MotoGP: Rossi’s 10th title is not an obsession for Yamaha

The Italian has seven premier class titles and two junior class titles under his belt. Rossi has finished runner-up in the last three seasons. He narrowly missed the title in 2015 to Jorge Lorenzo and the second half of the season was controversial.

Forcada was the crew chief for Lorenzo at Yamaha for the past nine years. For this season, Lorenzo signed with Ducati but Forcada stayed at Yamaha to take the role of crew chief for the young gun Maverick Vinales.

The experienced crew chief believes that Yamaha's main objective is to beat the rivals and win the title. While speaking to Motorsport.com, Forcada said, "The Japanese are very phlegmatic. They want to win, their number one enemy is Honda, their great rival.

"This is the main objective, and with which rider matters very little. Surely the marketing department is interested in this detail, but I can assure you the project leader is only interested in winning, whether it's with Folger, Zarco, Valentino or Maverick. They want a Yamaha rider to win and Rossi's 10th title is not an obsession for them."

Forcada also admitted that the Yamaha squad, which is based in Lesmo, Italy would like to see Rossi claiming the tenth title this year. He added, "Within the team, which is run by Italians, it's a different story."

"Surely if Valentino won a 10th title it would be important for the championship and the sport. It would be a huge achievement, coming so many years after his last title and it would have a big media impact for MotoGP.

"But as for the technical staff [in Japan], they have no preference. The enemy is Honda and the objective is to win the championship as well as the riders', the constructors', which we hardly talk about."