Valentino Rossi, the losing syndrome and the boycott of MotoGP

In a week, Marc Marquez will celebrate his tenth World Championship title, his eighth in MotoGP, putting the seal on the career of the strongest rider of this era—and perhaps of all time. He will surpass Valentino Rossi, who is stuck on nine titles. But in Italy, nobody is talking about racing, let alone the Ducati icon.

In recent days, Valentino Rossi presented his biography, and some saw a suspicious coincidence in its timing with the crowning of his great Catalan rival. In other words: you’ll win in silence, because everyone is talking about me again. It may have been carefully planned, but it’s worth pointing out that November is the peak month for the most eagerly anticipated new releases from publishing houses. So perhaps it’s just a matter of publishing strategy, not age-old rivalry.

With the media machine as ever wholly on his side, Valentino Rossi didn’t use the spotlight to remind people of what he was: a phenomenal champion and the figure who, around the turn of the millennium, put motorcycle racing on everyone’s lips in Italy. A side note: this is nothing new. Giacomo Agostini had already made Italy fall in love with him in the 1960s and ’70s—more than Valentino Rossi did. Ago starred in five films, and photo-romance novels featuring him as a Latin lover became a cultural phenomenon. Giacomo was the sex symbol Valentino Rossi never was. So motorcycle racing was a mainstream sport long before Vale arrived—but try telling that to the sycophants with microphones.

What struck motorcycle fans most, myself included, was the storyline Valentino Rossi deliberately chose to present. He could have talked about his nine World Championships, his 115 Grand Prix victories, or his triumph at the 2001 Suzuka 8 Hours, when thousands of Japanese fans cheered him beneath the podium as if he were a rock star. It would have been incredible to hear him recount twenty years of racing, rivalries, and magical overtakes—and what he meant to people’s imaginations at the time: a global star who took the motorcycle Grand Prix championship into a whole new dimension. But no: he chose to focus on his hated rival, Marc Marquez, and the 2015 championship, which he could have won but instead went to Jorge Lorenzo. According to Valentino, Marquez deliberately made him lose at the infamous Malaysian Grand Prix, during which Rossi himself kicked the Catalan rider, earning a grid penalty for the final race in Valencia. A dirty move he now denies, along with the claim that the promoters and sporting authorities showed favoritism toward the Spaniards. So, instead of looking back over a legendary career, he leafed through the loser’s handbook, popular in every sport: the opponent cheated, it wasn’t a foul, and the system is rotten.

They say time heals wounds and softens bitterness. But it clearly hasn’t worked for Valentino Rossi, because the press coverage over the past few days reveals a VR46 who is still absolutely furious. By choosing this line, he set off a media firestorm about his most painful defeat, rather than celebrating the greatness of his career. A spectacular own goal. Who knows how much Marc Marquez is laughing, thinking that even after eleven years, his former rival still hasn’t gotten over it.

Up to this point, these are matters between riders: Valentino Rossi has every right to present his persona and biography however he likes, even if many people didn’t think it was the most sensible choice. What does jar, though, is the campaign to tear down Marc Marquez that VR46 has been waging for the past eleven years. Repeating endlessly, "he made me lose", he’s "an unsporting rider", he "races without respect", amplified by much of the compliant media, especially on television, has turned the defeated rider’s simple—and understandable—opinions into absolute truths. Anyone who knows racing is well aware that things happened differently, and that Rossi won his last MotoGP title in 2009; after that, he lost to Casey Stoner, Jorge Lorenzo, and, of course, Marc Marquez. That’s what the record books say—the definitive evidence. But casual fans really did believe it: "if Marquez, the cheat, wins, I’m done watching MotoGP." And indeed, MotoGP has long since disappeared from the list of Italy’s most-watched sports.

In a week’s time in Portimao, when Marc Marquez climbs into the pantheon by winning with one arm shorter than the other, on a Ducati that’s less competitive than the Aprilia, we’ll have to hear and read the same old refrain: "he’s good, but...". All the more so now that Valentino Rossi has reignited the controversy in spectacular fashion, putting the rider he believes to be playing dirty in the public pillory. What’s strange is that Valentino Rossi owns a MotoGP team, which means—as they say—he is a stakeholder in the championship, thanks to multimillion-dollar agreements with its promoter, the Americans at Liberty Media. The contradiction is complete.

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Photo: Instagram/ValeYellow46