Not sure what the controversy is. The Yamaha package is not as competitive as it needs to be for him to win the title. So, since he wants to win the title and has enormous influence at Yamaha (he is the only reason they have won anything in the past 4 years afterall), he let them know that if they don't improve the package he will switch to a different team in '09. I suspect if that doesn't motivate the engineers in Japan nothing will. That's what any racer (who had the influence to do so) would do, whether it be Rossi, Pedrosa, Stoner, Melandri, Hopkins, etc. I could be wrong, but I suspect every factory team, except perhaps for Honda, would bend over backwards to have him on their team, even if it meant running an extra bike.
|