Achieving the team’s goal is above all, above personal objectives and personal rivalries as well. At least that’s what we sports fan believe it should be like. But it’s hardly any secret that in racing your team mate is your biggest rival…

Reminds you of the 2002 Austrian GP doesn’t it? The race leader Rubbens Barichelo was ordered to make way for Michael Schumacher. That was the Ferrari policy and FIA has banned any such team orders since then.

That day, Rubbens was Michael’s biggest rival. Two of the fastest drivers, sitting in the same F2002 which is till date considered as the best F1 car Ferrari has produced. How did it matter to Ferrari even if Rubbens had gone to win the race? They would have got the same number of points for Constructors Championship. Consequences were bad that day; Michael was booed like never before; Ferrari, Michael and Rubbens were fined 1 Million dollars for not following sporting regulation on the podium, in presence of the Austrian Chancellor.

Fast forward to 2009, and I am not talking about Ferrari and F1’s silly politics this time, recollect the final laps at MotoGP held at Circuit De Catalunya. If you have missed the race or have a bad memory, watch the following video…

Play that video again and you will see that Lorenzo lost because he made the smallest of mistake, a miniscule one to be precise. He was off the defensive racing line by just 5 cm or something of that order. The footage proves that neither of them can be said to be faster than the other, they just happened to run out of corners!

That lap was Valentino Rossi’s ‘most exciting and memorable last lap ever’ and I am quoting these words as said by Rossi himself.

Jorge Lorenzo had joined team Fiat Yamaha in 2008 season, he moved up from 250cc racing to MotoGP, the final and most premiere motorcycle racing class. 2008 season opening GP, Qatar, was where Rossi realized that his strongest competition was his boyish team mate and not Stoner or Pedrosa. But many unfortunate crashes throughout the season limited Lorenzo’s ability to challenge the top riders and Rossi.

2009 is when Lorenzo proved he is faster and smarter than Rossi on more than one occasions, but again, experience does count and Rossi won his 9th world title. But something changed within the team after 2008 season. There was now a proper physical wall between the two rider’s garages!

Just take a look at the 2009 race results of Rossi & Lorenzo:

Rossi was not willing to share his bike’s setup with Lorenzo. Though the team ensured race data of both bikes was available for analysis to both riders and engineers. Going forward in 2010 season, Rossi has managed to convince Yamaha to create an entirely separate team for Lorenzo with a different team manager. This has never been done in MotoGP, Repsol Honda didn’t allow sharing of race setup in the interest of healthy competition between the riders, but Yamaha has gone one step further.

The only engineer’s who will be able to compare both set of data, are the ones sitting in Japan in the Yamaha RnD department.

Wilco Zeelenberg is Jorge Lorenzo’s team manager, and he is pretty confident about the young Spaniards bike setup capabilities and his desire to win races. He has been managing the SuperSport team till now which won in 2009, and feels it’s a good challenge to be up there and competing with the cream of motorcycle racing teams.

He reflects on Lorenzo’s capabilities, “He’s a very motivated and focused young kid and I think that’s one of his big advantages. We don’t have to motivate him, he is really eager to win. I think the first three or four races of the season will be very important – to perform well and not make mistakes. Valentino is a very experienced rider and he will take advantage of every mistake made by other riders. I think the young guys will push harder when they make a mistake, and at the fifth, sixth, seventh rounds they will push and maybe make even more mistakes. Jorge knows that he can beat anybody when everything is correct, but he should also understand that if not everything is perfect for that race he must be able to sit back and take a podium.”

Will this be the move by Rossi, much before the season has commenced?

May be, may be not!

You see, Lorenzo, till now has been riding on a bike that was mostly set-up based on Rossi’s inputs, but Lorenzo is well known for his quality to adapt to the bike. Going forward he himself will set the bike for each race. What this means is that, the fastest rider on the grid has been riding a bike that was not set-up for him from the scratch and he will be able to do the same this season.

This could very well end up in Lorenzo’s favour, he doesn’t even have to match Rossi’s setup as Lorenzo can almost ride any type of setup. He just needs to find what works for him and that may be Rossi’s nightmare.

Tests carried at Malaysia speak a lot, but should not be relied upon as the timings can be deceiving.

What needs a close watch is the tests at Qatar just prior to the season opener night race, because that’s where all the teams just fine tune their machines and will run on a setup that’s closest to the Qatar race.

But with the new engine and bike regulations, riders will follow a conservative approach to save the engine for first two races (only 6 engines are allowed per rider for 18 races, so that’s 3 races per engine), that’s where the Honda and Ducati are known to exceed past expectations of reliability.

The Fiat Yamaha team is the only team where the difference in ‘ability to win races’ between the two riders is so small, if you look at other teams there is always a dominating rider and a second one who is trying his best to compete amongst top 4.

These are the two riders who stole the show completely in 2009, and at each race! The team is where competition begins for each rider, but in case of Fiat Yamaha, their team is where the biggest rivals of MotoGP ride.

I just can’t wait to see them fight in 2010 again.