Rossi says he can have "good relationship" with Vinales

Three-time champion Lorenzo left the Japanese squad at the end of the 2016 season after what was a tense year, following his fallout with Rossi during the run-in to the 2015 campaign - when the Italian accused Honda's Marc Marquez of being Lorenzo's bodyguard.

Lorenzo will be riding for Ducati this year, the Spaniard replaced by Vinales alongside Rossi.

Rossi insisted his problems with Lorenzo only arose as a result of the 2015 controversy, and reckons he will be able to work with Vinales without dramas.

"The rivalry on track is always very hard, especially with your teammate, but I think we can have a good relationship," said Rossi during the Yamaha launch.

"Like I said before, from 2013 when I went back to Yamaha, my relationship with Lorenzo was not so bad. We had some problems at the end of 2015.

"I think we can have a good relationship but especially we can work together on the bike to improve it."

Championship not easier

Despite Lorenzo having moved to Ducati, and Vinales being in his first season with Yamaha, Rossi does not believe the year will be any easier.

When asked if the rider moves could make things easier for him to clinch his 10th title, Rossi said: "I don't know. I think on paper it's not more easy or more hard. It depends on me and the team. We'll try to arrive ready in Qatar and we'll try to stay concentrated all season.

"This is very important, because last year I had good speed. I was competitive in a lot of different tracks, in a lot of different conditions, but I made some mistakes, was a bit unlucky, so we must try to do better.

"It will be very interesting this season, because three top riders changed bikes and especially Lorenzo is in a historic move, so it will be very interesting to see his performance, and also with Vinales with the Yamaha and Iannone with the Suzuki. I think it will be very interesting, but for sure not easier."

Rossi also admitted the new Yamaha M1, initially expected to be a radical departure from last year's bike, was actually very similar to its predecessor.

Despite that, the Italian reckons the bike has a lot of potential to get better.

"We knew nothing about the new bike before Valencia, but from our view we expected a bigger changed," he said. "So everybody was very curious to see the bike, but in the end it's the normal development.

"If you look at the bike from the outside it's exactly the same. Valencia is a difficult track to understand the potential of the bike, but in Malaysia we worked more and it's true that it's not a big change, but the potential is high."

Additional reporting by Oriol Puigdemont