I know we haven,t even had race one yet, but it would appear to all but the most faithful or delusional Rossi-fans that Rossi is in for a tough 2011.
The biggest problem for Rossi is that he has finally put himself into the situation where he can be closely compared with another one of his main two rivals. On the Yamaha he was struggling to show superior talent to Lorenzo with equal equipment, to the point that he initially had the "wall " created ,and then subsequently demanded Lorenzos removal from the team. When that didn,t happen his only option was to move to a Stoner-free Ducati team.
Rossi saw Stoner achieve reasonably good results over the years, including many victories at the end of 2010, so Rossis ego made him believe that he could do the same or better on the same bike. This will be his undoing. It was bad enough for him not to dominate Lorenzo, but it is far far worse for him to be seen as inferior to Stoner on the same bike.
This quote is telling.....
"I'd split this group in two factions: one part is made of those who have always been against me, people who don't like me, people who supported [Max] Biaggi first, then [Sete] Gibernau, and then [Casey] Stoner," said Rossi.
"The excuse was that Casey rode for Ducati, but the truth is these people don't like me. There's not much I can do about it, I must accept this situation.
"As for the other part, it's a group of Ducati fans who have always seen me as a rival, so they now struggle to accept me atop a Ducati. Overall, it's people who haven't looked at this union with favour. These are fans I would like to convince and win over with results and with the races."
.............sounds like he is really under pressure, I think largely because he cannot do what Casey could do on the Ducati, and the great Italian dream of an Italian winning on an Italian bike seems a million miles away.
There must be a lot of regrets already........leaving the brilliant Yamaha for the pig-Ducati, for accusing Stoner of not trying hard enough last year. Surely battling Lorenzo on equal footing was a far better situation than the current scenario where he could just be making up the numbers, something the "great Valentino" would never have contemplated.
As Jumkie has stated, Rossi has been the favoured one over the years..........the best bike, special tyres etec etc, Yes, the move to Yamaha was bold, but with JB he always had the trump card to play, and also in those days the opposition wasn,t as strong.
Whatever the case, Rossi (mostly deservedly) built up a reputation as a riding God and became to be regarded as probably the best rider ever. Now that reputation looks to being tarnished to a large degree. If his results are as poor this year as we fear, then Rossis riding skills will (unfairly) be questioned. If there is general recognition that the Ducati really is a pig, then many may say that Rossis famed development and setup skills are not quite what we thought. Already on this , and other, forums the mood has changed. 3 years ago it was almost universally accepted that Rossi lost 2007 because of a distinct bike disadvantage. Now people are not so sure. Except for fans like Talpa.
Talpa hates Stoner, and that hate really seems quite pathological at times. Talpa has argued that Stoner has been ungenerous, he whinges, he blows his stack. Some of this may be true.....I believe in the heat of the moment he has "blown up". I think that he has had a huge resentment of the underplaying of his skills and this has led to a bit of a siege mentality. In hindsight it would seem that his cause for resentment was well justified, as it is only really coming to light this year that the Ducati really was a pig of a bike and that Stoner must have overidden it to get the results he gained. The tide is turning.......even over at Crash.net (Rossi bopperland) the number of Stoner fans is rapidly catching up to Rossi's. However ,over at MCN Talpas relatives still dominate the forum. Funny thing is, like Talpa, after accepting the favoured status of Honda this year, are mostly tipping Pedrosa to beat Stoner...............just like Talpa. Rossi fans really don,t like Stoner.
But for all of Stoners bad behaviour (if there really is that much I doubt), there is a real calculatedness to Rossis approach to his opposition.
His method of undermining and demonizing his strongest opponents was as sinister as it was subtle. Before we knew it Max Biaggi became Bad Max, Sete Gibernau became the pariah, the dobber, the one that was cursed never to win a race ever again. While Rossi had special tyres for all those years, virtually the minute the Bridgestones seemed better, he demanded to get those. He threatened to leave motoGP if he didn,t get what he wanted. There is a pattern emerging. Jumkie has very successfully elaborated on these points many times. You see Rossi is not quite the wonderful funny guy everybody thinks he is. Lorenzo was on the cusp of cementing his world title last year, so what did Rossi do..........did he play a supporting role? Of course not, he,s Valentino Rossi and motoGP is the Valentino Rossi show, so Rossi did his best to take attention away from Lorenzo and try to beat him up in that vital race. A real teammate? His team were not impressed either. So Rossi has an ego and he is competetive. Fair enough. At this level you probably need a bit of both to win, but I think his approach has gone beyond the bounds of good sportsmanship. I don,t think Doohan resorted to the same degree of shenanigans.
So, in summary, we Stoner fans are finally feeling that there is karma, that Stoner is finally being recognised for HIS skills and not the Ducatis speed. That Rossi is breing brought down a peg ot two. The fact that Rossi was not content to fight Lorenzo on equal footing has led to a questioning of his status as still the best rider in the world. Rossi,s arrogance and ego have resulted in a move to Ducati and a dramatic fall from grace so far , and a finish outside the top 3 this year will mean that his legacy as a motorcycle god will be forever tainted.
