Petit Le Mans had a phenomenal conclusion. I guess blocking is now legal, so that will make things interesting. There were plenty of regulations broken at Interlagos. People are blindly devoted to insinuating sprint qualifying is working and fail to recognize the most interesting part was the one car starting at the rear of the field. The argument over best driver in the world rages on with no clear consensus on the answer just why everyone else is wrong. Thursday Night Blunder continues to be a highly entertaining science experiment. Ducati made history in the MotoGP finale, but a farewell was a bigger story of the weekend. Here is rundown of what got me thinking.
Moving On
Every career will come to an end, and this weekend saw the final MotoGP weekend for Valentino Rossi.
After 432 grand prix weekends stretching back to the 1996 Malaysian Grand Prix weekend at the Shah Alam Circuit, Rossi called it a career with 115 grand prix victories, 235 podium finishes and nine world championships.
I am not sure anyone imagined Rossi's career would make it all the way until 2021 when he made that first start. I am not sure anyone imagined Rossi's career would have gone this long when he won his ninth world championship in 2009. Most riders call it quits long before turning 40. Rossi blew past 40 and made it to 42 at the time of his final start.
People have been preparing for this day for over a decade. I think the first time we had to seriously consider the end of Rossi's career was in 2010 when the Italian fractured his tibia in a practice accident ahead of the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello. The injury knocked him out of competition for four races, ending his hopes of a third consecutive championship.
At that point he had just turned 31 years old, and it was then first time he had missed a grand prix in his career. After 230 consecutive starts, you look toward the end. Rossi had a historic career up to that point, arguably one of the greatest we had ever seen. It could have all ended that day in 2010 and we would have been grateful to have witnessed it.
Mick Doohan retired at 34 years old, the year prior to Rossi's premier class debut. Eddie Lawson was also 34 years old when he stepped away. Kevin Schwantz was only 31 when he retired from grand prix competition and turned his attention to stock cars. Rossi had already shown Formula One interest in the early 2000s and he had a knack for rally racing. A second career looked highly likely for The Doctor.
However, 11 years later, Rossi stuck to what made him famous, he won plenty more races, but never another championship though there were plenty of close calls. I don't think anyone anticipated Rossi would hang around this long, a career spanning four different decades with 22 seasons in the premier class. With all that we have seen, we must be comfortable moving on and MotoGP should feel comfortable heading into a Rossi-less future.
Rossi held on one season too long. He is heading out 18th in the championship with his best finish being eighth. He was third in the championship in 2018 and seventh in 2019, but he had not won since the 2017 Dutch TT. That didn't feel like his final victory at the time. This is far from the fairy tale ending we had imagined. We spent two decades accustomed to Rossi being at the top. His career ending anywhere but there was once unfathomable and yet here we are.
When the news first came out that Rossi was retiring at the end of the season, there was a common thought MotoGP would have been in trouble if Rossi had retired five years earlier. I am not sure I entirely agree with that, but there was a point where Rossi was MotoGP's one and only star. He carried grand prix motorcycle racing at the turn of the millennium at a time when the scene was void of a star. The Americans and Australians that had dominated the 1980s and 1990s were gone. For the first time in over 20 years, Europeans were positioned to control the world championship and Rossi not only took the flag, he charged away with it.
At a time when Michael Schumacher and Ferrari dominated Formula One, MotoGP had Rossi. Rossi too won five consecutive championships. He even switched manufactures mid-dominance, hopping from Honda to Yamaha. It was not just the dominance, but the personality. There was a pizzazz and intoxicating exuberance watching him win races. It wasn't watching just to see history on track but watching to see how Rossi the showman would top his previous celebration. He turned a victory into more than a podium celebration with a bottle of champagne. A victory became a skit, a performance, something more than we had ever seen in motorsports. It was more than just a burnout with noise and smoke. It was akin to more of a goal celebration in soccer or a touchdown celebration in football. It was something minor but digestible to the viewer.
Rossi was the guy. Few consistently challenged him, and even fewer were as personable. Nicky Hayden won a championship but did not maintain the success on track. Casey Stoner quickly won two championships, but he retired before the age of 30. Jorge Lorenzo did not take long to win his first championship, pushing Rossi out at Yamaha in a sense. Lorenzo had his taste for the theatrics, but he never was as likable, and his performance drastically fell off, causing him to retire at just 32 years old.
MotoGP would have been in a rough spot in 2014 or 2015 had Rossi walked away, but him sticking around as the Marc Márquez era began provided the series with the bridge it needed to move on. Márquez matched Rossi's output on the track and he did it while Rossi was around. It left no question that the guard had been changed. Rossi wasn't leaving and creating a void for another rider to fill. Márquez took the honor as top rider in the world as Rossi also competed and the two went toe-to-toe for the title.
