To Have & To Hold? For Better Or For Worse?

Rossi Needs To Divorce Motogp!

Recently we have witnessed what happens to Rossi when he is not winning. He looks scrawny (more so than usual). He appears to have become a shadow of his former self. He is like Jack Nicholson, but without the charisma.

Is Rossi revealing his true feelings & frustrations about racing in Motogp, now he has not got the distraction of winning, of being the best, and of having total dominance over the world of Motogp? You may want to blame any signs of deterioration on the pressures of F1, on the latest competition, on his bike not ‘working’, or his bad start to the season, but I for one, am not buying that. And these are the reasons why.

Rossi is now worrying too much about results. No longer is he riding the bike because he loves it, he is riding for results, that's why he is tightening up. Rossi has convinced himself over his past successive years that he 'rode to win'. Rossi probably doesn’t even know why he has been so successful. But now he isn't winning, he doesn't know why he rides anymore, and as Bruce Lee says, "If you look at the finger pointing at the stars you'll miss all the heavenly glory of the night sky". And right now, Rossi is missing all the heavenly glory.

This is generally a symptom of trying to find a reason to do something that you're not really that interested in anymore (i.e. boredom). Until he finds what he actually likes about riding again, regardless of where he finishes, or if he just finds out that it may not actually be his 'thing' anymore, he has to get out of it.

Rossi was already in torment at the start of the season, and his win was a quick fix. Rossi of course can still win a championship, but maybe he has run his course for himself. Fans want to keep him in Motogp, but that is beside the point. He is losing his independence, and ability to actually do what HE wants anymore.

A short analysis to explain why:

It's like getting involved with a woman, which is all fine and dandy at first, but then after a few years, no matter how sexy she is, you can't seem to get the ‘rock on’ anymore, and eventually you become totally impotent.

For Rossi, he has tried new positions to cure this (going to Yamaha), but that is only a short-term cure. What he needs to do is find himself a new chick to find the horn again, and we all know how good Rossi is with the horn.

Unfortunately however, he has gone & got himself married to this other ‘chick’ (for people that don't understand, I mean he is married to Motogp). He will try & convince himself he is in love & all that. But I don’t think so.

Rossi needs to get a divorce & move on. He has already had a bit of trouble with his marriage, being caught in bed with Formula One. His best mate Biaggi has gone, so there is no one to moan about. Gibernau may as well be gone. His marriage & his Motogp life are falling apart at the seams, just like his bike. Due to this rejection, he is embracing the return of last year’s bike with open arms. At least he feels wanted now.

We need to see Rossi with the rock on! I'm a fan of Rossi 'the man with the rock on', not Rossi 'the man in Motogp'. I'm a fan of what Rossi does regardless of where it is, be it F1, karts, rallying or wherever. But the fact that this is the side that he has revealed, when he is no longer winning, causes me to question how worthwhile continuing to race Motogp really is for Rossi.

I'm suspecting it is stemming from Motogp going 4stroke. Rossi never hides his love for the 500s, & I suspect he would choose to ride one on pure enjoyment factor, no matter where he finishes. I doubt he loves riding a 4stroke when comparing it to the old 2strokes. Maybe this is where his problem lies. He doesn't 'like' riding Motogp bikes, unless he is winning, they are crap & they are boring. 4stroke Motogp just isn't Rossi, it is a bird he got married to, and now he is searching for his identity again, he needs to go find that.

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Valentino Rossi Interview

Will Yamaha Return To Oblivion Without Rossi?

February 2003 Davide Brivio attended a secret meeting with Valentino Rossi and told him outright “We want you…you’re the only reason we can’t beat Honda…as long as you race for them, we’re not going to beat them”

All the latest talk has been preoccupied with how Rossi will do when he goes to F1, but where does this leave Yamaha? It leaves Yamaha back to facing the same dilemma they were forced to face before they took Rossi on in the first place.

