Yamaha calls for “respect” between Lorenzo and Rossi

The relationship between Yamaha's two factory riders was poisoned last season as the title fight approached its climax, as Lorenzo beat Rossi by five points in the final round of the season at Valencia.

Rossi however was adamant that Honda's Marc Marquez had been riding to help Lorenzo seal the crown in the final few races, including at Sepang – where Rossi and Marquez controversially made contact.

Jarvis stressed the need for both Lorenzo and Rossi to move forward from the events of 2015 to give Yamaha the best chance of further title glory.

"We are fortunate that within the garage we have a very good strong unified team, whilst we recognise that our riders are each other's main rivals," the Briton said in an interview with motogp.com.

"So I don't think we are going to see anything dramatically different this year. Surely the riders will remember the experiences at the end of last year as it is still quite recent, but for all of them they will just look forward.

"What we need to do is foster and retain that respect between the riders, this is very, very important.

"We have a great show, with fantastic racing, and it very important that we can maintain the respect between the teams and the riders themselves and put on a good sporting show for the fans."

Asked which team he thought would pose the greatest threat to the dominant position held by Yamaha in 2015, Jarvis singled out two-time champion Marquez – while also tipping Ducati and Suzuki to get stronger.

"I personally think that the biggest threat will come from Honda and Marc Marquez because we have seen their performances in the previous two seasons where Marc dominated," he said.

"At the back end of last year he was victorious again and he won five races last season, so the odds would say it would come from HRC.

"There is also Ducati, who are putting in a lot of extra effort now and I think these changes could play to their advantages.

"I doubt whether Suzuki will challenge for the championship next year, but they could certainly win some races and get some pole positions like they did last year [at Barcelona]."