Michael Scott | August 18, 2021
Cycle News In The Paddock
COLUMN
When Rossi Goes, What It Means To MotoGP
It was hardly unexpected but predicting what Valentino Rossi will do next has always been risky. In the same way that his glittering career made MotoGP into something special, his decision finally to retire affects everybody and everything in racing.
The biggest effect is on the fans. And on Dorna—flip sides of the same coin. It is 24 years since his first title and 12 years since the last one, but his yellow-clad support army has not dwindled. If anything, the reverse. None of his title successors, try as they might, can command anything like the grandstand space, not even Marc Marquez.
Race attendances and TV figures peaked for Rossi, even when his results slumped. Dorna will be hard pressed to absorb his absence.
This is a problem a long time in the making. The question has often been raised: What happens when Rossi goes? Now we find out.
The impact on the riders is also huge. It’s been years since he was the prime target—the man everyone had to beat. But his influence runs much deeper. His departure destabilizes an already uncertain rider market.
Most of all, with the 42-year-old calling time on the same weekend that class rookie Jorge Martin, aged just 23, taking a first MotoGP win, it confirms and underlines the changing of the guard. A new generation has taken over.
MotoGP is, once again, a young man’s game.
The details span the paddock and the classes.
Yamaha is now obliged to make two replacements rather than just the one for Vinales.
The new VR46 Ducati team is also deprived of the boss as a rider. This even raises questions about the expected Aramco sponsorship. Some reports have suggested it depended on Rossi being in the saddle. Whether he can negotiate his way out of that remains to be seen, though with his charmed life, why not?
Immediate response to the disturbance came from KTM, forced within two days into a premature announcement that Raul Fernandez will join Remy Gardner in their satellite Tech 3 MotoGP team next season.
This abrupt revelation blind-sided existing satellite riders Petrucci and Lecuona, who discovered their pending unemployment from the media. KTM Sports director Pit Beirer told Dorna TV that his hand had been forced, because “other factories” (in other words Yamaha) had been trying to poach Fernandez. Persistent rumors had his management team at dinner in a nearby Spielberg restaurant with representatives of Yamaha racing near the Austrian track—a tale of skulduggery and espionage worthy of a drama by the film director of the same name.
This would clearly be intolerable. KTM has shepherded the young Spanish star towards the big-time from his days in the Red Bull Rookies Cup. They were not having him snatched away now, thanks very much.
Yamaha was expected to promote Franco Morbidelli from satellite to factory squad next year, but where will the Petronas SRT team find replacements for him and present incumbent Valentino?
With Yamaha Superbike riders Gerloff and Razgatlioglu already signed to stay there, team boss Razlan Razali would have to look at the upper echelons of Moto2.
The championship’s top two (Gardner and Fernandez), and three of the remaining top six (Bezzecchi, Di Giannantonio and Canet) already booked, this leaves fourth-placed Sam Lowes, and at 30 and with uninspiring 2017 MotoGP results with Aprilia, he’s hardly a promising future prospect.
Twenty-three-year-old Augusto Fernandez (eighth) might work, but the more promising Ai Ogura (ninth) is locked in to Honda.
Puzzlingly, nobody has suggested Cameron Beaubier, doing well as a Moto2 rookie, and with strong Yamaha form, five U.S. championships.
Since then, however, there are reports that the Malaysian sponsor might decide to abandon the whole project. In the week between the Austrian rounds, it became clear they were considering dropping their Moto2 and Moto3 teams altogether. Will the MotoGP team follow, leaving Yamaha hunting for another sponsor as well as riders?
Aprilia is expected to take up the floating Vinales, leaving current tester Andrea Dovizioso in the lurch. But he too is hardly satellite-team fodder.
And the effect on Rossi himself?
He remained impressively dry-eyed at his press conference, but the gap in his life will be difficult to fill. His new MotoGP team will help, his VR46 Academy likewise, though much of his interest in that (beyond the commercial) was having young guys to ride with, to keep his reflexes sharp.
Will he want to stay on as a major paddock presence?
“You don’t race for fun,” he said at his announcement. “You race for the results. To win.”
This must have eased the decision to quit. And spurred the decision to go car racing instead, probably with GT2 sports cars.
“Not at the same level,” he added.
Well, we’ll wait and see about that. CN
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