Movistar Yamaha riders Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo deny they have been approached by their factory to ride at the 2015 Suzuka Eight-Hours and say that it would be too risky to ride there in the middle of a season.
Rossi was part of the development team that built the brand new R1 and said that it would be interesting to race it at Suzuka: “I would like to race together with Jorge, it would be funny. Also, it is interesting to bring the new R1 to the race but sincerely I don’t know exactly the date of the Eight-Hours,” said Rossi, speaking at Austin.
“I did in the past the race in 2000 and 2001 and it was a great effort because you have to fly to Japan two or three times, and also the race is very hard. So I think for this year is difficult but maybe in the future it can be.”
Lorenzo added: “I speak with Vale about this race in the future, or maybe even a car race, the 24 Hours of Le Mans as we are big fans, but I think it is too risky to go over there in the summer.
“With the risk of injury in this point of our careers. For the moment, Yamaha didn’t say anything to us about it. Maybe in the future.”
Last year, Josh Brookes and Broc Parkes joined test rider Kats Nakasuga in the Yamaha YSP team but it is currently unclear who will ride alongside the Japanese star in 2015.
