First off, in 2002 Biaggi had 2 wins and 9 podiums on the M1 and finished 2nd overall. Not too bad. In 2003 Rossi went to Yamaha knowing they were greatly upping their investment in the class. At the first test they showed up with several chassis and engine configurations and Rossi picked the one he liked best and started going fast. So they did a lot of R&D and testing without Rossi's input then when they were nearly done they got him to put the icing on the cake.

Biaggi finished runner up in 2002 with 2 wins and him and Checa scored 12 podiums and 5 poles that year.
2003 was a tough year for Yamaha, mainly because their star rider, Biaggi, went to Honda and was replaced by Barros, no match.
In 2003 Checa scored only 18 points less than in 2002, the bike was not suddenly much worse, it's just what happens when you lose a very talented rider.
Also, 2003 coincides with the arrival of Furosawa at the head of Yamaha MotoGP project which was a huge influence for the years to come.
Rossi arrived in 2004, and the poor season they had in 2003 gives this halo of savior to Rossi. But I don't think Yamaha level suddenly dropped in 2003 and then got picked up by Rossi in 2004. They had a very fast rider in 2002, a lesser rider in 2003 (no disrespect to Checa, in GP he was never a match for Biaggi, now he got his revenge in WSBK) and an awesome rider in 2004, hired along with the best mechanics that just won 9 titles in the last 10 seasons.

The design of the 2004 Yamaha had nothing to do with Rossi. It was the brainchild of Furusawa. This is a matter of public record. Furusawa designed a new bike with a crossplane crankshaft. It was not the 2003 Yamaha with a few tweaks, it was a new specification. When Rossi tested the various bikes Yamaha had available he chose the Furusawa designed bike. This validated the Furusawa design with Yamaha management. The results achieved in 2004 showed that both Furasawa and Rossi had chosen correctly. Clearly Rossi, Burgess and Furusawa between them developed the bike further over the season. But the fundamental design owed nothing at all to Rossi.

Masao Furusawa:
Oh yes. 2002. For 2003 I recommended to change from carburettor to a fuel-injection system and chain-driven camshafts.

I had always approached problems as a kind of outsider, a consultant, looking in and recommending this, this and this. But doing it is different. It was such a big shock when I jumped in to MotoGP in 2003. 'Wow! This is all my responsibility'.

And the results that year [one podium] were terrible. 2003 was hell!

I thought many things were wrong, but I was new to racing, so it was just my own ideas from logical thinking, analysis and experience. Reality is not necessarily the same. So some people were sceptical. Looking at me and thinking 'we understand what you are saying, but reality is different.'

It can be really hard to convince everyone to go in the same direction. So I did some trick. I came up with a pretty good idea - the crossplane crankshaft [utilising 'big bang' technology] - and then right after I joined MotoGP I started a design. Half a year later the first prototype ran on the racetrack near the Yamaha headquarters.

Everybody was looking and the first thing the test rider said was 'this bike feels slow'. So everyone looked at me, thinking 'Hmmm. You are the guy who thought of this...' And then he said 'But the lap time is so fast. It just feels slow because it is very, very smooth and stable.'

That was Christmas time in 2003. Then Valentino Rossi came to Yamaha and rode for the first time here [at Sepang] in January 2004. He is really a genius. He rode the crossplane bike for just five or six laps and then came back and said 'this bike is the best one'. Even though it was slow, because the power was not so much.
I had prepared lots of combinations for him to try: Four-valve system, five-valve system, crossplane, single plane. And he pointed to the crossplane crankshaft bike with four-valve.

Before, everybody was so scared to look at a new engine, because for a long time Yamaha had been successful with the five-valve. People said 'How can you throw away the five-valve system?'

I said 'It is a very interesting system. It's lots of fun for a production bike, but the purpose of racing is not fun. Fun is ok, but the first thing we have to do is win. The problem we have had is Yamaha is losing the game for over ten years. So we have to change.'

So the four-valve system and crossplane crankshaft was the best, but it was also a brand new engine design, which is why the power was so slow. But despite that, Valentino still pointed to that engine and said 'this is it'.


Q:
Is that a lesson you want people at Yamaha to remember, that something might not necessarily produce the best numbers on a design simulation, but the most important thing to remember is the human connection with the machine?

Masao Furusawa:
Right. And you need to remember that Valentino was kind of like a King. We all huddled around him when he came in after riding to listen to what he had to say - would he give 'thumbs up' or 'thumbs down' to our ideas?

So when Valentino gave the 'thumbs up' for four-valve and crossplane crankshaft everybody knew it was the way forward and worked in the same direction. We didn't have much time. Only two months to the race in South Africa. So I really owe a big thanks to Valentino for making a clear and correct choice.

I had showed some results and evidence [to support the engine change] with the prototype running on the test track, but maybe only 50 percent of people thought 'ok I will follow you'. The other 50 percent still thought 'that is not the reality on the race track'.

But after Valentino said 'yes', everybody knew it was the right thing and we were able to get a lot of power from people all working as a team. That is one reason why we have had such good results.

Maybe if Valentino hadn't come to Yamaha, I would have been [jokes about a noose around his neck!].

It appears that Rossi has completely lost faith in the carbon fibre project but Hayden said he didn’t think it was the material that was the cause of Ducati's persistent front-end issues.
He added: “They’ve tested aluminium and I don’t think it is a matter of material. I think it is more stiffness and flex. You can make carbon softer or stiffer so I don’t think that's the situation. I tested a lot of aluminium swingarms and carbon fibre swingarms and you can get either one to do what you want it to do.”

Paddock gossip - some of it very well-informed - from Casey Stoner's test of the 1000cc Honda at Jerez in May suggests that Stoner was two seconds quicker on the RC213V than he was on the 800cc RC212V during the race weekend.