The set-up 'fight' reflecting a change in Rossi's standing at Yamaha

The so-called "fight" that Valentino Rossi had to have with Yamaha at Jerez to be able to change the set-up of his bike is the clearest reflection yet of the change in stance taken by the Japanese factory in recent months.

Last Sunday, the Italian returned to the podium for the first time in over a year. Seventeen races had passed since the US Grand Prix last season and immediately after expressing his joy at the result, Rossi revealed that the key to his improved performance in the second of back-to-back rounds at Jerez was a modification the team had made to the set-up of his bike.

He then went further, revealing that he'd had to "fight for four days" before Yamaha allowed him to implement the changes he was requesting, adding that the main obstacle he had to overcome when he wanted to change a bike that he described the previous weekend (when he had to retire due to an engine problem) as not feeling like his own was a "political problem."

"The feeling that I had in the first race was so bad it was untrue," Rossi explained. "Maybe I am old and maybe there are faster riders than me but it wasn't right. At times like that you start to think 'I am 40 years old and I have been racing for 25 years. That decision [the set-up change] should have happened earlier."

And then came the key comment.

"Yamaha say that I am 41 and I need to learn to ride the bike like [Fabio] Quartararo and [Maverick] Vinales."

Such comments might not sound as weighty if they had come from anybody else, and they were enough to make Yamaha team boss Lin Jarvis come out and attempt to clarify a position that had left little room for interpretation: "Changing the minds of Japanese engineers sometimes is not so simple, because we have a lot of data and information and the other guys are going fast. So why go in this other direction?"

Jarvis' words make total sense, from both an operational point of view and in terms of the team's efficiency. Quartararo and Vinales have taken the top two places on the podium in each of the opening two rounds of the season and their opinion of the M1 is glowing, so there is little to justify exploring alternative avenues.

The only thing is that the person requesting a change is Valentino Rossi, Yamaha's star turn and the most influential rider in the factory's history. At the same time, going from what the rider said, it is not like he was requesting a new chassis or anything as drastic as that - simply a way to adapt the M1 more to his style so that he could be more comfortable on the bike and minimise the problems he has had for the past year with the rear tyre overheating.

All of this indicates that The Doctor's influence on the decisions being taken in Iwata is not what it once was.

"Yamaha never told Valentino that he couldn't change the set-up," a source who knows the idiosyncrasies of the team well told Autosport. "Maybe their thinking is that David Munoz (Rossi's new crew chief for 2020) still doesn't know the bike well enough to be making these decisions."

Munoz is the most recent in a raft of changes made to the yellow side of the garage in recent years. Before he replaced Silvano Galbusera as crew chief, Luca Cadalora spent three years as track analyst (2016-2018) before himself being replaced by Idalio Gavira (2019). At the same time, Yamaha strengthened its detachment in Italy with a host of appointments - especially in the electronics division - such as Michele Gadda.

At the same time, Yamaha insisted that if he did want to continue racing, Rossi would have the best material available and full support from the factory. However, the signs are unquestionably starting to show that even Valentino Rossi might be starting to lose weight within Yamaha

Rossi's champagne drought last season - he finished seventh in the championship with just two podiums - coincided with the explosive arrival of Fabio Quartararo, whose run of seven podiums (including two near-misses in victory battles with Marc Marquez at Misano and Buriram) convinced the Japanese factory to replace the veteran Italian with the young Frenchman from 2021, a move that in itself represented a major change of approach from the team.

With Ducati sniffing around for the young Frenchman's signature, Yamaha had no choice but to act when Rossi turned down the immediate offer of a new contract to evaluate his performances over the first six or seven races of 2020 before coronavirus decimated the original schedule.

While Rossi was unable to find his way to the sharp end of the field despite being given everything he asked for, it seemed Quartararo was there regardless of what was underneath him, which for much of 2019 was Yamaha's 'B-spec' bike.

Yamaha justified its decision by referring to the doubts the multiple world champion was expressing about extending his career. At the same time, it insisted that if he did want to continue racing, Rossi would have the best material available and full support from the factory.

However, the signs are unquestionably starting to show that even Valentino Rossi might be starting to lose weight within Yamaha.

The "fight" over his set-up at Jerez is one example of it. Another is the fact that an announcement over his signing with the Petronas SRT squad is being held up by such important 'details' as which of his current mechanics will join him there.