If I look back, I don’t remember since when I watch motorcycle racing. But I can tell you that the riders that I miss the most, from my time are: Max Biaggi, Harada, Loris Reggiani for my sympathy with the two-cylinder Aprilia in the 500 class, Mike Doohan, I didn’t find him nice but it was amazing to see him drive , Carld Fogarty in SBK and Valentino Rossi who caught me in the races since he started in 125. Almost without conscience, I also had sympathy for Sito Pons in 250 who was fighting against the fierce Bradl with his yellow bike. Carlos Cardus also sounds familiar to me, when I sat down with my father to see the motorcycles. Roberto Locatelli, Luca Cadalora, Kocinski. For me, although he is not in his best moment, Márquez is different compared to everything on the grid and I smell that a Doohan will do, in the sense that when he recovers well from his injury, he will still be a bug harder to beat.
The MotoGP World Championship is exciting today, but in my opinion he lacks a boss who adds charisma to the category. The Frenchman of the Yamaha team, who was already pointing out ways in the satellite team last year, seems different, but for now, we have to wait.
If I had to choose a driver, whom I admire above the rest, it is Valentino Rossi. I am sure that the great Angel Nieto from above thinks the same. Yesterday the Mugello Grand Prix was held, on the starting grid he was one of the last, finished in the points thanks to falls and retirements What happens to Valentino Rossi? I will tell you my opinion.
Age, his divorce from Burgess, his 2010 injury or the death of his friend Simoncelli
This may be your last year.
Rossi has nothing to prove, he loves the bike, he still has a legion of fans, he sells a lot of caps, he has racing teams and except for his detractors, he is someone who is respected in the paddock. The average age on the grid in 2021 is about 27 years. The one who came off pole yesterday was born almost in the year 2000. Rossi was born in February 79. He looks like a museum object, he is aware, and if he is there it is because he deserves it and he has fun. But everything suggests that this will be his last year on the bike, surely, we will miss him.
Rossi is from another generation.
It seems obvious, but I don’t mean age. Rossi lived the two-stroke stage. 125, 250, 500, the 4 times entered and from those first four times to now, there are many changes. But not only the motorcycle evolves, the way of working and the technology, the engineers evolve. Knowing this circumstance, Rossi decided after passing through Ducati dispense with Jeremy Burgess, maybe a mistake. Perhaps it was an early and wrong step. Be that as it may, today more than ever, Valentino seems totally disconnected. He is a pilot, for many the best in history, from another era. Throughout history, there have been riders who have brought a new way of riding to the great motorcycle circus, Rossi already did it in his day.
Loss of factory status pilot.
I am sure that Valentino continues to count for Yamaha, but he has stopped being the head of the project. When you are a first rider, the motorcycle is made almost to your liking, with your indications, new pieces that come to satisfy the needs of their first swords. Maybe Rossi, going to the Petronas team, would take the pressure off the result where in previous years, the satellite motorcycle riders wet his ear. But maybe that idea was like a prelude to his goodbye.
From his injury …
In 2010 he had his first major injury, then he went to Ducati, where it did not work and we already saw with Lorenzo that he is capable of engulfing a pilot. The only one who has tamed her, Stoner, withdrew from the World Cup after winning it. The last race Rossi won was at Assen, in 2017. Until then, it seemed that Rossi could go back to being the winning Rossi of all time. But I think, together with all the above, the death of his friend Simóncelli, I finish changing the chip and it seems that since then, that innate aggressiveness of a champion has lost it.
Whatever you do next year, I would like that before hanging up your overalls and gloves, you will reap one last podium, to say goodbye to the world of motorcycles, to which you have given so much. Do you think it will make it?
