Valentino Rossi held on as best he could in MotoGP but the fight was unequal. Because time always wins. At 42 years old, and faced with adversity composed of drivers, some of whom could almost be his sons, the outcome was inevitable. That being said, the Doctor would certainly have preferred to go out the front door rather than being sucked a little further towards the back of the starting grid each season. This tenth title, in particular, will always be missed. But we learn that in addition to bending under the weight of the years, he had the evil eye on him. A curse that someone had placed on him in 2005…
We learn some great things in this series MotoGP Unlimited which is worth the detour on Amazon Prime Video. For example on this Valentino Rossi damn. But who had given him the evil eye? Incredible but true, this is his last boss Razlan Razali. We remember that the Malaysian, who still represented the Petronas colors, was never enthusiastic about the arrival of the Doctor within its walls. On Speedweek, he said about this hiring: “ to be honest, I should never have taken Valentino Rossi. We always had the impression that there would be no alternative to him, we felt the pressure from Yamaha, pressure which ultimately was not there. I rather think that Valentino put pressure on himself. Times were passing, but he wanted victory. His mind and his will wanted it, but the physical did not ».
However, between Razali et Red, it’s a story that started much earlier… In the series MotoGP Unlimited we thus discover a Razlan Razali declare at the start of the 2021 season: “ Valentino is a special situation, we want to see what we can do with him. The goal is to be competitive with him, and if we can do that it would be great, it would mean the team can do something positive. As a young man I was a big fan of his, but I have a negative memory of an event that took place in 2005 ».
“Valentino Rossi walked past me completely ignoring me”
And this is where the revelation is made: “ he was busy with some winter tests at Sepang, I went to see him to get his autograph. He walked past me completely ignoring me... I rolled my eyes and said: you come to my country and you dare to do this to me? I gave him a kind of curse, wishing him never to be World Champion again. From that moment on, I lost interest in him, until we were offered to hire him. I said to myself: “that’s not true…” But that’s how it is, that’s life, it's karma, it happens. And he doesn't know all that, I never talked to him about it ».
We don't know if Valentino Rossi learned it at the time the comments were collected, but in terms of karma, Razlan Razali also had its share in then losing the support of Petronas... Clearly, MotoGP is so exciting that it borders on the irrational. By the way, after 2005, Vale was titled in 2008 and 2009, the year of his last coronation.
