Congratulations Valentino - 250th GP Race

Valentino Rossi will make his 250th GP start across all classes this weekend.....he will certainly go down as one of the all time greats and has an enviable record....even if he has had certain competitive advantages at some stages of his career the fact is the best riders usually always get the best rides/tires/teams etc and he is no exception.



I think the fact he has won in so many different classes on different bikes with various manufacturers is truly remarkable....that is something he certainly has over pretty well most other racers we have seen throughout history. Even if he fails to get that recalcitrant Ducati up to speed his record is still incredible considering what he has achieved over so many years of competing at the elite level and no one can take that away from him. Still dont reckon he is the GOAT though



The other amazing stat for me is the number of consecutive races he went without missing a start....I think from memory it began in 125cc from his very first race and went all the way through to 2010 before he broke his leg at Mugello and missed part of that season.



Hope he along with all the riders stay fit and healthy for the rest of the season and that he can make some progress with team red soon as it must be very frustrating for a multiple world champion to be so far back from the leaders and its been a while since he won a race (Sepang 2010).

ptk50 said:

Mr Squiggle - don't fall over - THANKS FOR THE POST - I TOTALLY AGREE

even with: "dont reckon he is the GOAT"



ImO - The G-O-A-T can only be determined for specific era's - and the current Japan dominated 3, 4 or 5 cylinder era is not yet over. So maybe we should be looking at G-O-T-E's - not to be confused with goatee which would clearly be Max

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Cheers mate....I must say today's FP1 was a shocker for VR and surely must be the low point of his career so far....the combination of a sub-optimal Bridgestone control tire not up to temperature and the Ducati's fickle front end have finally ended in a crash that has resulted in an injury for Rossi and he must be close to the end of his tether with this project already.



I believe the 800cc Ducati has always been a frightful prospect for any rider to master....even Casey Stoner at times felt the wrath of the red beast but he kept on pushing the envelope until in the end it made him physically sick.....the so called "mystery illness" was in reality a psychosomatic reaction to the stress of riding this bike at the limit week in and week out....but that is just conjecture on my part and I have no evidence to offer any support for this theory.



The GP07 that so many said at the time was a superior motorcycle with respect to its competitors with the amazing "auto pilot" capabilities many implied existed was in fact a fanboy induced delusion designed to denigrate Stoners achievements in winning a world title on this bike against an undisputed all time great.



At the end of that year noted testing guru Alan Cathcart concluded after having ridden all the bikes from season 2007 that the Honda and Yamaha were better overall packages and the Ducati was in reality an evil beast to ride.....he wrote several articles that appeared in AMCN and summarised his findings after sampling all these bikes.....I also remember Mamola and Schwantz commenting in a similar manner about the pecking order of all the machines from that season around the same time.



Take Stoner out of the 2007/2008/2009/2010 equations to gain a clearer understanding of where the Ducati lies in its various iterations when compared to the competition - yet people still perpetuated the myth of the electro-wonderbike that rode itself to a world title...it no doubt had oodles of power but not much else....a supercharged V12 bolted into a shopping trolley probably best describes the bikes overall demeanour....would you like to compete against a rider of Valentino Rossi's stature when faced with this prospect on a weekly basis. No wonder Stoner needed a fishing holiday



Ducati revelled in a false sense of security after their world title....that illusion has now been well and truly shattered but this realisation should have been obvious to the factory eons ago. Valentino is no more responsible for his current predicament with the GP11 than Melandri, Hayden or Capirossi were on the GP07-GP10 - even Stoner to a degree in the end struggled with this motorcycle....the blame lies squarely at the feet of the designers/engineers at Ducati in much the same way that Yamaha's and Honda's designers/engineers should take the bulk of the credit for their current engineering marvels.



Lets hope for the sake of the sport Ducati don't continue to head down what seems to most observers a dead end street in terms of development direction....the time has come to look at alternative designs and perhaps more conventional ideas that are KNOWN to work before its too late.



As far as GOATS go I agree....its impossible to really single out one rider as the greatest ever....especially if you look at rankings from a purely statistical perspective. If you realistically look at Rossi's current performance you would probably have to place him at 3rd best rider talent-wise in the world and at age 32 he is FAR from being past his prime. So how would that make him the GOAT then? If Kevin Schwantz had a factory Honda for his career how would he have fared? If Mick Doohan had started racing at age 15 like Vale how many titles may he have had? If If If.......Statistically Ago is the GOAT but we all know there are extenuating circumstances with many of his titles/race wins.



And lastly I think you misinterpreted Barrys post...he was actually inferring how amazing Rossi's record of continuous starts is when you consider he was ALWAYS at the pointy end of the field....not just filling places. Truly remarkable and a good reason to perhaps NOMINATE him for GOAT status rather than assign it as a FACT