Clearly, Ducati is a very different place now to when Rossi struggled to a meagre three podium finishes over the course of two seasons aboard a bike that proved infinitely tougher to tame than he had counted on.

Since Gigi Dall'Igna's arrival at the Bologna marque in time for the 2014 season however, the team has been on a steady upward curve – to the stage where that first race victory since the Casey Stoner era now feels like an inevitability rather than some vague distant hope.

Indeed, the strong performances of the two Andreas, Dovizioso and Iannone, so far in 2016 will have surely played a part in Lorenzo's momentous decision to end his long-standing Yamaha partnership in favour of a spell in red overalls.

Another motivation could well be a desire to do what Rossi couldn't – win races and championships for Ducati – especially after the Italian eloquently opined in Qatar that his teammate's "balls" were of insufficient size to countenance such a move.

One man who knows all too well just what Ducati was like back then is Juan Martinez, who served as Nicky Hayden's crew chief during the US rider's Ducati tenure – which overlapped with Rossi's barren stint in 2011-12.

And the Spaniard explains just what made Rossi endure such a difficult time after his dizzying success at Yamaha in the years beforehand.

"If we look at the results, Valentino found a Ducati bike that had won three of the final five races of 2010," Martinez told Motorsport.com.

"From there it was a bike to which he couldn't adapt, and to which Ducati made a lot of changes.

"Conceptually it was also very different; it didn't have a perimetral chassis [the same type used by Yamaha and Honda] like now.

"The engine was very wide and it wasn't designed for this type of chassis, so when they started introducing the perimetral [version], ergonomically it became very hard to ride.

"Those changes led to the rider focussing more on modifying the bike rather than trying to understand it."

"Valentino's time was wasted"

The knock-on effect of the changes since effected by Dall'Igna is that Lorenzo will be able to focus on the job in hand – winning races and bringing Ducati its first world title since 2007 – instead of constantly grappling with a deficient bike, like Rossi was forced to.

Said Martinez: "It's important for the rider to understand that he doesn't need to do anything differently to what led to his titles: focus on being a rider, go as fast as possible and let the engineers do their work.

"This, in Valentino's time, was lost. He wasted energy, with the best of intentions, but without results.

"They used the rider for something more than what he had been hired for, which was riding the bike and not trying to be an engineer."

He added: "We have to wait to see if Lorenzo finds a bike that has never won or one that has won at least a race this year.

"The most important thing is that Lorenzo is convinced that the Ducati is his bike and that it can win."

Whether Lorenzo's gamble pays off is something only time will tell. But those who think the three-time premier class champion is going to end up with his tail between his legs like Rossi five years ago ought to think again.

Interview by German Garcia Casanova

Translated by Pablo Elizalde