Rossi's Suprising Reaction

Valentino Rossi - The King of Kings, the GOAT, has recently been quite outspoken on the decision by MotoGP to switch from 990cc of engine displacement to 800cc. One would think that Rossi would applaud the move since it has benefited his career and financial status in a positive way. Rossi remains the most popular motorcycle racer to ever swing a leg over a bike and commands the largest salary ever paid to a 2-wheel pilot.

He is also the only rider to successfully make the transition between the two bikes. Nicky Hayden, the 2006 champion, and the last 990cc champion has never had a whiff of the top rostrum spot since the transition. Casey Stoner, the 2007 champion, who is currently tied with Rossi for the lead in 800cc wins, never won a race on the 990s. This leaves Rossi as the only rider to continue his winning ways across the two classes. Naturally, Rossi would seem to be the first in line to praise the Yamaha 800cc bike, which Wayne Rainey recently praised as the greatest GP motorcycle ever rolled onto a track. He isn't. Rossi is well known for his distaste for changing the status quo. He was very outspoken when the 500cc 2-strokes were retired in favor of the big 990cc 4-stroke because he found the 4-strokes too easy to ride. Rossi likes a challenge because it enables him to separate from the pack. The easier a bike is to ride, the closer a lesser rider can get to him.

Rossi has won a title on 500s, the 990s, and is the current 800cc champion, but has chafed at every transition. His latest comments indicate that he considers the 800s to be the least favorable of all the bikes.

In his own words:

“The 990 motorcycle was 'rough' and wild, but with a great motor and a lot power. The 800 is worse, simply worse, it is the same motorcycle with less power. I was very sad at the beginning, now it has improved, yes... But the power from the 990 made it a lot more fun."

“With the 800... I believe that the 800 are the biggest mistake the world championship has made in the last 15 years. We have lost a great part of the spectacle and part of this is because electronics have advanced so much."

“For me the manufacturers committed a great error when they changed to 800cc. The 990s were better in every way.”

Here a couple of stats that reinforce what Rossi is trying to say:

1. No Satellite rider has ever won a 800cc race. Zero wins. If this keeps up, they won't bother to race.
2. There were 14 different 990cc winners vice 7 different winners on the 800s.

The plan was to lower the cost of entry and improve safety by switching to a smaller displacement bike. It has failed on both accounts. The decrease in horsepower lead to tremendous R&D costs for the electronic control systems so the bikes can be ridden with little concern for keeping the throttle WFO in the turns. The satellite teams are always a generation in electronics behind the factory boys and that explains why they simply cannot compete. The safety improvements never arrived because to compensate for the lack of low end grunt, the riders are forced to carry tremendously higher corner entry speeds and simply crash at higher speeds than ever before. The 250cc high corner entry riding style has slanted the winners towards former 250 riders and away from the back-it-in, tire smoking riders like Nicky Hayden.

To prove my last point, let's look at the list of 800cc winners:

Valentino Rossi: Former 250cc Champion
Jorge Lorenzo: Former 250cc Champion
Casey Stoner: Former 250cc Champion Runner-up
Loris Capirossi: Former 2500cc Champion
Dani Pedrosa: Former 2500cc Champion
Andrea Dovizioso: Former 250cc Champion Runner-up
Chris Vermeulen: World Superbike Champion

I am going to go out on a limb here and suggest that there is a 2500cc bias to this list. In fact, Vermeulen's lone victory came in a field-leveling wet race that more or less puts an asterisk next to his name. All of the incoming new talent is from the 2500cc class (Bautista/Simoncelli) and the AMA and SBK guys are ignored. The lone exception is Ben Spies who appears poised to make the leap to MotoGP next season.

I think it's time to go back to the big bikes and let the best riders win rather than the best electronics package. The bad news is that Rossi would probably dominate ever more than he does now.