Wayne Rainey had a short, but very successful career ended in 1993, when a terrible crash during San Marino GP put him in a wheelchair. He was 500cc World Champion in 1990, 1991 and 1992 and he has 24 wins and 40 podium finishes to his name. As a rider, he fought very hard against people like Kevin Schwantz, Eddie Lawson, Mick Doohan and Wayne Gardner.
Rainey has become a MotoGP Legend thanks to what he achieved with Yamaha and German website Motorsport-Total asked him sone questions about the current situation of the manufacturer from Iwata: “Yamaha was very competitive in the past, but their 2018 package wasn’t at all, since even Tech 3 machines went better. Johann Zarco, in particular, was often faster than factory riders, despite riding an older version of Yamaha M1“. Common ECU was introduced in MotoGP to take satellite teams closer to the factory ones, but the three times World Champion believes that it didn’t work and Yamaha even established a new department in Italy, in order to close the gap on Honda and Ducati in such area.
2018 season was a very troubled one for Yamaha MotoGP team, as they won just in Phillip Island with Maverick Viñales, and now they’re all waiting for Valentino Rossi to rise again. Here’s what Rainey said to Motorsport-Total about the Italian star: “He is still willing to ride at the highest level and fight for the win…And he wants to win not only races, but even the championship. He was far from achieving that goal in the past few years, but he has the speed and I think he still can make the most of his bike”. Is “The Doctor” the greatest of all time? “It’s very hard to say. A rider can be considered as the best of his time, but it’s very hard to say who’s the greatest ever”.
Translated by Alessandro Palma