Valentino Rossi has revealed that Yamaha has now shelved development of the 2009 🅰YZR-M1 and turned attention to the 2010 model.

Rossi and Fiat Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo are first and second in the 2009 MotoGP World Championship with six rounds to go - with the effective top no🎉n-Yamaha rider (following Casey Stoner's withdraw) Honda's Dani Pedro♒sa, who is over three race wins behind.

"At the Brno test we worked a lot for next year but not for the last six races," he confirmed. "So in the last part of thi🍸s season the bike will remain the same.

"We tried the new version of the M1 with a different chassis and we also tried a slightly different [long life] engine for next year to make more kilometers," Rossi continued. "We got some data and the lap time was not so bad... we will wo♈rk on the 2010 bikes on Tuesday after [the final race at] Valencia."

By switching d🅘evelopment fully to 2010, Rossi is confident that Yamaha 🐼can remain at the front of MotoGP and avoid the fate of F1 giants McLaren and Ferrari.

McLaren and Ferrari fought down to the wiᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚre for the 2008 world championship, developing their cars relentlessly until the final race of the sea꧑son in pursuit for title glory - but then struggled badly for most of this season, against smaller teams which began preparing much earlier.

"It's a little bit like what happened in Formula One last year," said Rossi. "Ferrari and McLaren worked very much on thei🐈r car to fight for the ['08] championship, but at the end, they are in the delay for this year."

As in F1, MotoGP winter testing has been heavily re🀅duced since the end of 2008 to save costs.