Márquez was always going to have the advantage of time, as he is 14 years younger than Rossi, but this crossover allowed the next wave to take over without the MotoGP fan base lingering in the past, fond of what came before and thinking it could never be top. The tide changed in front of everyone, leaving no question that the next generation was taking over and was not inferior to the previous one.
It also helped that Rossi stuck around while the other personalities developed, many of these riders who grew up learning from the Book of Rossi. Márquez has mastered post-race celebrations. In the meantime, Fabio Quartararo has become world champion through an uncharacteristic route. Francesco Bagnaia has emerged as Italy's next hopeful. Joan Mir was a surprise champion in 2020. Jack Miller is as quick as they come and has developed into a top-level rider. Maverick Viñales has all the talent in the world but might not have the temperament to be world champion.
Another new generation will be entering as well. Remy Gardner, son of 1987 world champion Wayne Gardner, who retired after the 1992 season just shy of his 33rd birthday, is about to enter the series, as will Raúl Fernández, two immensely talented riders who showed great potential in their battle for the Moto2 championship this year.
Beyond the riders, MotoGP has greater manufacture participation than it had a decade ago. Gardner and Fernández will both ride for KTM's customer team. Suzuki is back on the grid and had a rider win the world championship last year with Joan Mir. Aprilia is in the premier class. For a while, MotoGP struggled with grid size and couldn't attract 20 entries, now it is drawing more than that and everyone is a contender. MotoGP went nearly ten years between customer team victories from 2006 to 2016. Last year, customer bikes won eight of 14 races and customer bikes have won a race in three of the last four seasons. Four of the six manufactures won a race this season.
For the longest time, it was hard to imagine MotoGP without Valentino Rossi. It was difficult to see how the series could remain interesting without him. But after 22 seasons in the top category, Rossi laid the groundwork for grand prix motorcycle racing to become the international event it is today. His first 11 years were spreading the word. His second 11 years were guiding it while other riders found success in the spotlight. MotoGP is moving on in a stronger position than if Rossi had retired before turning 35 as some of the champions that came before him.
Just because MotoGP is moving on does not mean Rossi will not be missed. He has been on the grid for an entire generation of fans. Longer time observers saw his every move. Others have grown up with him, experiencing many stages of adulthood together with their hero. For the younger set, they might have caught the end, maybe his last championship or at least his final championship fights where he came close but didn't break through. Rossi has left the greatest mark on the series. He will be missed by all, but MotoGP is not in trouble. It is ready to face its future and should have nothing to fear about what comes next.
Champions From the Weekend
Remy Gardner clinched the Moto2 championship with a tenth-place finish in the Valencia season finale.
The #31 Whelen Engineering Cadillac of Pipo Derani and Felipe Nasr clinched the IMSA Daytona Prototype international championship with a runner-up finish at Petit Le Mans with Mike Conway.
The #52 PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports Oreca-Gibson of Ben Keating and Mikkel Jensen clinched the IMSA LMP2 championship with a runner-up finish at Petit Le Mans with Scott Huffaker.
The #74 Riley Motorsports of Gar Robinson clinched the IMSA LMP3 championship with a class victory at Petit Le Mans with Felipe Fraga and Scott Andrews.
The #3 Corvette of Antonio García and Jordan Taylor clinched the IMSA GTLM championship by starting Petit Le Mans.
The #9 Pfaff Motorsports Porsche of Laurens Vanthoor and Zacharie Robichon clinched the IMSA GTD championship with a runner-up finish at Petit Le Mans with Lars Kern.
Winners From the Weekend
You know about more champions, but did you know...
The #55 Mazda of Harry Tincknell, Oliver Jarvis and Jonathan Bomarito won Petit Le Mans, its second victory of the season. The #8 Tower Motorsports by Starworks Oreca-Gibson of Gabriel Aubry, James French and John Farano won in LMP2, its first victory of the season. The #79 WeatherTech Racing Porsche of Cooper MacNeil, Mathieu Jaminet and Matt Campbell won in GTLM, its third victory of the season. The #23 Heart of Racing Team Aston Martin of Ross Gunn, Roman De Angelis and Ian James won in GTD, its third victory of the season.
Lewis Hamilton won the Brazilian Grand Prix, his 101st grand prix victory and his sixth of the season.
Francesco Bagnaia won MotoGP's Valencian Community Grand Prix, his fourth victory of the season, and it led Ducati's first podium sweep in the premier class ahead of Jorge Martín and Jack Miller. Raúl Fernández won the Moto2 race, his seventh victory of the season. Xavier Artigas won the Moto3 race, his first career victory.
Anton de Pasquale won the first two Supercars races from Sydney Motorsports Park with Will Brown taking the third.
Coming Up This Weekend
World Superbike finale from the new Mandalika street course in Indonesia.
The World Rally Championship crescendos in Monza.
The fourth and final Supercars weekend from Sydney Motorsports Park, but this will only be a doubleheader.
Formula One's inaugural Qatar Grand Prix.
