“Every hand’s a winner, and every hand’s a loser” is the line from the famous Kenny Rogers song and nowhere is this more starkly illustrated than in the fiasco that has been MotoGp for the last two meetings of the season. Nobody has come out of it looking good and even the eventual World Champion, Jorge Lorenzo, has become embroiled in a mess that was totally not of his making. Let me take you though my take on the winning and losing of the 2015 world championships.
In Moto3 Britain’s Danny Kent became the first British rider to win a grand prix championship since Barry Sheene, a fact that looks likely to be completely overlooked amidst the MotoGp histrionics. Kent did everything he could in the last three rounds to LOSE the title but, in the end, he did enough to have the best points tally in the tiddler class. I remember many years ago reading that one of the Williams F1 mechanics said, “Jacques made winning an easy championship (1997) look difficult.” The same could be said of Danny.
Moto2 was cut and dried from pretty much half way through the season. Johann Zarco utterly dominated the season and, wet or dry, he was the class of the field. Unfortunately his stellar season stands the chance of being overlooked as well.
It was all about MotoGp and the rot was started at the Sepang press conference when Rossi, for whatever reason, decided that Marquez was helping Lorenzo win the title (because he was Spanish) The stunned look on Marquez and the reaction of the assembled media made it very clear that this accusation was right out of left field and Rossi’s reason for making it was the subject of speculation right up until race morning. The fact that Marquez’s banzai pass on Lorenzo on the last lap at PI actually DEPRIVED Lorenzo of 5 valuable points and BENEFITTED Rossi seemed completely at odds with Rossi’s strange logic.
The race panned out pretty much as expected. Marquez, having had his character and honesty impugned in a public forum, reacted as you’d expect. “You accuse me of slowing you up, well, how do you like this slowing up?” Every pass until THAT pass was clean and Race Direction made it clear that they had no problem with the battle. But Lorenzo was disappearing and Rossi lost patience and did the one thing that no rider should ever do. He used the bike as a weapon and took Marquez out. While Race Direction tut-tutted over Marquez’s tactics, they found that he hadn’t broken any rule and he was not penalised. Rossi, on the other hand, was found to have broken the rules and was handed a “token” penalty, rear of field at Valencia. DORNA knew that they couldn’t kill the goose that laid the golden egg by disqualifying him and they also knew that the penalty would boost crowds and TV revenue. Our sport has long since been one and is now a business, so it’s hardly surprising that they acted as they did.
Now, from here it got even more interesting. Having been caught, dead to rights, with his hand in the cookie jar, Rossi decided to appeal the penalty (which is his right) and his tribe of fans jumped on the bandwagon alleging a “Spanish Conspiracy” to deprive their hero of his tenth title. Never one to let the facts get in the way of a good story, they effectively carried on the invective from the Sepang press conference and laid a foundation for a perfect excuse if Rossi was unable to overcome the penalty at Valencia and take the title fair and square.
And so it worked out. Despite the appalling behaviour of some riders who deliberately let Rossi through from the back of the pack, what looked sure to happen, did. Rossi got to 4th quickly, (the position he was most likely to be in at the checker anyway) and stayed there, his tyres shagged out from his burn from the stern. The leading trio matched each other in lap times till the end, Marquez making no effort to endanger his own points position by mounting a banzai on Lorenzo as he had done at PI. Were he to crash, or, worse still, take out Lorenzo in the process it would have been the worst possible outcome. Doing so would have presented Rossi with the world championship. Since there is nothing in the rule book that says that you must overtake, he chose not to.
The Rossi apologists are, of course, apoplectic. “Why didn’t he pass Lorenzo?” they ask. Well, he didn’t have to. And, here is something that they don’t seem to get. Even if he HAD passed Lorenzo, Lorenzo would still have been world champion. He’d have finished equal on points with Rossi and Lorenzo would have been declared champion due to his having won more races.
