In happier times, Valentino Rossi was the Clown prince of motorcycle racing. His post-race celebration parties and skits were legendary and were even (poorly) copied by his protege, Jorge Lorenzo.
But there haven’t really been any smiles and certainly no celebrations since Vale signed for Ducati in 2010. What should have been the marriage of the century has rapidly developed into the marriage from hell, played out in the full and unforgiving glare of the world’s media (and, especially, the fanatical and notoriously fickle and hard-to-please Italians) and is about to be brought to an acrimonious conclusion with the divorce that most of us have been expecting sooner rather than later. In fact it has only been Rossi’s thorough professionalism that has prevented him from telling the factory where to stick it and walking away a long time ago. How have the mighty fallen.
Dissection of the Rossi sojourn at Ducati will be carried out for months yet, but the underlying reasons for the utter failure of the venture stem from several diverse directions. Let me try and summarise.
1. Rossi’s massive self-belief and confidence in his “muse and guru” Jeremy Burgess. When Max Biaggi stormed out of Yamaha in a huff saying that the bike was a crock, the VR/JB juggernaut swung into gear and, in a matter of almost no time at all, turned the 2004 Yamaha into a winner. “There, you see,” the wise heads said, “There wasn’t anything wrong with the bike it was just the rider.” Tuck that quote away for reference later, please.
Of course it WAS the bike. It was every bit as dreadful as Biaggi claimed it to be, but, during the off-season, Yamaha engineers had already put into place most of the changes needed to turn the bike around before detailed input from VR/JB was available during winter testing. It is a shame that they are not given the credit that they deserve for the amazing turn-around of the bike from the end of 2003 to the start of 2004. What the surrounding media hoop-la of Rossi’s 2004 season DID achieve was instilling a false mystique around the partnership that quickly became accepted as EXPECTED. VR/JB could work miracles, after all, they just had, hadn’t they? So, when the Ducati proved to be the destruction of the career of every rider who rode it except Casey Stoner, the expectation was that the arrival of the dynamic duo would see them “doing a 2004” again.
But it didn’t happen. Despite detailed input from the two, the factory moved with “glacial slowness” to quote David Emmett, implementing the suggested changes. Certainly changes were made, some quite radical, but they were always going to be too little too late in the high-speed world of MotoGp and the dynamic duo hit the same wall that Casey Stoner had hit when he found that his input was neither sought nor acted upon. Indeed, the Italian engineers proved to be as inflexible as one saw in their Teutonic brethrens’ handling of the BMW WSBK project.
So, despite having the insights into what could make the bike a winner, JB/VR never really got the chance to implement them in the real world. And that was probably very much down to a comment that was made by Felippo Preziosi right at the very beginning when he said, “We are not going to build a Yamaha just to suit Valentino Rossi.” How Vale must be regretting not believing that. Bologna locked themselves into doing it “their” way and couldn’t bear to lose face by backing down from that position.
2. The fundamental design of the Ducati has been wrong from Day 1 and everybody (except Ducati) knows it but the factory won’t admit it. There is a slavish adherence to the L90 degree motor at Ducati because the design IS their trademark, their iconic difference, the feature that MAKES every Ducati a Ducati. Changing it was seen to have the possibility of alienating the faithful whose roots go back to bevel and who will ALWAYS expect a Ducati to have an L90 degree motor. But the format is fatally flawed in MotoGp as it messes around with the weight distribution, contributes to vagueness in the front end because the steering head angle can’t be played around with and doesn’t allow for enough weight to be concentrated over the front axle. All of this is no secret, it’s been in the public domain for years. Added to this, the motor has a vicious power delivery that chews up rear tyres and makes the bike less and less rideable the further the race goes on. Unless and until Ducati addresses this fundamental weakness, the bike will never be a winner and it will continue to destroy the confidence and career of every rider who rides it.
