The man behind Valentino Rossi's domination of MotoGP has revealed why he followed the Italian when he switched from Honda to Yamaha.

Crew chief Jeremy Burgess guided Rossi to a debut title win for Gauloises Yamaha, after also steering the Italian to success with Repsol Honda.

Australian Burgess, who also played an important role in title successes at Honda for Wayne Gardner and Mick Doohan, could not refuse the chance to test himself at a Yamaha team which had been struggling to be competitive in its pre-Rossi days.

After Rossi dominated the 2004 championship, Burgess revealed it was the need to test his abilities to the limits which really tempted him to follow Rossi from Honda to rivals Yamaha.

"I came because I wanted the challenge," said Burgess.

"To a degree, I felt that if anybody had the potential to be successful then working with Valentino would help them to maximise that potential.

"If Yamaha were going to listen to Valentino and me then we would move forward.

"If they weren't going to listen then there was no point in hiring Valentino Rossi."

Swapping his home in Australia for a life on the road in MotoGP means Burgess has to make sacrifices to achieve want he wants.

"You have to think about winning, so we don't come 12,000 miles from Australia just to pick up the pay cheque," revealed Burgess.

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