The Rossi Road to Ducati
Now that it is announced (and even before, when everyone already knew) it seems the most obvious thing in the world that Valentino Rossi is to race for Ducati in MotoGP beginning next year. However not so long ago the pundits were sure that Rossi would stay with Yamaha choosing the security of his highly successful team and best bike in the paddock over record glory with Ducati. What changed.
We wrote our two part post ‘Why Valentino Rossi will Finish his Career on a Ducati‘ in September 2009. There was no hard evidence that as Vale blasted his way towards yet another MotoGP title with Yamaha that he might be contemplating a swap. Yet we read the tea leaves and concluded that Rossi was desperate to reset the GP record books and supplant his child hood hero, fellow Italian Giacomo Agostini as the greatest motorcycle racer of all time (GOAT). And he didn’t want his teammate to be the one who was most strongly threatening his hegemony, one Jorge Lorenzo.
Rossi had hinted at a move as early as 2007 saying he might consider switching away from Yamaha and that the Italian factory would be his preference:-
“I have a good relationship with both Ducati and Honda but I would prefer Ducati because they are Italian.”
Things went mad late last year. For quite some time there were persistent (and nonsensical) rumors that Rossi would join Yamaha this year even though he was already contracted to Yamaha. When Rossi was reportedly spied at Ducati Headquarters along with Jeremy Burgess the Italian press went wild.
Much more interesting and important in our view was the change of management in the Ducati team. We asked if Ducati was getting ready for Rossi when we reported on the replacement of Livio Suppo, not thought to be Rossi friendly, with the former factory tester.
The latest move in the slow ballet is the replacement of Livio Suppo, said to have a fractious relationship with Rossi, by Vale friendly factory tester Vittoriano Guareschi in the role of Team Manager.
Valentino knows the Guareschi’s well. One of Rossi’s closest friends is endurance racer, Gianfranco Guareschi, brother of Vittoriano (Gianfanco was on hand during Valentino’s bizarre home pre-season accident last year).
Next came Valentino openly discussing Ducati with the BBC just prior to last season’s finale. It was clear he was warning Yamaha that he did not want Lorenzo as a team mate beyond 2010.
“Yamaha have to decide between me and Jorge for 2011,” Rossi told BBC Two. “I have a great option to join Ducati. I am not sure 100% if I will stay with Yamaha,” said Rossi. It depends on what happens next year. It depends on my performance and the fight with Jorge Lorenzo and the decision of Yamaha for 2011. I could change bike, ride for Ducati and try to win the world championship with an Italian bike. That would be a great motivation.”
link: Rossi Acknowledges and then Denies Ducati option
Early this year, Ducati CEO Gabriele de Torchio didn’t rule out the pursuit of Rossi telling journalists ‘Why Not’ when they asked the question. Only in 2010 has Ducati not had an Italian rider on their team (the last one was Canepa last season). More recently del Torchio was the source of much excitement when he reportedly announced the Rossi deal was done earlier this month, following which Ducati officially denied that this was the case.
In March, Rossi returned the mutual admiration society but warned that the deal must make sense for more than just emotional reasons.
“It would be nice to change because Ducati, for example, is an Italian make and the fans would be happy, but in the end you don’t take these decisions just for an emotional reason. You must also think that you’ll have to work there. So, we’ll see.”
link: Rossi Won’t Let Heart Alone Lead Him to Ducati
As it turned out, the end almost became pre-determined. Although much was made of Lorenzo beating an injured Rossi twice in a row at the start of the season after Valentino won the season opener, Rossi was the fastest runner so far when he crashed in Mugello during practice and effectively ended his 2010 title aspirations with a compound fracture of the tiba and fibula.
Nevertheless, being out of the team meant Lorenzo clearly took over in the Yamaha camp performing superbly and stamping his dominance on the title race this year and confirming himself as the star of the future. What else could Yamaha do but ensure they retained his talents knowing they had alien in waiting Ben Spies ready to move into Rossi’s place.
Even Lorenzo started to declare that his team mate was Ducati bound:-
“I see Valentino’s future in red,” he was quoted as saying as Gazzetta dello Sport. “I think it’s likely he’ll be at Ducati next year. But I would have preferred for him to stay with me at Yamaha, to race each other with the same bike.”
link: Lorenzo sees Rossi in Red for 2011
When Casey Stoner announced he was indeed following Livio Suppo to Honda the die was cast. The final part of the saga was the surprisingly rapid return of Rossi to racing. Widely expected to return at the just run Brno meeting, Rossi instead stunned everyone by turning up 2 races early at the Sachensring and nearly getting on the podium. He achieved that feat at the next race in Laguna Seca before a 3 week break. What possessed Rossi to return so early? We believed it was to get back to race fitness so he could try for victory at Brno and announce his switch from a position of strength. It wasn’t to be. A crash on the last lap of qualifying saw him lose out on a front row start and he never figured in the race itself finishing 5th behind Ben Spies.
The story finally came to a close at the announcement following the Brno race, but of course this end is just the beginning. What an exciting time we are in for next season.
Let’s close by repeating what we wrote a year ago (with bold emphasis added).
Ducati News Today believes that if Rossi keeps on winning, closing the gap to Ago and especially if Lorenzo continues to become a more competitive threat to him, Rossi will seriously consider a move to Ducati. Afterall it makes sense for the Italian to cement his greatest of all time tag on an Italian bike, just like his hero Giacomo Agostini did before him.
And now it is done. Benvenuto Vale! Two titles and 19 victories to go!
If you liked this post please consider becoming a Fan of Ducati News Today on Facebook and following us on Twitter.
Try These Related Posts:
