For some reason Yamaha need riders for the 2022 season. It’s a peculiar predicament as their YZR-M1 is probably the best bike on the grid…unless you ask Rossi fans – then it’s slowest bike and developed solely for Quartararararo and ruined by Vinales.
So why would rider want to leave?
Well bipolar suffer Maverick Vinales wants out as he’s annoyed at being beaten by his teammate every race. A teammate who’s also French. In truth the Spaniard is mentally defeated. Indeed Vinales hasn’t just got a screw loose – the entire panel’s gone.
Vinales has announced that he’s leaving…although we don’t as yet know were to.
Then we have the once-great-then-average-now-inadequate Valentino Rossi. Regrettably the Italian’s results this season have been worse than Hector Barbera’s bar tab.
So Rossi really needs to go.
So that gives us two spaces up for grabs – who’s in the running to get them?
Garrett Gerloff
Yamaha World Superbike rider Garrett is an exciting and inspiring American rider with a tired and uninspiring haircut. He’s also probably at the top of Yamaha’s list given the American has already ridden their MotoGP bike covering for injured and covid-struck riders.
Ask current teammate Toprak Razgatlioglu and he’d love to see the back of Gerloff given the American’s love of carelessly ramming him into the scenery.
Dorna too would love a Yank back in MotoGP to help them sell red, white and blue stuff over the pond whilst waiting to see if Joe Roberts ever turns good.
So all positive then? Almost. The problem is that Garrett seems a bit reckless and his, albeit limited, MotoGP performances have been good but not great. Is that enough?
MGPN Likelihood Rating: ★★★★☆
Toprak Razgatlioglu
Still at over Yamaha World Superbike and we have the Turkish sensation Toprak Razgatlioglu.
Now when you think of Turkey you usually associate it with terrible holidays where you can’t relax for a second without some annoying local calling you “my friend” and trying to sell you some crappy knocked-off ‘designer’ tat that you insist to him you don’t want. Indeed the highlight of any trip to Turkey is leaving and putting them at the very top of your “ghastly dumps to never visit again” list.
What you don’t, however, associate Turkey with is decent motorcycle riders…yet Razgatlioglu is actually just that – a superb rider, famed for his stoppie antics and with a very hard name to spell.
Better still Toprak is keen to ride in MotoGP! So that’s a definite shoe-in then?
Sadly not as the Turk’s manager (Kenan Sofuoglu) ‘persuaded’ his gullible rider to sign up to Yamaha WSBK for another two years as it was far more financially rewarding for Toprak…and coincidentally for Sofuoglu too…
That could have been his best and only chance.
MGPN Likelihood Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
Jonathan Rea
Good lord are we still looking at WSBK riders? Yes we are – and we’ve saved the best for last. When it comes to big fish in small ponds (see Carl Fogarty’s career for further details) they don’t come much bigger or juicier than the billion-times champion Jonathan Rea.
The legendary Kawasaki rider has singlehandedly ruined World Superbikes and forced the governing bodies to make up more and more outrageous rule changed to try to stop him from winning. All to no avail. The Northern Irishman has kept on winning and allowed WSBK to quickly sink into an absolute borefest to watch.
A move to MotoGP by Jonathan would prove his doubters wrong who claim he’s never had the courage to take the battle to the big boys. You can expect the WSBK promoters too will be falling over themselves to push their most successful rider ever out of the door to allow someone else to win for a change.
MGPN Likelihood Rating: ★★★★☆
Raul Fernandez
When recently asked about the move Rea responded in a true leprechaun riddle style stating “never say never”.
In all seriousness Raul Fernandez is a brilliant rider who we very much believe will be a future MotoGP star – unlike, say, Danny Kent. The Spanish sensation is in his rookie Moto2 season and is already pushing his far more experienced and connected team-mate Remi Gardener for the championship lead.
Raul is quite possibly the hottest property in the GP scene currently – again even including Danny Kent.
So a definite swoop for Yamaha then? Sadly not. As great as Fernandez is he’s also tightly bound to the semi-evil KTM fold. For Yamaha to contractually prise the prize rider from orange Austrians would take a phenomenal amount of cash and, possibly, a wheelchair made from solid saffron for Pit Beirer.
MGPN Likelihood Rating: ★★★☆☆
Jake Dixon
Dorna, in their infinite wisdom, are very keen on dropping an Englishman back into MotoGP after Cal Crutchlow was forced to retire due to rusting. And the Spanish firm, in their even more infinite wisdom, are eager to replace Valentino Rossi at Petronas Yamaha with Jake Dixon.
Who better to step up and replace the most successful rider of recent times than a rider who from his 38 GP starts in Moto2 has amassed an impressive 0 wins, 0 podiums, 0 fastest laps and is currently being beaten by his teammate on points by a modest 454.54%.
Sign him up.
MGPN Likelihood Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Valentino Rossi
Wait what?
Before the season started The Dentist said that he’d evaluate if he would retire or not based on his performance. We, therefore, can only assume unless his criteria for staying was to be ‘embarrassingly slow and fall off a lot’ then the once-fast Italian will be hanging up his helmet at the end of the season for a gentle life in front of the fire watching Il commissario Montalbano.
Who can forget the scene when the antique Italian rider managed to qualify for Q2 and his pitcrew were dancing around and cheering like he’d solved the Riemann hypothesis problem? This, to any neutral, just isn’t good enough to deserve another season.
But maybe his team are talking him into staying for another season…
So why would Petronas SRT Yamaha want to keep Rossi? Well the Italian is incredibly popular…to the point where wearing yellow is actually a thing and not a punishment. Why have a slow unknown Moto2 rider when you can have a slow well known MotoGP rider that can still sell you shitloads of t-shirts?
MGPN Likelihood Rating: ★★★☆☆
Bradley Smith
Finally when it comes to average riders landing plum MotoGP seats then no one has more experience than Bradley Smith and his legendary management.
Despite many underperforming seasons of being trounced by his teammates you can bet your failing last gizzard that Smith’s elite of crew family members are working feverously to badger all at Yamaha to land him another season in MotoGP.
Could he pull it off? Not likely if anyone at Yamaha has a memory that’s longer than 12 months or access to the internet. But stranger things have happened…(actually they probably haven’t)
MGPN Likelihood Rating: ★☆☆☆☆