Something that’s always on my mind and I feel like people don't talk about enough when it comes to Sepang 2015 is how painful it must’ve been for Vale to admit that everyone around him had been right about thinking that Marc would eventually fall from his grace, and that ignoring them ended up backfiring so bad for him.
Because I can’t ever get over the fact ☝️ that Jorge Lorenzo spent the entire 2013 season complaining about how Marc would ride too aggressively, bringing up his Moto2 history of issues about it, asking for race direction to penalize him with a race ban so he'd learn a lesson in responsible riding “the way they did with me” (such a Jorge thing to say btw), and even refusing to shake his hand at Jerez.
Meanwhile, Vale (who was having his little rebirth arc after the past three years where he basically went through hell) was *living* for Marc’s arrival in MotoGP. He hyped him up with the press and kept saying he was sure Marc would become one of the all-time greats. Later, by 2014, they were both saying they loved “playing” with each other on track, Vale said that fighting with those new kids motivated him and at the start of 2015 Valentino even said he was *thankful* Marc had brought excitement back to MotoGP, because “with Jorge and Casey it was boring when races were finished after 3 laps.”
AND SPEAKING OF CASEY! Back then, that same 2013, Casey Stoner straight up told Motosprint that Marc needed to show more respect to his rivals because it looked like he wanted to humiliate them. And when Marc was asked about that comment *right in front of Valentino* (at the San Marino press conference), Vale laughed at the mention of Casey's words. It cracked him up.
Can’t stress enough how important that is for 4 reasons:
1. Respecting rivals is something Vale has never really given a damn about since he was a teenager,
2. What could he say about it? Marc reminded him of himself in his best years (in fact, the disrespect for rivals was one of the things Casey disliked the most about Vale)
3. He of course wanted to take any chance to downplay Casey’s opinions, and
4. Contrary to what many people think, Valentino didn’t expect Marc to “respect” him. He knew what Marc was like from the start, he had been like that too at his age, respect was *never* the issue.
Plus, anyone who knows Vale knows he probably had *extra fun* in being friends with Marc exactly because Jorge didn't like him and Marc had basically taken Casey's spot (who also wasn't too fond of Márquez). And damn, it wasn’t just 2/4 of the aliens. 2013 and 2014 were another kind of hell for Dani Pedrosa too: he was under massive pressure from fans, Honda and the press to finally win a MotoGP title, only to end up in both years with injuries and dealing with crashes like the one in Aragón, where he openly said Marc was riding too close to the limit and complained that race direction did nothing about it.
And again, Vale kept quiet through all that, and I do think that was mostly because *he* wasn’t fighting for the title. Jorge and Dani were, with Marc. And if Vale could stay chill, stir the pot a little, buddy up and have fun with the rookie of the year after a shitty period of his life, that felt even better (he had no idea lol)
And I’m saying this because while 2014 was a bit more fun, more balanced competition between Dani, Jorge, Vale and Marc, the friendship between the last two was still smooth sailing, but!!!! It was by the end of that same year that Marc would be invited to the Ranch for the last time. Everyone knows the story: Marc showed up with his own bike and crew (for some reason we’ll never understand???) and broke the track record, which pissed off basically everyone in Vale’s circle, especially his Uccio.
And the funny thing is, contrary to popular belief, *even that* didn’t make Vale give up on the friendship with Marc. Because again, at the start of the following season, right after Qatar 2015, he was still saying Marc made races fun again, that it was exciting to battle with him. Not even after Assen 2015!!! After the famous chicane cut drama, even with both of them clearly not happy with the race, Valentino said there was no problem with Marc, but when asked if their relationship had changed, while Vale said “no,” Marc said “maybe.”
Ouch. And I have zero doubt that answer got replayed back to Vale by his close team who already disliked him (and a hundred times by Uccio) like, “look, is that the guy you want to be friends with?”
Anyway, the point in all of this is that by mid-2015, Valentino had already heard “red flags” about Marc (quote unquote because to be a MotoGP rider you have to be a hypocrite) from Jorge Lorenzo, Dani Pedrosa, Casey Stoner, Moto2 riders, MotoGP riders, race direction, his friends, even his lifelong best friend, and he still ignored and downplayed all of them because... Idk????? Why????
Build your theories! We’ll never know. But we *do* know how it ended, what happened after Phillip Island and how that still haunts MotoGP to this day.
AND YOU KNOW WHAT TICKLES MY BRAIN THE MOST?
Anyone who really knows Valentino Rossi and his rivalries knows there are two things he *hates* the most:
2. Making the same mistake twice (see, the infamous broom-gate from Qatar 2004 — two Catalans, funny enough).
And what happened with Marc pierced his heart hitting both things.
My personal Roman Empire is that not only had the *entire universe* basically warned Valentino that Marc would eventually fall from his grace, that it was bound to happen, but that he chose to ignore them all, only for it to play out exactly how they told him it would.
And not only that!!! Add to it the fact that this was the second time a charismatic, talented Spanish rider, someone he liked and joked around with, ended up making him take himself straight into the same place: Valentino starting a race from the back of the grid.
Except in 2015, unlike 2004, *everyone* around him was lowkey enjoying telling him “told you so.”
titsay
kaledo-art
pixelskylines
romaincrisis
baratheonpilled
yousharknotpass
stormborns
annaxmalina
