Rossi finished fourth at the Buriram circuit last weekend. His team-mate, Maverick Vinales, just pipped him to a podium finish in third. However, in recent months the M1 bike has been ravaged by technical issues. Aragon was a disaster despite Rossi performing admirably well in the circumstances.

I would not be happy about one fast lap Valentino Rossi

The veteran ace rode from 17th on the grid to eighth in Aragon. Vinales had a shocker and finished in 10th. After Yamaha’s surprising result in Thailand, Rossi has told club bigwigs not to rest on their laurels. “This is unfortunately a risk [that Yamaha thinks it has solved its problems], but it is a losing mentality,” he said.

MotoGP ace Valentino Rossi has given Yamaha a warning

“So many times our engineers are happy if Maverick can make a good time in testing, they say, ‘we got it!’ “If I were a Yamaha engineer, I would analyse the results of the second part of the season and I would not be happy about one fast lap or a front row.” Rossi claims the grip on the Buriram track surface might have helped improve the M1’s performance. He added: “On paper this track is not a Yamaha track. “I expected to suffer a lot more and to be for example stronger in Misano, but in Misano we struggled.

Valentino Rossi's M1 bike has suffered issues all season

“For me, more than the layout of the track, is different the grip of the asphalt that helped us, more or less. “If you want to be competitive you have to be strong everywhere because now Ducati and Honda are strong everywhere. “For me, we miss something but maybe this weekend we improved, we will see in Motegi.” Rossi demanded last month that the Japanese heavyweights consider switching to a V4 engine layout. BT Sport pundit James Toseland isn’t convinced that’s going to be feasible though. “He will certainly be piling the pressure on the engineers - and the research and development department in Yamaha aren’t really pulling the stops out,” Toseland told Express Sport.

MotoGP ace Maverick Vinales finished third in Thailand