After 15 seasons together, Rossi’s time in the works Yamaha squad ended with the conclusion of the 2020 campaign, and the nine-time world champion remained a works rider with Petronas on machines with current specifications for the next year.
Jarvis admits that Fabio Quartararo and Maverick Vinales will lead part of the development in the factory team, but does not believe that Rossi, who moves next door, will change his role significantly from his previous position at Yamaha.
“He has completed 15 seasons with the Yamaha factory team. That’s pretty extraordinary, ”said Jarvis of Rossi’s time at Yamaha.
“He did it in two stints, the first seven years [from 2004-2010] before taking a two year hiatus [to join Ducati from 2011-2012] and then eight years when he came back [in 2013].
“So it will be a change, there is no doubt because it will be different to move next door. On the other hand, it won’t be any different as Valentino will have the factory’s full support next year.
“He will ride a works bike with the same specification as the works riders. It is true that some of the development is more managed by the factory team, but Valentino is a very important part of our data collection.
“It is important to have more riders on the track and there is no question that our engineers will review the data from Fabio, Maverick and Valentino in order to further develop and develop the factory bike.
“But we also get some interesting information from Franky [Morbidelli] out there [on the older bike].
“So I think it won’t be a big change, it definitely won’t be a deficit, and it won’t change very much how we develop the bike.”