the lines. Of course he looks also at Lorenzo, but as another competitor, not as an enemy. Valentino’s best quality? He wants to be competitive and improve himself despite his age and despite he has nothing to prove. He still enjoys himself. A weakness? I haven’t found one so far!” Although Rossi’s crew chief is relatively new in the MotoGP paddock, his engineers and mechanics are a unified group that has shared in the successes and the bitter disappointment of the two years spent in Ducati. “The Ducati experience marked us a lot,” Matteo Flamigni, Rossi’s data technician, said. “We are grateful to Yamaha and to Jorge that they welcomed us back, after we all left in 2011. The atmosphere is completely different now. There is respect between the two riders. Regarding the mechanics, we are friends, we help each other, and we plan some activities together also outside the track. For example, I go cycling with Davide Marelii, Lorenzo’s data technician, also at home. The atmosphere in Yamaha is great. Of course, I want Valentino to win, and we give our 110 percent to reach the goal. But if Lorenzo wins, it won’t be the end of the world!” 
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