Yamaha were in a mess prior to Rossi signing up. Yamaha signed up Rossi because they knew they needed him to beat Honda. Whatever requests Rossi made concerning the development of the bike, Yamaha were on it straight away. When Rossi returned from testing the M1 the Yamaha team would wait silently and in anticipation for his verdict. Rossi was the key holder. As a result of this, Rossi along with the Yamaha team have developed a winning bike to suit the requirements of Rossi. Yamaha are now at the top of the manufacturer standings. Honda has the remaining best riders in MotoGP, but has not been able to come close to challenging Rossi for the title.

Yamaha proudly claims that their motorcycle technology is based on their ‘Humachine Technology’ a term used to express the engineering focus on achieving perfect harmony between the rider and his machine. This theory seems nice and somewhat plausible, when the best development rider on the market is available. But what will happen to Yamaha, when they are left with a bike, minus the rider that it was made for? They will be left with a bike specifically made to meet Rossi’s needs, not just any old Tom, Dick or Harry. They might as well say that their methods are based on ‘Rossichine Technology’ rather than ‘Humachine’.

Yamaha were underachieving before Rossi came along. Without him, they are going to end up in a tricky situation. They will inevitably need a rider that can live up to Rossi’s standards. The development skills that Rossi has and his relationship he has with his team is going to be almost impossible to replace. Look at his competitors. None of them have had the balls to say to their teams ‘this is what I need; this is what I want, now hop along and make it possible. Build my perfect bike for me to win on, so I can put your name on the top of the manufacturer standings’. All the other riders feel they have got far too much to lose. Some may argue that it is not that easy. But if Rossi thought like this, or Yamaha for that matter, he would not be in the position he is in now.

Evidently, the credit of Yamaha winning the championship will be on Rossi’s shoulders. Yamaha can only take the credit for facing up to the fact that for them to get anywhere in MotoGP, they needed a rider with the right attitude, brains and skill to enable them to do this. A ‘humachine technology’ is all good and well with the most appropriate rider, but without this it is of no use. So far, it is only Rossi at the forefront of such a theory, not the manufacturer. Without him, it is only an ideal. Once Rossi has left Yamaha, Yamaha will be facing the same difficulties they were 2 years ago.

Will Yamaha be able to maintain their success without Rossi? Well unless they find another ‘Rossi’, their winning days may be somewhat numbered.

Rossi’s Going to F1 – Deal With It

Rossi may go on denying that he has no certain plans to be moving to F1, but this just doesn’t seem to add up. I for one think that Rossi does have ‘certain’ plans. I believe that Ferrari may even have a contractual option on him for 2007 (if you’re going to F1, it’s with Ferrari). It costs a fortune to test F1 cars, would Ferrari make that sort of investment without contractual commitments from Rossi?

Is this the badge Rossi will be wearing on his overalls in 2007?

In Moto GP the chance of a challenge being given to Rossi has now completely ceased to exist. Rossi is unable to get the same buzz from winning as he has done previously, and considering his passion for cars as well as bikes, a natural progression that will enable him to transfer his racing skills and give him that same feeling he had when he made the move from Honda to Yamaha is one I can not see Rossi letting go. He is not getting any younger, and as his dad has advised, if he is going to try to mirror the achievements of John Surtees, he needs to be doing it now. Rossi may not be 100% confident about committing himself to F1, but his defensiveness when questioned about it demonstrates that it is an opportunity he knows would be stupid to let pass.

Rossi is only 3 seconds slower than Michael Schumacher’s lap record on his second test day. It is inevitable that he will be able to get up to pace by 2007. But I’m guessing that Rossi is not going to make it easy for any Formula One team to get their hands on him, in its current state. Rossi has already expressed his negativity about the politics of F1. F1 has a growing reputation of frustration and boredom. Various drivers have expressed their dissatisfaction about the fact that it is so difficult to overtake in an f1 car. Rule changes seem to represent more of an ‘equal rights policy’ rather than a set of principles F1 teams and drivers are simply supposed to abide by. Although Rossi has shown a more serious side in recent months, I don’t think he is in any major hurry to completely dismantle the element of fun he likes to get from his sport.

