Nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi insists that Yamaha requires a serious test team to improve the YZR-M1 and return to some sort of competitive footing next season.

The Iwata factory is facing an engine development freeze in 2021, so Cal Crutchlow's task will be to find some speed out of the bike with only bolt-on upgrades and aero improvements.

"Yamaha needs to have a serious test team in Europe next year," said Rossi, speaking at Valencia.

"I would have liked a lot if the test rider was Dovizioso, because he is a very fast, sensitive and highly experienced rider.

"Crutchlow also raced up to this year, so if he has motivation he is one who can take the bike to the limit.

"More than a test rider, you need a serious test team program."

Yamaha is a long way behind Honda, Ducati and KTM in terms of a full test operation in Europe, and its Jorge Lorenzo experiment failed when Covid19 and cake got in the way.

Until 2020, all the other teams had a very active test team that ran in Europe and with European riders like Pirro, Pedrosa and Bradl," continued The Doctor.

"Yamaha, on the other hand, does not have the team. There was only the one that ran in Japan with the Japanese test riders.

"But the biggest problem isn't even that, it's that they ran on tracks that have nothing to do with the European ones."