Randy Mamola: Yamaha the only loser in Lorenzo's move

I want to start by saying that I consider Jorge Lorenzo's move to Ducati to be beneficial for most of the parties involved.

The rider will use this new challenge as a springboard to boost his motivation, Ducati will need to respond and match the champion's expectations, and the championship in general will benefit from the hype generated by his move.

In this situation there is only one loser: Yamaha.

Although it sounds like a contradiction, I don't think the team is aware of what is losing by letting Lorenzo go. Leaving aside the feelings that he may stir when he takes off his helmet, no one should doubt that we are speaking about a genius who is capable of doing things that very few can do on a bike.

In fact, no one in the current field rides with such a clean and precise style. And not only that, but also his approach to every practice session and every race makes him special.

When he sees the lights turn green, he only has one obsession: to go as fast as possible from the first lap until the last, without thinking too much about factors that may condition him depending on the circumstances, like the durability of the tyres, for example. It happened in Qatar and again last weekend at Le Mans.

In most cases, it would be incomprehensible that a team with Yamaha's potential would let one of the two main protagonists in the championship escape, and it would be even more strange if its line-up doesn't include the other rider: Marc Marquez.

So if there's something that's obvious in all this it's that the manufacturer has decided to bet on Valentino. I don't want to talk about what happened in the final races of the past season, but it's clear that those events had an influence in the decision made by Lorenzo.

I don't think anyone would like to clinch the title after such an intense year as 2015 and then see your team cancel all the scheduled celebration events at the last minute. Until very recently, I believe Jorge was much closer to renewing than to signing with another team, but over the past months there have been things that made him change his mind.

He always insisted that he understood perfectly that Yamaha wanted Rossi to win, given the influence Vale has all around the world. The only thing he cared about was having the same equipment, something that has always been the case.

However, I believe that last season's outcome was the straw that broke the camel's back, feeling that all the respect that he offered to the team and Rossi had not been returned.

Although this was definitely not the most important factor in his decision to move to Ducati, I have no doubt that it's something that played in the red bikes' favour.