Rossi gets agro when asked about what he is going to do, because he has this conflict to be dealing with. The pressure to perform well, Rossi can handle, but being controlled he cannot. There are numerous advantages that Valentino Rossi can bring to F1 on the whole and he knows this. But going on Rossi’s skepticism that already exists in relation to its current state, I don’t think he will be rushing into anything without taking some kind of influential stance over how it is run.

This time last year Rossi was glowing. He was half way through his first year, fighting to win his first championship with Yamaha. A win that proved that as a rider he didn’t need to be on the best bike to dominate. This year, although he is more than dominating the championship he is not appearing to be overjoyed with his position. He has given himself another year with Yamaha. A year within which he knows he can dominate, enjoy the effects of a possible downsize in engine change, with enough brain capacity left over to concentrate on his preparations to join F1 by 2007.

He is aware of the hard work and time consumption it will take to fast-track towards the level of driving needed to compete in the F1 Grand Prix by this time, and any additional stress caused by media interest is bound to get his back up. But we all know once Rossi sets his mind to something, he is more than capable of achieving his goal.

Once Rossi has attained what he plans to accomplish in F1, there is no doubt in my mind that he will return to Moto GP in order to take the title back from anyone who has the pleasure of minding it for him during his departure. But Rossi has a passion for both bikes and cars. Rossi will not waste the opportunity of an additional mark on his name for making history, satisfying his urgency to take up a new and difficult task, and an underlying chance to challenge authority.

Why Roberts’ Brilliant Performance Should Get Him The Sack

Paul Denning commented in November last year that one of his main tasks ahead of the 2005 season was to get Kenny Roberts Jr motivated by putting a better bike under him, but stated that “obviously the effort and commitment has to come from him”.

Should he stay, or should he go?

At Donington on Sunday, Kenny Roberts once again proved that he has got what it takes to get great results. But, what he also proved is that he only rides to his full potential when he is up there racing with the best riders.

If Paul Denning wants Kenny Roberts to perform like this in every race he needs to be able to immediately stick a bike under him that will enable him to be up there with the ‘quick crew’ every time. It seems like Kenny only performs well when the mood takes him and there is no therapeutic magic motivation technique that will make him any different. Why then is he still holding onto him?

Denning has the awareness that when Kenny is at his best he really is ‘something special’, and may feel that this is worth holding on to, but have Suzuki got the time, money or patience to wait for that ‘something special’ to only come around once every so often?

I don’t think the real problem here is Kenny’s so called ‘lack of motivation’. A rider should not have to make the effort to be more motivated. It should come naturally. Kenny Roberts’ talent only comes naturally when he is in with a certain crowd, and Suzuki at present is not providing him with the right equipment in order for this to happen.

I think the real problem is Paul Denning’s pipe dream that he can mould Kenny into performing the same way that he did when he was World Champion 5 years ago. This will not happen on a bike that does not live up to Kenny Robert’s standards. Denning needs to stop thinking in terms of how he can motivate Kenny Roberts and start thinking about what is happening now. Language such as ‘making the effort’, ‘trying hard’, and ‘having the motivation’ only cloud the real issues. If a rider needs to consciously do any of these things, then he might as well throw his gloves in and give up racing altogether. As long as Denning uses this kind of talk to describe what Hopkins has lots of, and what Kenny is lacking in, he can convince himself Kenny will come through. Kenny Roberts is not the type of rider that gets satisfaction from what, for him, might as well be called a test drive for Suzuki, during a MotoGP race, and no ‘how to get motivated’ instruction manual is going to change this. He has the talent, but only uses it when it suits him. Paul Denning needs to face up to this, get rid of him, let him go spread his wings elsewhere, and get another rider in better suited for the job.

Hayden Triumphs while Rossi Wimps Out

We have just witnessed Nicky Hayden taking his first win of the season, finishing with a significant 2 second gap ahead of second place Colin Edwards and current world champion Valentino Rossi. Hayden clearly proved that his experience at Laguna Seca and ‘dirt-track’ riding style definitely paid off. Edwards also demonstrated his dominance on this track, springing his moves on Rossi at the corkscrew. Great track, great race and a nice result for the locals.


