Should Valentino Rossi Retire? An Opinion Piece.
(By Keelin McNamara) Valentino Rossi has struggled in his last two MotoGP seasons, but does that mean he should hang his leathers up? I take a closer look at the 46 million dollar question here.
For the past couple of seasons, rumours have been swirling in and around the MotoGP paddock concerning the potential retirement of 9-time World Champion, and arguably the greatest motorcycle racer of all time, Valentino Rossi. “The Doctor” has unquestionably suffered a lot of difficulties for the last couple of seasons, and his first races in Petronas colours have seen little progress. This has led to calls for the Doctor to hang up his leathers, but should he? Here, I analyse whether Valentino should call it a day, or whether there’s possibly still one last moment of euphoria for the Doctor.
I want to start off by making it extremely clear and transparent from the outset that I am a huge Valentino supporter. Whilst this may draw both dismissive laughter and fanatical support in equal measure, Valentino is the reason I became a fan of our beautiful sport, and I have remained a loyal supporter for as long as I can tangibly remember. Because of this, I approach a scenario that every sports fan eventually dreads with somewhat of a unique perspective, because although I do not shy away at all from my adoration of Valentino, I am also fair and balanced, and this issue will be analysed as such.
Valentino is the reason why me, and millions of people around the world like me, became MotoGP fans. (Credit: Succesbod)
There is no doubt, even for a devout supporter such as yours truly that Rossi has struggled a lot since 2019. He finished seventh in the 2019 overall standings with 174 points. Whilst not bad by anyone’s expectations, it was definitely not as high as the lofty standards Valentino sets for himself. It ended up being his statistically worst season since that ill-fated 2011 season on the Ducati. 2020 was marred by COVID-19, but he still placed in a dismal 15th place overall in the standings come the end of the season.
There is no question that Valentino has struggled in the last two seasons onboard his Yamaha M1. (Credit: AutoMobilSport)
Additionally, many people have pointed to Valentino’s age (42), as well as his poor qualifying as evidence that he should make the decision to finally retire. Even this season (2021) with the Petronas SRT team, he has regularly found himself stuck in Q1 and starting races from the rear of the grid. Of course, when Valentino manages to qualify well is when he gives himself the best chances of obtaining top 10 results, but his regular issues of tyre degradation, which, to his credit, he has been consistent in pointing out, seem to be hindering him. Unfortunately, however, many people have fairly pointed out that Rossi’s teammate and protégé Franco Morbidelli has achieved far better, consistent results on an older bike (2019 spec Yamaha M1), and thus have pointed the blame at him instead, which again, is hard to argue with.
Valentino has been vocal about his consistent tyre struggles, as well as the top speed deficit the Yamaha M1 keeps struggling from. (Credit: Motorlat)
Contrastingly though, and I admit that this may not come as a big shock, but I would at least present the narrative that Valentino is not quite done yet. As mentioned above, he has been incredibly consistent in pointing out the issue of tyre longevity over the last two seasons, issues which would detrimentally affect any rider. As well as this, Yamaha still suffer with a 15km/h speed deficit to all of the other machinery on the grid. Even Monster Energy Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo, arguably Yamaha’s best current rider, keeps suffering negatively from this.
My biggest issue personally in simply telling Valentino to hang it all up though is that a lot of people don’t understand one simple thing: Valentino literally lives and breathes for our sport. He was born into it; I’m pretty sure race fuel pumps through his veins to some degree. Our sport is the only thing that Valentino has ever known, and it has been his one true love and passion for as long as he has been alive. Many of us spend decades of our lives searching and yearning for that same passion and love for what we do, and some of us sadly never find it. Whilst I am fully aware of the fact that there is little room for sentiment in MotoGP, or any motorsport for that matter, the fact that such an amazing ambassador for our sport still maintains that same adoration and passion for the sport and his fans at 42 as he did at 22, as he probably did at 12 is something that should be celebrated and revered, not mocked and used as a proverbial stick to beat him with.
Valentino's passion has never wavered, and he has still displayed glimpses of race winning potential on occasion. (Credit: CrashNet MotoGP).
I suppose my own opinion comes down somewhere in the middle of the two arguments. I am one of the biggest Valentino fans you will ever meet, and I’ll never say otherwise. People claim he’s ruining his legacy, but I disagree. I think that Valentino’s legacy is well and truly secure, and the chapters of that legacy are still continuing to be written with his own venture into team ownership. Of course, I am referring to the Sky VR46 setups in Moto3 and Moto2, as well as the newly forming Aramco-backed VR46 team coming to the Premier class in 2022.
Whilst I can understand the legacy argument, I truly, deeply believe that any sportsman or woman that is able to maintain their love and passion for so long, especially such a brutal and physical sport as ours, is something to be celebrated and admired, not something that we should be chasing away. We need more passion in sports now more than ever, and nobody embodies that any more than the Doctor, Valentino Rossi.
RRossi still embodies such enthusiasm and passion for our sport, and has even achieved impressive results when he has managed to get the tyre setup right - such as in Jerez last year. (Credit: MotoGP)
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