Submitted by David Emmett on
MotoGP's 2011 Silly Season - the period during which contracts are negotiated and hammered out for the 2011 season - got underway a little early. In fact, it got underway shortly after the 2010 Silly Season was over, some time around early September 2009, shortly after Jorge Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa signed one-year contracts with their current employers, Yamaha and Honda respectively. Their signings effectively meant that the contracts of Jorge Lorenzo, Dani Pedrosa, Valentino Rossi and Casey Stoner will all finish at the same time, at the end of the 2010 MotoGP season, leading to a feeding frenzy of speculation, rumor and argument over who will be going where for 2011.
Most of this speculation has surrounded Valentino Rossi. The Italian has been linked with a switch to Ducati, an extension of his Yamaha contract, a return to Honda, a career jump to Formula One with Ferrari, and even retirement to go race in WRC. Most of it has come from the ever-industrious Italian media, but Rossi himself has not been shy of using the media to his own ends on occasion. He has himself hinted both that he has offers from Ducati and that he will end his career at Yamaha, two seemingly mutually exclusive possibilities, as well as flirting cautiously with both Formula One and retirement. Any and all such pronouncements have been pounced upon by the press and sliced, diced and analyzed for any indication of what The Doctor's true intent might be.
No longer, however. According to Motorcycle News, Rossi will no longer make any more pronouncements on his future until a deal is done. "I have decided not to speak any more about 2011," MCN quotes Rossi as saying. Rossi's concern is that everything he says can be taken in many different ways, both good and bad.
Rossi's decision, though wise, is unlikely to put an end to the speculation. Though the Italian may stop responding to questions about his future, the press - egged on by the fans - will find a hundred other sources to fuel the rumors. Senior figures at Yamaha, Ducati, Honda, Ferrari, and any other organization with a shot at Rossi will be asked for their opinion of the situation, and the feeding frenzy will continue.
Nevertheless, the decision is a good one, if only for Valentino Rossi's frame of mind. The last time the nine-time World Champion was subject to such intense speculation was at the beginning of the 2006 season, when the Italian was considering a switch to Formula One. Partly as a result of Rossi's loss of focus during the pre-season, the 2006 Yamaha began the year with serious chatter issues and the factory Yamaha team spent the first half of the year chasing a competitive bike. In the end, Rossi lost the championship to Nicky Hayden, who triumphed after a long year of consistent podiums and despite one or two team problems of his own.
Th lesson of 2006 was not lost on Valentino Rossi, and the Italian's preparation for the season has been impeccable ever since. The speculation about where Rossi could end up in 2011 poses a similar threat to his frame of mind, and it is clearly one problem that he neither wishes nor feels capable of dealing with while facing what is almost certain to be the strongest challenge to his supremacy that he has ever faced.
Comments
hilarious
the ironies here are just hilarious. brilliant little piece, david.
i say he throws us all for a
i say he throws us all for a loop and switches to nascar!
i'll give 5:1 odds!
running in circles
Rossi is a NASCAR fan. I think you may be on to something.
if he did that
aelange i would have to change my sons middle name from valentino to...hell i dont know...anything....rossi going roundy round as part of the lamest form of motorsport in the world....i doubt it
I hear you on that one, rmv46
I hear you on that one, rmv46
In the future, Rossi will no longer talk about the future.
In the future, Rossi will no longer talk about the future. Because it will be the present? or because this press release about his future plans will be the last time he talks presently about the future?
I see a loophole. What if someone asks Rossi what he will be thinking tomorrow about his plans for the future? Rossi would be speculating as to the inner workings of his future mind, but I can't think of a better source of speculation.
I suppose time travel is a possible solution, as well.
he'll act just as he ever did
GOAT probably and incredible PR wise guy for sure too !
Maybe he won't answer directly questions about his future, but no doubts will he continue to use the press to make things moving for his own agenda, as he has always done in the past. Actually, there's a pattern to that: when he wants something to be changed he hints about it to journalists, when he wants to work on the other riders' psyche, he does it thru the press too, and when he REALLY WANTS a message to be heard by his own factory, he sends Burgess to the press.
The Italian press are as
The Italian press are as rabid about Rossi as the British press are about John Terry's willy waving. If they can't get truth, they'll just make sh** up. Same as it ever was.
Well, just a piece of my mind...