The question that follows on from this result in my mind is whether this is just going to be a one- off dreamlike ‘heroic’ memory for Hayden or is this going to give him a major boost in his confidence and positively affect his performance for the rest of the season? And Donington, another track that suits his style of riding, may be a good opportunity for him to steal Rossi’s thunder.

At Donington last year, Hayden finished fourth. Edwards took his first podium of the year with Honda and Rossi took an immediate lead eventually to win by a margin of 2.945 seconds. Melandri had nothing but a bad experience at Laguna Seca and I’m certain he is set to prove who’s boss as much as Rossi at Donington.

After all the whining from Rossi and Melandri in America at a track that really does demonstrate a rider’s skill to combat survival instinct, it will be interesting to see if the injection of Laguna Seca puts Hayden and Edwards into gear at a circuit with similar demands. Rossi and Melandri both expressed their concerns about safety and had a moan about the track. Hayden and Edwards were in high spirits and just got on with, which can be said for most of the riders.

I’ll be the first to admit this was a side of both Rossi and Melandri that I did not appreciate seeing; it could be argued that it was this negativity that affected their performance on the day. In my opinion Melandri, but most importantly Rossi, revealed his weakness in America and it was Laguna Seca that enabled Hayden and Edwards to take advantage of this.

This is not to discredit Hayden and Edward’s experience of such a technical track, however I do think it is a major factor worth taking in to consideration. Riders always perform better at their home track. Rossi and Melandri just made it a whole lot worse for themselves by acting like what some may refer to as ‘spoilt brats’. They had every right to express their opinions about their concerns of track safety, however to publicly undermine its eligibility to be a race venue for moto gps after it had been finalized seemed somewhat inappropriate and out of character.

Donington will be a useful testing ground to see if Hayden goes back to his world of being intimidated by the front runners or whether he will take his confidence with him and show what he as a rider is capable of as well as his bike. We all know how self-reliant Rossi will be, but Hayden should be seeing him in a different light now, Rossi wanted to chicken out of a track where Hayden thrived and won.

How To Beat Rossi

The objective ‘how to beat Rossi’ itself is one that is clearly haunting the majority of top riders in the Moto GP championship. My argument is that the elimination of this question is the first and most important step towards Rossi’s competitors using their maximum potential. Right now I cannot say that any of them are.

Sometimes you wonder the only way to beat Rossi is to take him out!

This does not mean that it isn’t worth studying Rossi’s technique and set up. This means that the answer to beating Rossi is not to become obsessed with the idea that to beat Rossi is to ‘be’ Rossi. There isn’t anything specific about Rossi that anybody else can imitate in order to become what he is.

What I will say about Rossi, that makes him appear to have the ‘X’ factor is the fact that he doesn’t ‘do’ motorcycle racing, he ‘is’ motorcycle racing. He has a holistic approach that legendary world champions all possess. This is a complete passion and dedication for the world of motor sport without even giving it a second thought. There is not a particular route that racers need to follow or a certain way that they should be to get their fastest times and win championships. Any thoughts or conflict within a rider’s mind will only jeopardize their ability to get their best results. I bet when Gibernau is racking his brains on how he should or shouldn’t be, Biaggi is searching for whoever else to blame and Nicky Hayden is listening to 2 Pac, Rossi is physically doing something to enable him to exceed himself in one way or another.

The moral of the story? Rossi is not super human, and the ‘X’ factor is not that mysterious. The majority of top motorcycle racers all have the potential to ‘beat Rossi’. However, Rossi and other world champions such as Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna (all started in karting) are consistently motivated to ‘be’ motor sport rather than just ‘do’ it. This selflessness and infinite dedication enables them to have brains free of useless baggage and leaves them with 100% of mind power to be world champions, have power over their teams and completely dominate their sport.

They live for what they do, they get on with it. They rarely waste time questioning right and wrongs, and just get on with doing them. This is not to say that this is done with ease. Although, the natural outcome of this ‘doing’ rather than ‘thinking’ approach is an unbelievable amount of motivation and energy that recycles itself and creates the illusion of unbeatable talent.