Why Rossi hasn’t overstayed his welcome in MotoGP

Thursday, 5 August. The day of the beginning of the end of arguably the greatest career in motorsport history.

On the eve of the 2021 Styrian Grand Prix, MotoGP’s first race after its five-week summer break, Dorna Sports announced a last-minute amendment to its Thursday schedule. An exceptional press conference was slotted in for 4:15pm local time – its main attraction, Valentino Rossi.

It sent social media into a frenzy, impassioned Rossi fans desperately trying to compose themselves as all thoughts turned to the likely outcome of the press conference: a retirement announcement.

In ordinary times, the press room at the Red Bull Ring would have been bursting at the seams with journalists, photographers and hangers-on alike jostling for a spot opposite ‘The Doctor’ for an announcement that had an inevitability about it – but which all the same felt something a shock. Instead, just a handful were allowed in, while the rest of us watched with bated breath through a Zoom screen.

Finally, it was coming to an end.

MotoGP is an odd entity. It’s a massive world championship, second only to Formula 1 in terms of popularity, yet still has to fight its way into the mainstream in some countries – unless, of course, Rossi does something.

Rossi’s impact on MotoGP and motorsport as a whole can never be overstated. It wouldn’t be hyperbolic to claim he is world motorcycling’s most important figure ever. From the very genesis of his racing career, following in the footsteps of his ex-grand prix motorcycle racing father Graziano, the world watched with great expectancy.

Through his nine world titles – seven of which in the premier class – 115 grand prix wins, his 235 podiums, his bitter rivalries with Max Biaggi, Sete Gibernau, Casey Stoner, Jorge Lorenzo and Marc Marquez, Rossi has been the driving force behind MotoGP’s popularity in the 21st century.

Valentino Rossi, Petronas Yamaha SRT

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Go to just about any town in the world and you’ll be sure to find someone with a VR46 t-shirt. In pre-COVID times, the battalion of yellow-clad punters filling grandstand seats and yellow smoke-bathed hillsides ensured any roof – both physical and metaphorically – would be torn off.

Though UK MotoGP viewership has fallen away dramatically since it moved from free-to-air BBC to the subscription-based BT platform, MotoGP’s viewership across Europe effortlessly reaches millions. For years Dorna has hung its marketing to expand its fanbase on a ‘Come for Rossi, stay for the show’ policy, even as his results began to dry up. But a slow Rossi has been better than no Rossi at all.

“I think that the difference between me and all the other great riders of MotoGP history is this, because for some reason, I was able to bring a lot of people close to motorcycle racing,” Rossi said of his impact on MotoGP. “Without me, they don’t know MotoGP or 125cc or 250cc, especially in Italy. So, I did something in the first part of my career which switched on the emotion of the normal people and about this I am very proud, because it’s something really special.”

Since his 2015 title challenge dramatically fell off the rails amidst a haze of paranoid conspiracy theories surrounding his rivals Marc Marquez and Jorge Lorenzo, Rossi hasn’t quite been the same.

People will say Rossi is retiring a couple of years too late. While it’s hard to see a legend like Rossi struggling to crack the top 10, he has made every effort in recent years to try and extract the best from himself

In 2016 he managed two wins and was runner-up in the standings again, but he won just once in 2017 and hasn’t visited the top of the rostrum since that year’s Dutch TT. In 2018 he managed six podiums. In 2019 that tally fell to two, while last year he managed just one amidst a season largely influenced by a poor Yamaha and the latter half of his year being wrecked by COVID-19.

So far this season, having lost his factory Yamaha spot to Fabio Quartararo – who has in turn vindicated Yamaha’s decision to finally look to its long-term future by winning four races and taking a 34-point lead in the standings – Rossi decision to continue with the satellite Petronas SRT has looked desperate.

He’s finished no higher than 10th and has amassed just 19 points from the first nine races. It is so far – and now tragically in light of Thursday’s announcement – his worst season ever in grand prix racing. Only twice has he outqualified team-mate Franco Morbidelli (who is riding a two-year-old bike) this season, the average gap between the pair on Saturdays a whopping 0.639s.

Valentino Rossi, Petronas Yamaha SRT

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

This is through no lack of trying on Rossi’s part, though. After a difficult 2019, Rossi ditched crew chief Silvano Galbusera and elected to work with MotoGP novice David Munoz in the hope that young, fresh perspective could help him breakthrough again. And at the start of 2020, this bore fruit. He finished third in the punishing heat of the Andalusian GP, took top fives at Brno and the first Red Bull Ring race on weekends Yamaha riders struggled hugely, narrowly missed the podium at Misano and was on course for second at Barcelona before crashing.

