Earlier this season, Valentino Rossi dropped the bombshell that he would be doing an about face and return to Yamaha Racing, after his failed experiment with Ducati Corse. Almost as soon as The Doctor was done making his announcement regarding his return, chatter started about whether Jeremy Burgess and his crew would join Rossi at Yamaha as well.

Confirming that news today, MCN‘s Matthew Birt talked to Yamaha’s Lin Jarvis, who confirmed that Yamaha wasn’t trying to maintain Ben Spies’ crew within the team, and that the venerable Burgess would join Rossi in the factory team’s garage.

The obvious point to make in the 2011 MotoGP Championship is that Ducati Corse is struggling to compete with Yamaha and Honda, despite having the G.O.A.T. himself, Valentino Rossi, riding for the Italian squad. The recent history of the Desmosedici is fraught with bullet points of issues, most of which coming back to the bike’s notoriously vague front-end. Though showing moments of promise, even brilliance, including a World Championship with Casey Stoner at the helm, the Ducati Desmosedici has earned the reputation as a career-ender and a confidence destroyer among its less fortunate pilots.

When the dream team of development came to Ducati, in the guise of Valentino Rossi and Jeremy Burgess et al, the talk before the 2011 season was that the nine-time World Champion and his perhaps even more impressive garage crew could have the Desmosedici figured out in no-time at all. With the now infamous quote from Burgess that the GP10 could be sorted out in about 20 seconds still resonating in the MotoGP paddock, we stand now well over half of the way through the current MotoGP season, and the Championship standings hide what’s been apparent from day one: the Desmoproblema requires more than a quick-fix.

The solution to fixing the Ducati Desmosedici can be broken down into three camps, and depending whose opinion you solicit, you’ll get one of the following causes for Ducati’s uncompetitive season: the motor, the chassis, or the rider. Walking us through that analysis is our good friend David Emmett (bookmark his site MotoMatters.com right now), who may not be the most astute automatic transmission driver we’ve ever seen, but when it comes to comprehensive MotoGP analysis, the man is second to none.

Putting together an exhaustive digest on the issues that are surrounding Valentino Rossi, Ducati Corse, and the Desmosedici, Emmett weighs and measures the different dynamics of the problem at hand. Head on over to MotoMatters with your beverage of choice in-hand, and hear what MotoGP’s most-enlightened journalist has to say on the biggest subject in MotoGP.

Photo: © 2011 Scott Jones Photography – All Rights Reserved

Photo: Ducati Corse

Jeremy Burgess and crew are reportedly having a meeting with Ducati Corse in Bologna this week in order to discuss and finalize the basic outline for the Ducati Desmosedici GP11. The biggest question on the agenda is whether to use the “Screamer” or “Big Bang” motor for next year.

Other items likely to be discussed include the weight balance of the GP11 (something we already saw Burgess and Rossi working on in Valencia), and the forward fairing design. Tweets from Rossi’s Mechanic Alex Briggs confirm that he and Burgess were at least headed into Rome from Australia this weekend, seemingly confirming this report.

Ever since it was confirmed that Valentino Rossi would be heading to Ducati for the 2011 & 2012 seasons, speculation began to swell about whether famed Crew Chief Jeremy Burgess would join the Italian rider at his new squad. The man behind Wayne Gardner, Mick Doohan, and of course Rossi, Burgess’ talents in the pit box are confirmed by the number of race victories and series championships he’s been a part of in GP racing. With many believing Rossi could not be successful on the Ducati without Burgess by his side, the Australian crew chief’s decision to follow Rossi to Ducati is an integral piece to the team’s success in the coming years, especially as Ducati prepares a new 1000cc machine for the rule changes scheduled in 2012.

With speculation rife that Burgess might stay at Yamaha (presumably to help Rookie of the Year Ben Spies), or even retire at the end of this season (Rossi said at Laguna Seca he wasn’t sure if Burgess would continue after this season), Burgess’ move to Ducati was anything but a sure thing. However this weekend at his home venue of Phillip Island and during the Australian GP, Burgess officially announced his intention to SportRider magazine that he would be following Rossi to Ducati, and continuing the pair’s successful history together.

Much of the talk about Valentino Rossi and his injuries have centered on the Italian’s leg, which was broken with a compound fracture at Mugello earlier this year. Despite causing Rossi to miss several races, the Italian’s biggest physical concern hasn’t been his leg, but instead his shoulder, which he injured in April while motocross training. The shoulder has been a lingering issue for Rossi ever since his return at Brno, which culminated this weekend with the Fiat-Yamaha team actually having to setup the M1 at Aragon to work around the injury.

With a lackluster performance this weekend, not to mention a disappointing return to GP racing in general, Rossi announced after Sunday’s race that he was considering having his shoulder operated on after the three fly-away races (Motegi, Sepang, and Phillip Island), which would effectively mean that the nine-time World Champion would miss MotoGP’s last two stops at Estoril and Valencia. MotoMatters has once again done a superb job of transcribing Rossi’s interaction with the media on the subject, which adds some context to this development (read the transcript here)

This announcement is a big bombshell for the Yamaha camp, which could see its star rider, if we can still say that, again vacating from the team to heal his injuries. However again reading between the lines of the Italian, Rossi’s revelation this weekend has about as much to do with an injured shoulder as it does with putting pressure on Yamaha to release him from his contract in time to test the Ducati Desmosedici GP11 at Valencia.

Talking after the Indianapolis GP, Valentino Rossi explained that he is waiting to hear from Jeremy Burgess as to whether the Australian Crew Chief will retire next season. Assured of the fact that Burgess would not stay behind at Yamaha, and would not work with another rider, Rossi stated the buzz around whether Burgess would move with the Italian to Ducati, hinges as to when Burgess plans on retiring from motorcycle racing.

The worst kept secret in the paddock is finally official, thus completing what MotoGP fans (especially Italians) have been waiting for: Valentino Rossi signing with Ducati Corse. The nine-time World Champion and Italian celebrity is finally paired up with Italy’s most iconic motorcycling brand for the 2011 season, an action that has been the subject of intrigue not only for the better part of this season, but for years inside MotoGP.

Announcing their partnership today, Rossi and Ducati have their work cut out for them in taking-on impressive up-start Jorge Lorenzo and the formidable Yamaha YZR-M1. Press releases from Ducati & Fiat-Yamaha after the jump, along with a quote from Valentino himself.

After breaking the news that Valentino Rossi signed a two-year contract with Ducati Corse, or as we like to refer to it: the worst kept secret in the MotoGP garage, we waited to see the official news of Rossi’s departure materialize after the weekend break, but to no avail. Knowing that our information was correct, we now understand why the announcement didn’t materialize when we expected it: because of a gentleman’s agreement between Ducati & Yamaha.

In exchange for delaying the announcement until after the American round at Laguna Seca (now slated for the Monday after racing at Brno), Yamaha is allowing Rossi to test the Ducati Desmosedici GP10 when MotoGP stops at Valencia at the end of the 2010 season.

Photo: Yamaha Racing