Nevertheless, the anti-Spanish seeds, sown at Sepang, have now burst into flower with the yellow brigade crying foul.
Now, if you’ve stuck with me thus far, please hang around for just a little bit longer.
I have always been a Rossi fan. Ever since he burst onto the scene as a pimpled teenager I have thought that he was the best thing to happen to the sport for a long time. I admired his passion, his style, his sense of humour and his self-deprecating antics. I loved watching him do stuff with a bike that nobody else seemed to be able to do and I saw his status in the sport grow and grow. But, somewhere along the line, an ugly side of his nature occasionally emerged. His vilifying of his opponents and his bending of the rules in order to win (Gibernau in Spain for example) jarred badly with the public personna of the squeaky clean kid. When anybody emerged that would seem to be a threat, Rossi used his well-known psychological warfare tricks to try and defuse them and then, later, excuses for lack of success started to emerge. The mystique that grew up around him started to become a little less believable and the gloss started to wear off.
His “success” in making the Yamaha a winner first time out in South Africa is a classic example. The bike was a dog in the previous season and yet, after a test session before the start of the year, Rossi supposedly turned the bike into a winner. Of course, the truth is a little less spectacular. Later information from the Yamaha camp tells that the bike was pretty much sorted before Rossi even threw his leg over it, the hard work having already been done by Yamaha technicians and staff. Since it was good PR to make Rossi and Burgess look like geniuses, the story was allowed to stand.
In any sport, total domination by any one athlete is bad for the sport and Rossi has been the victim of this syndrome. People like to see other winners so, when Lorenzo arrived, the idea of someone who could stand up to Rossi and “take him down a peg or two” was an attractive one to many fans. Unfortunately, Lorenzo came to MotoGp with considerable baggage having gotten a very bad reputation as a dirty rider while riding in the 250cc class. It took a while for him to live that down but he became a winner also. But, while Rossi was flamboyant and personable, Lorenzo was dour and boring. There was never any doubt who would be the fan favourite.
In a similar fashion various riders have come and gone during the Rossi era, none of them being able to present as the complete package. Pedrosa has always been fast but fragile, the nickname “Pedrobot” being unkind but, to a certain extent, deserved. Stoner was clearly as talented and as fast as Rossi but he was not promotable. He hated the media hype and the PR speak and even though he was a huge success in a category that he hated being part of, it was no surprise when he took his bat and ball and went home.
Then came Marquez. It was plain from Day 1 that he was going to be the next superstar. It was no surprise that he was asked very early in his career if he was the next Valentino Rossi. His answer clearly showed what path his career was going to take. “No,” he replied, “I’m the next Marc Marquez.” He blasted through Moto3 and Moto2 only being denied a Moto2 title a year earlier than he actually won it because of an eye injury. He was rough, careless and seemingly uncaring of his riding peers but was totally focussed on success come what may.
Drafted into MotoGp he won two titles on the trot and broke nearly ever record that were there for the breaking. But there was one problem that he couldn’t and will never be able to overcome. He is Spanish.
Faced with a superstar in the closing years of his career, he was always going to be the underdog, and so it has emerged. Rossi has announced that he will be staying at Yamaha for another two years so all is not lost for him yet. But, bites at the cherry get fewer and fewer and Honda is not going to produce a dog of a bike two years in a row (hopefully) . Lorenzo is, to use a saying I hate, at the height of his powers so it isn’t just Marquez who will stand in Rossi’s way of that 10th title. And let’s not discount Pedrosa though I can’ t see him winning a title.
For 2015 Lorenzo has been the winner, Rossi has been the loser and the sport has suffered badly through the behaviour of a rider who is both old enough and sensible enough to avoid tarnishing his reputation in the last part of his career. Hopefully Rossi will play 2016 with a straight bat and we will be able to remember him for all the good things that he has brought to the sport.
I have been accused of hating Rossi. Nothing could be further from the truth. But I have hated what he has done in the last fortnight and I will take a while to forgive him.