Michael Scott | June 19, 2018
Lorenzo: The Teammate From Hell
COLUMN
Back when he was just a boy, rather a strange one but very, very fast, the Spanish used to call him “Round The Outside.” For obvious reasons.
In 2018, “Gorgeous Jorge” Lorenzo earned a new nickname. “Up The Blind Side.” His switch from difficult Ducati to hairs-breadth Honda caught everybody napping.
It was in Mugello, where he went on to take his first win since leaving Yamaha, that Jorge revealed that he was leaving Ducati. This much had become obvious with his poor results over the preceding races, especially when Ducati Corse Sporting Director Paolo Ciabatti had remarked crustily at Le Mans two weeks earlier, that “There is a big gulf between his fee and our budget.”
Lorenzo went on to spike the curiosity by saying that he would be returning “on a competitive bike” for the next two years.
This triggered a frenzy of speculation, among a racing twitterati already dizzy from a wildly spinning silly season. Guessing who would go where seemed almost as important as the racing. For some people more so.
This being Lorenzo, it was necessary to think the unthinkable. But only up to a point.
With Suzuki already spoken for, and KTM and Aprilia not meeting the description “competitive,” there could be only one answer. Jorge was going back to Yamaha. A rumor that gelled still further when Yamaha didn’t rule out the notion of supplying its still notional satellite team with factory bikes.
That seemed settled then.
So when the news broke days later that he was to join Marquez on Honda, there wasn’t anyone who wasn’t flabbergasted.
Plenty of people admire Lorenzo’s super-smooth riding, his title achievements (three so far in the premier class alone), and his tireless work ethic. There is grudging respect also for his willful independence, although this is often over-ruled by disdain for his habit of dispensing with his close associates at the drop of a hat. This started when he was still a grand prix beginner; his rider-coach-manager father had trained him from early childhood for the role of world champion. Now, out of the blue, he dumped his dad.
This is a pattern he has repeated with later management and other allies. Work for Jorge, and all of a sudden you find you’re not working for him any more.
But I am in a minority in the so-called “MotoGP family” (a sentimental misnomer that strives to unite the irreconcilable), because I seem to be one of only very few who actually like Lorenzo.
“Like” might not be the right word. It’s not part of a GP journalist’s remit to like the riders, though it helps if you like the racing and like motorbikes. But there’s something about Lorenzo’s vaulting egotism and well-displayed selfishness that fits a great champion pretty well.
Nice guys don’t win, etc, etc.
It’s his riding that really matters.
He’s struggled with the Desmosedici, but always promised he was learning. After leading a lot of laps then failing, now he’s won a race, in typically imperious start-to-finish style. I venture to suggest it will not be his last this year. If he then goes on to win also on a Honda (and why not?), I believe he will be the first rider in the premier class to do so on three different makes.
His greatest achievement at Ducati, however, was to negotiate a record sign-on fee, easily eclipsing anything clocked up by Rossi, or anybody else. The rumored amount for two years was 24-million euros.
Phew!
Also typically Lorenzo, this first win was for himself alone. As well as costing Ducati a huge amount of money, it did little for the brand, for it robbed teammate Dovizioso of five potentially crucial points. It was an echo of the last race of last year at Valencia, where Dovi was still numerically capable of winning the title. Against team orders, Jorge decided the best way to help him was to beat him.
It will be interesting to see how the two uneasy teammates play it out for the rest of this season.
Many believe his style is wrong for the Honda. We shall see. He’s an intelligent and hard-working rider, with enormous willpower.
His own view, expressed at Catalunya, was typical enough. In the smaller classes he’d won races on a Derbi and a 250 Aprilia, but also scored pole positions on a Honda in his first year in the 250 class. Now he’d adapted successfully from Yamaha to Ducati. “I have the capacity.”
If nothing else, though, he’ll be a thorn in the side of Marquez. The teammate from hell. Remember the wall down the middle of the Yamaha pit, when he was with Rossi? And the barbed comments between him and Dovizioso at Ducati?
That’ll be a novelty for Marquez, after the amenable Dani Pedrosa. CN