This is certainly true regarding race results, which is why people race.
However, I have lived long enough to have come to care more about character in general and in addition to results. As distinct from likeability.
As a result, victories by the likes of Lawson, Stoner, Lorenzo, Quartararo, Clark or Prost mean more to me personally than those of Rossi, Doohan, Marquez, Mir, Senna or Schumacher.
For example, I have never seen anybody ride a motorcycle like Marc Marquez or drive a car like Ayrton Senna. However, their less than honorable instances of running people off the road on purpose makes me place an asterisk on their body of results.
By character, I also mean post race demeanor and statements, in addition to racing and winning in such a way as to not endanger or run other competitors off the track.
It used to infuriate me that later in his career, Doohan would inevitably come up with some excuse for a loss, pointing the finger at something or somebody else. There is naturally a fine line between pointing out a technical issue or making it somebody else’s fault.
Lawson will forever live in my mind as the dude who, when the team manager suggested firing the mechanic who failed to bolt the brakes on to his bike at Laguna which took him out of the running for a good number of races and the championship that year, instead insisted that that guy take care of his brakes going forward, reasoning that he wouldn’t make that mistake again. That’s balls.