But, hang on, you say, Casey Stoner won a slew of races on it and a World Championship, didn’t he? Yes, he did. So, how come nobody else has ever done any good on it? Well, you’d have to ask Casey that. Fact is, that, while Casey was winning, the Casey-haters said, “It’s just because he’s got the best bike.” Well, how come the best rider of our era, Valentino Rossi, riding what SHOULD be an even BETTER bike, can’t even get it on the podium or even within 30 seconds of the race winner, EVERY grand prix? BECAUSE IT ISN’T ABOUT THE BIKE. Did you get that? Casey won the world championship on the Ducati because he was the only rider with the balls to close his eyes and throw the thing around and HOPE that it would stick.
3. The third factor is one that delves far more into the realm of conjecture. It goes to the essence of what is going on in Vale’s mind. In the space of just over a year, Rossi experienced two dramatic and horrendous events in his life. Firstly his accident in 2010 where the damage to his leg would have sidelined a lesser rider. It was his first serious accident in his whole career. The fracture of his lower leg was so bad that the broken bone not only penetrated the skin but punctured his leathers as well. Despite horrendous damage, Vale toughed out an astonishing return just a few weeks later and raced on till the end of the season. Then came Sepang where Vale was the innocent party to the horrific accident that killed his best friend and protege, Marco Simoncelli. Even if he hadn’t been anywhere near the accident the shock would have been awful, but to have actually hit Simo and, in his mind, probably contributed to his death, is something about which he has never spoken publicly and whose full ramifications will probably never been known until Vale retires and writes his autobiography.
Now I’m not going to say for a moment that my experience is even close to his, but I can attest that a shocking accident can do terrible things to your mind.
So the factors that have been at work have been far-reaching and complex. But there seems little doubt that Vale’s heart hasn’t been in it for some time, despite his continued dedication. “But he hasn’t fallen off the bike at all, it can’t be that bad,” his apologists say, “Whereas Stoner fell off a heap of times in 2010.” Yes, that’s true, Casey did crash a lot in 2010, but mostly he crashed when he was in the lead or contending for it. Vale has stayed upright because he hasn’t been prepared to risk himself to the same extent as Casey was. And his placings in the races reflects this caution and circumspection. He himself has said how dispiriting it is to be “competing” for 6th place.
Reports in today say that Vale has been spotted at Yamaha Europe’s headquarters in Amsterdam and that he will shortly announce a 3 year contract to return to Yamaha, for 2 years in MotoGp and the final year of his illustrious career heading up a return to WSBK by Yamaha. It will be at a vastly reduced salary, will require him to be #2 rider in the team and will mean that he will probably have to work with a brand new crew, JB already having announced that he is quitting the circus at the end of 2012. It will be the sternest test of Vale’s long and wonderful career.
Will he get back to his winning ways? Of course he will. I fully expect him to get back to winning on the Yamaha sooner or later. Will he win another title? No, I can’t see that happening. Lorenzo and the others are too young, too vicious and too experienced now to be buffaloed by Vale’s mind games like his peers were in the past.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, as they say in the classics, the internet is awash with the speculation that Ben Spies is heading to the BMW outfit to partner Marco Melandri. While this will be seen by some as an admission that MotoGp was a bridge too far (my own personal belief) and by others that his career was sabotaged by the “European” push at Yamaha and that his leaving is an expression of disgust, matters little. Fact is that the head of BMW’s effort has revealed today that they ARE talking to Spies BUT, and here’s the big but, they are also talking to three or four other riders. And it is here where the baggage that Spies will bring with him from Yamaha may just jump up and bite him. If, as the gossip suggests, Spies made himself very unpopular at Yamaha, you can bet that BMW will want to know the details and whether or not his attitude will fit with the strict German way of doing things. My guess is that Spies has gotten way too big for his boots at Yamaha and, if he wants to make the switch, he may well have to, to use an Australian slang expression, “pull his head in”.
Interesting times are ahead, that is for sure.