Jerry Burgess: Valentino Rossi could race until 2015

Valentino Rossi’s crew chief Jerry Burgess believes the Italian could carry on racing until the end of 2015 at least.

Burgess reckons Rossi could carry on dominating in MotoGP into his mid-thirties in a statement likely to crush the spirits of fierce rivals like Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner.

Burgess, who won his 12th premier class title in 16 years with Rossi’s success in Sepang last month, told MCN: “To think that Valentino is going to stop next year could be a fallacy.

“He gives me the feeling with how good he has been riding that he could keep going until he is 35 or 36 if he wants.

“Personally I can see at least three more years because his career has been so wonderful. He hasn’t suffered any setbacks and he still enjoys what he’s doing.”

Despite another world title for Burgess, the Aussie added: “I don’t think this was a great world championship at all.

“I wouldn’t put it an A+. It was an A and we won it with time to spare. All championships are very good because that’s the goal when you set out.

“Too many mistakes were made by too many. Our average is around 18-points per race and that’s not where it’s been in the past. Next year we’ve got to make sure we make less mistakes.

“Carrying them through and knowing they could hurt us was always a worry, but having said that all the others made errors too.

“It was a pretty error ridden season and in 2010 I’ll be looking to increase performance, but also performance with more consistency.”