I do strongly believe that Rossi, as i said before here last year, will get a Yamaha team of his own, like when Honda gave him with the Nastro Azzuro single racer team, i'll put money on that, no teammate, no sharing data, just like it is now by the way, and Jorge is not very happy about it, just read the interview, but Rossi by himself for sure i see in 2011.
FernandoARG
VR on MV
It’s all gone quite now but when Harley announced it was selling MV reportedly Fiat were interested. Just after this Giacomo Agostini and a casual acquaintance of his Claudio Castiglioni, chairman of MV, reportedly wanted to put together a moto2 team.
If Fiat buys MV I don’t think they’ll be paying for Vale to ride for Yamaha for very long and with the new 1000cc rules I think Ago, Vale, Jeremy + Fiat money could put together a competitive bike.
Vale wants to ride for an Italian manufacturer and after the way he’s carried on about Jorge I don’t think he can jump on Casey’s bike so there has to be another way because Valentino Rossi always gets what he wants.
Now Valentino Rossi riding an MV Augusta with Giacomo Agostini as team boss I think a lot of people would pay money to see that. Including some wealthy Italians.
Sounds...
too good to be true!!!
And, yes I would pay to see it.
But FIAT is not that healthy financialy to be able to pay the full development off a motogp bike.
It would be amazing....but naaaaahhhhhhh I don´t think so.
Jeremy the champ maker
I don’t think enough people realize that Jeremy has won more world titles than Ago and all of them premier class. Where ever he goes between his ears he caries the blue prints for the best bike in MotoGP the knowledge of how to make it work and how to make it better. It wouldn’t be so much developing just building. And there’s no separating Jeremy and Vale. I was lucky enough to be present when both of them were asked about retirement. Jeremy said he would retire when Vale did and Vale’s reply was “me and Jeremy will be together till the end”
And the biggest impact on finances would be the money to be made. Remember when Vale went to Yamaha their sales in Italy nearly doubled. What would MV sales do worldwide? And it’s a fire sale. Fiat will pick it up for a song. (Maybe that’s where the Italian opera comes into it) Anyway I know it’s just a dream but it’s a good one!!!!!!!!!!
"The last time the nine-time
"The last time the nine-time World Champion was subject to such intense speculation was at the beginning of the 2006 season, when the Italian was considering a switch to Formula One. Partly as a result of Rossi's loss of focus during the pre-season, the 2006 Yamaha began the year with serious chatter issues and the factory Yamaha team spent the first half of the year chasing a competitive bike."
CHALLENGE! I think poor Yamaha engineering had way more to do with that chatter problem...
Where did the chatter come from?
Speculation at the time was that Yamaha's poor engineering was partly as a result of the lack of input from Rossi. His distraction left them with much less data than normal, and that led to the chatter problem. Engineers require data to make good decisions.
interesting
theory on rossi's lack of focus in the preseason of 2006 and the m1 chatter problem. i never heard that before. that might lead one to believe the unpopular idea that rossi losing the title was less about hayden getting lucky, and more to do with rossi's own undoing. no rossi fan would want to give hayden that much credit! it would also take away some lustre from rossi's superhuman ability- focused or not!
the fiat/MV/ago connection sounds too good to be true! throw in burgess and rossi into that mix and you have the makings of italian high opera. i wish...
This 2006 theory..
..seems a bit unlikely to me. For sure Vr was a little distracted by whole media fuzz about F1 and those tests etc. but m1 was highly competitive bike in 2005 and nobody could imagine in that time that there gonna be such chatter issue. so maybe, but i say m a y b e he was a little less involved in developement process. for me it is only a speculation , so David do you have any source for this theory? in my opinion above anything it was an engineering mistake. And m a y b e Vr could find it out with his golden fingers if he touched it intensively enough in time.
r_mutt & peteboy...
You should look up the Tony Elias piece from a few months ago, the Rossi lack-of-focus-theory is hashed out quite thoroughly in the comments there.
There are many valid points to it, but I'm still not a buyer, that's why I quoted it and challenged it here again. Just to be a pain in the ass really...
About 2006...
How about the chunk of front tyre missing, as well as overheating and breaking out of the race with two different engines in two different races, it was a combination of a lot of things, including the lack of focus, wich was admited by both VR and Jeremy, there was no secret about it, they were very public about the whole thing, VR was not ashamed of it, he just said that will never happen again, and i dont wanna take anything from Nicky, im a big fan, and the trophy at his house says it all, but what if...
FernandoARG