Yamaha MotoGP team principal Lin Jarvis has no concerns about the rivalry between riders Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo heading into the 2016 season.
Rossi and Lorenzo became embroiled in a tense battle for the championship in 2016 that ended in controversial fashion at the Valencian Grand Prix.
Rossi accused Honda rider Marc Marquez of deliberately protecting compatriot Lorenzo to help him win the championship as the Italian missed out on a tenth world title.
Relations between Rossi and Lorenzo have been frosty at best during their two stints as teammates at Yamaha, but Jarvis is unconcerned about their rivalry harming the team.
“As I mentioned at the team launch, we are fortunate that within the garage we have a very good strong unified team, whilst we recognise that our riders are each other’s main rivals,” Jarvis told motogp.com.
“So I don’t think we are going to see anything dramatically different this year. Surely the riders will remember the experiences at the end of last year as it is still quite recent, but for all of them they will just look forward.
“You have to look forward as there is no point in harping back to what could have and what should have been. So they will all go forward wiser I hope. What we need to do is foster and retain that respect between the riders, this is very, very important.
“We have a great show, with fantastic racing, and it very important that we can maintain the respect between the teams and the riders themselves and put on a good sporting show for the fans.”
The new MotoGP season kicks off on March 20 in Qatar.