His results have taken a nose-dive in 2021 despite being on an M1 that is vastly improved over its predecessor. But this can largely be traced to the softer rear tyre construction from Michelin, which got softer in 2020: “I think that I was strong, fast and competitive in 2018. I was not able to win a race but I arrived P3 in the championship, I did five, six podiums. But I felt strong. After, from 2019 something changed and after that point we needed to work on the bike and set the bike in a very different way compared to the past because usually personally I like good support from the rear and a hard bike on the rear.

“That’s what I like through my career, but after the bike tyres start to suffer very much with this setting. So, we need to work with the bike in another way and make the rear much more soft, load the tyre in a better way, more smooth. But with this type of setting, with this type of tyre I’m more in trouble. I’m not able to use the benefit of my style.”

With such fine margins making the biggest difference in MotoGP now, it’s no wonder Rossi has fallen further back. But still he has pushed to try to find a way around his problems, putting 72 laps on the board during the post-Barcelona GP test in June. Whether retirement was still likely at that point is irrelevant – it showed Rossi wasn't resigned to simply fading away if 2021 was to be his last.

Still, people will say Rossi is retiring a couple of years too late. While it’s hard to see a legend like Rossi struggling to crack the top 10, he has made every effort in recent years to try and extract the best from himself and last year at least proved the pace for the podium is still very much there – not that he has anything left to prove.

A bad final season will do nothing to diminish the Rossi legend. It has been hard-earned by the Italian and he will continue to inspire young riders coming up into the world of motorcycle racing for many more years.

Valentino Rossi, Petronas Yamaha SRT, Luca Marini, Esponsorama Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

That particular legacy is evident in his VR46 Riders’ Academy. Established in 2014 to try and overturn the dearth in top Italian talent in grand prix racing, Rossi has guided two riders – Morbidelli and Francesco Bagnaia – to world titles in Moto2, provided a ladder into MotoGP for Morbidelli, Bagnaia and Luca Marini, with Marco Bezzecchi set to become his fourth Academy rider to step up to the top class next year with Petronas SRT.

Morbidelli is a three-time MotoGP winner, while Bagnaia is currently fighting for the 2021 world title. Rossi’s Academy is proof of concept that time and investment from a top name in sport can lead to great things for his country’s aspiring stars. That VR46 will remain on the MotoGP grid into 2022 with his own team will only bolster this.

For a quarter of a century, Rossi has made history and changed the face of MotoGP forever. It must now look to a future without its biggest draw for the last two decades

Of course, Rossi’s legacy leaves behind black patches which must not be ignored in looking back over his career. His off-track behaviour in his rivalry with Biaggi was juvenile. Having a wall erected in the Yamaha garage to ostensibly keep tyre secrets from spilling into the Lorenzo camp from 2008 showed the Rossi ego had its fragility, while the bitterness which arose across MotoGP with his Marquez feud etched an ugly chapter into his legacy. But, you don’t get to the top of the world without pissing a few people off. And in spite of those rivalries, Rossi still commands great respect from his former combatants.

What may be harder to defend is who backs his VR46 team. A group from Saudi Arabia known as Tanal Entertainment claims it has put in place a deal with Aramco to sponsor the VR46 team. But Aramco has confirmed in two statements to Autosport that no such deal exists. Whether that does happen or not is still a big question mark, but the fact Rossi has gotten into bed with the Saudis over something as important as his own team raises concerns.

Saudi Arabia has been accused on a number of occasions of sport washing – using world sporting events to mask the human rights atrocities that have gone on in the Kingdom. Given Rossi is a figure who could have any partnership he wants, a Saudi tie-up rightfully makes people uneasy.

Valentino Rossi, Petronas Yamaha SRT

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

In the short-term, Rossi still has a massive role to play for MotoGP. As COVID restrictions begin to lift across Europe, MotoGP is welcoming back bigger crowds. Austria’s double-header will be a full house, as will the British GP at Silverstone. Misano – Rossi’s home turf - will allow over 20,000 fans across all three days through the gates for the San Marino GP. Crowd sizes will likely increase at future races to the end of the season too.

As MotoGP continues to recover from the bombardment COVID has dealt it, the final half of 2021 effectively becoming a Rossi farewell tour will no doubt ensure every single available ticket will be sold. This, of course, has a knock-on effect to the area surrounding race tracks and to the small businesses which operate there.

Rossi’s grand prix career is just 20 weeks older than this writer. For a quarter of a century, Rossi has made history and changed the face of MotoGP forever.

MotoGP must now look to a future without its biggest draw for the last two decades. The series is strong enough to weather whatever comes the way of the post-Rossi MotoGP era, though it must now focus on making stars of its current crop.

But for now, MotoGP can marvel in the incredible career of a charismatic figure, the like of which we may never see again…

Valentino Rossi, Petronas Yamaha SRT

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images