Jerry Burgess unsure of Valentino Rossi’s Yamaha future

Valentino Rossi’s legendary crew chief Jerry Burgess has admitted for the first time that he’s no longer convinced that the Italian will remain at Yamaha in 2011.

The Australian, who has been the technical mastermind behind all of Rossi’s seven MotoGP titles, has been indefatigable in his insistence that Rossi was not quitting to join Ducati.

But even Burgess’s belief is waning with Rossi’s Ducati deal to be announced in Brno.
Burgess said: “I’m not as convinced as I was. I believe he is going to make some sort of announcement after Brno.

“Initially he was going to make an announcement in Barcelona but as far as I’m concerned everything is up in the air until he makes a statement.”

Rossi’s big money switch to Ducati, as was exclusively revealed by MCN at the end of June, will be confirmed on Sunday night after the Czech Republic MotoGP in Brno on August 15.

It is expected that Burgess and the rest of Rossi’s crew will also follow the nine-times world champion in defecting to the Bologna factory.