Michael Scott | November 21, 2018
Will The Doctor Run Out Of Patience?
COLUMN
The trouble with writing about Valentino Rossi is that you never know quite what he’ll do next. The Doctor is massively talented, ruthlessly charming, reliably race-fast, and infused with a competitive spirit beyond the understanding even of some of his on-track rivals, let alone what you and I might call “normal people.”
Quite apart from being one of the very greatest racers of all time, Surtees, Hailwood, Agostini and Roberts (and, yes, Marquez) all rolled into one; quite apart from being a one-man promotional genius, the key figure in making MotoGP popular worldwide; quite apart from having become The Godfather, ranch-master and team owner of a revival in Italian racing—quite apart from all these accomplishments, he is also apparently unstoppable.
Or is he? Rumors that started to scuttle around the steamy Sepang paddock were not hard to believe. Approaching the end of his worst-ever season (discounting the disastrous 2011/‘12 on the sub-standard Ducati), the first without a win since his rookie year of 1996, and turning 40 next February, Rossi must be frustrated almost to the tipping point. For more than a year he’s battered his head against the barrier of Yamaha’s unwillingness or inability to respond to the same old complaints. Once again at Phillip Island, a most favorite circuit, he’d slipped back out of contention to a down-beat sixth (probably eighth had Zarco and Marquez not collided). He had the rhythm, but the usual grip and wheelspin problems meant he wasn’t able to use it.
Worse still, his teammate—always the first person you have to beat—had won the race in dominant style. It was another bitter taste for the rider the fans love to love, and his rivals love to defeat.
Valentino had followed Vinales at the start of this season, with an early signing of a new two-year contract for 2019 and 2020. Now came the rumors that if Yamaha didn’t produce a proper Honda-beater (and Ducati, and now also Suzuki) over the winter, he’d turn his back on the whole show.
It’s not as though he wouldn’t have plenty else to do. And not just presiding over the VR46 brand that, with the help of a few unlikely seeming childhood friends, he has grown into a financial giant.
Perhaps his greatest enterprise is his ranch outside Tavullia, where he trains with an ever-larger VR46 Academy, with an ever more illustrious roll call of graduates. At that same weekend, while one of them—Marco Bezzecchi—narrowly missed the Moto3 title, Pecco Bagnaia won a resounding Moto2 Championship, while VR46 teammate Luca Marini (Valentino’s half-brother) took his first race win.
Entry lists in both smaller classes, until recently dominated by Spanish stars, are now full of VR46 proteges, with a good collection of silverware in their cabinets.
More reasons to add plausibility to the Sepang rumors of a career rethink.
Then the green lights went on, and off he went, in the lead, riding with all the strength and vigour that make him such a giant.
Again, he again rendered the rumors irrelevant.
But then he fell off. Under relentless pressure from his hated usurper, Marquez.
This had the feeling of a seminal moment. Crestfallen, he remounted. Later he spoke of how he didn’t understand why he’d crashed. “I felt comfortable,” he said. Not understanding is the most undermining feeling of all.
To a lesser rider, this might be a major setback. It’s axiomatic that—the obvious motor skills, vision, perception and anticipation taken for granted—the essential ingredient for racing success is mental. It’s all in the mind.
This has been used to explain Johann Zarco’s conspicuous midseason slump, after the Monster Yamaha crashed out of his home GP. After a blazing 2017 rookie season and two second places in the first four races, he’d started from pole position at Le Mans. The pressure was huge, and he succumbed.
How different is Rossi?
Looking back over his 23 years of GP racing, very different. Not just from Zarco, but from pretty much everyone. The other difference, of course, is that 23 years. It would be understandable if, given all his other roles, his patience with Yamaha is wearing thin.
The margins in modern MotoGP are very small. Yamaha is not actually that far behind the others, and should therefore be able to recover. But if they can’t, will The Doctor have just had enough?
I’ve predicted Rossi’s departure before. More than once, actually. Called him a bed-blocker, standing in the way of younger talent. Each time he’s emphatically proved me seriously wrong. Which, to be honest, has been a pleasure for me.
There remained one more race this year for him to do it again. By the time you read this, we will know the outcome. Here’s hoping I’ll be proved wrong again. CN