YAMAHA:

For 2004, the most notable rider move is, of course, that of reigning world champion Valentino Rossi from the all-conquering Repsol Honda team to Japanese rivals Yamaha. Rossi will be aiming to win back-to-back premier-class Grand Prix titles with different manufacturers-a feat last accomplished by American Eddie Lawson back during the 500cc era in 1989 on a Honda after winning the 1988 world title with Yamaha.

Rossi, who won the 500cc title in 2001 and then the MotoGP title in 2002 and 2003, will be up against his former employers who, in 2004, fielded arguably their strongest rider line-up in their history of participation in the series. The charismatic Italian will team up with Spaniard Carlos Checa aboard the revised YZF-M1 bike to ride for the main Japanese factory team.

Rossi will take center-stage, as you would expect as far as having first-hand input into developing the new 2004-spec Yamaha with revised chassis, suspension, and a variation of the big-bang engine-firing order in place as the major changes for the bike. Yamaha will continue to test various engine specifications in an effort to find a perfect partner for the chassis and for Rossi, with Checa receiving the developed parts only after approval from the Italian world champion and his experienced crew. Those same parts will then trickle down even further to the Tech 3 satellite team.

Rossi's crew will be led by Australian crew chief Jeremy Burgess, best-known as a long-standing employee of HRC and for being one of the most experienced and successful crew chiefs of the modern era-winning numerous titles, most notably with five-time 500cc world champion Mick Doohan. Burgess played a huge role in the Rossi success story ever since the Italian first joined the Repsol-backed HRC team. With Rossi and Burgess spiriting away key personnel from the Italian's side of the Repsol garage, all eyes will be on the five-time world champion this season. Can Rossi bring about the downfall of the mighty HRC and hand Yamaha its first world title since the last of Wayne Rainey's three consecutive championships in 1992? It's certainly going to be fun watching him try, and if he succeeds, he will surely go down in history as one of the greatest talents this sport has ever seen.

At the recent IRTA winter test in Barcelona, Rossi was fastest during the official televised 40-minute session, winning a BMW in the process. It was a performance that caught the attention of everyone up and down pit lane, and especially at Honda where more than a few furrowed brows were duly noted. That lap showed that Rossi is capable of being in the hunt for the championship right from the start of the season. An interesting fact to bear in mind is that Rossi's Yamaha went through the speed trap at the IRTA test outside of the top 10, but Rossi finished with the fastest lap time. The bar has clearly been raised, but how will Rossi fare over a 45-minute race distance as opposed to a few hot laps? Will consistency rather than wins be the Italian's best chance at least during the first half of the season?

What will Checa be able to do as far as support for Rossi? The Spaniard is now a veteran of the premier class and has moments of brilliance but equally has runs of bewildering inconsistency.

Which Carlos Checa will we see this season? He is a race winner, he has fallen out of the lead of a few races, he has turned in some inspiring wet weather performances, he famously won the Barcelona Grand Prix in 1996 by beating Mick Doohan and Alex Criville to give Honda their 100th win in the 500cc class, and he has been a mainstay of the series despite being, at times, a complete enigma. Can playing sidekick to Rossi bring him into a stronger position or will he be lost amongst the sea of HRC and Ducati machines?

With Checa, you never quite know. Maybe having a strong team leader is what Checa has needed to allow him to race rather than be burdened with being the No.1 rider. All will be revealed as the championship unfolds.

With French-based tobacco company Altadis marketing both Gauloises and Fortuna products, a joint branding team name has been hit upon for both Yamaha teams. With Spanish, Italian, and Japanese marketing of the Altadis brands in place, this is a way of optimizing exposure and currently does not infringe upon any rules laid out by the FIM. This subject could well run into the season as a sidebar to the racing, especially if other cigarette brands currently sponsoring teams on the grid also see this ploy as a way to adopt a split marketing approach to its own brands and, in turn, raise the marketability of its own products.

The factory team of Rossi and Checa will be labelled Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha, and the satellite Yamaha squad will run under the name Fortuna Gauloises Tech 3 Yamaha with riders Marco Melandri and Norick Abe. Each team will run one bike in Gauloises colors and one in Fortuna livery-a move certain to cause some disdain among anti-tobacco campaigners. The factory team will see Rossi run in the blue of lead brand Gauloises, while Checa will remain with the red and silver of Fortuna as he did last season.

In the Hervé Poncheral-run Tech 3 team, 2002 250cc world champion Melandri will continue with Fortuna colors, with Abe running in Gauloises attire. Ten-year Grand Prix veteran and three-time race winner Abe, who rode as a wild card on several occasions in 2003, as well as replacing the injured Melandri when necessary, returns from testing duties to replace departed Shinya Nakano full-time for 2004.

Abe burst onto the scene in 1994 riding for Honda as a wild card at the Japanese Grand Prix and was battling for the lead in that race until he fell on the last lap with a handful of corners left. Abe managed to secure a ride with Team Roberts Yamaha for two seasons from 1995, and in 1996, he became the first Japanese rider to win his home Grand Prix at Suzuka. He then signed with Team Rainey Yamaha in 1997 where he found things a little tougher and struggled with injury problems.

He signed with the Antenna 3 D'Antin team and rode for them between 1999 and 2002. During his four seasons with that outfit, he won two more Grands Prix, the 1999 Brazilian race in Rio and his home Grand Prix again at Suzuka in 2000, but he found it difficult to sustain any consistency, and he became a full-time test rider for the factory last season. Winter testing has been a struggle for Abe in the build-up to his 2004 campaign. He has had set-up problems with his M1, and he was often languishing way down towards the bottom of the timing sheets.

Team-mate Melandri will be hoping that his injury woes are behind him after his 2003 season got off to an dreadful start at the opening round at Suzuka where the Italian broke his leg in a high-speed crash during practice. Then, for the rest of the season, he struggled to regain full fitness, although there were some fighting performances along the way- most notably at the Grand Prix of Motegi where he finished fifth. He then dislocated a shoulder at the penultimate round at Phillip Island while running close to the front, and the injury kept him out of the final race of the season at Valencia. The Italian-who came up through the ranks of the support classes and won his first race at Germany in 2001 aboard the 250cc bike formerly ridden by Valentino Rossi-will be looking to stay fit and put together a far more competitive season.

Both Yamaha teams will continue to run on Michelin rubber in 2004.

Next: Honda's huge gamble. Will the talent of many make up for the loss of the talent of one?