Valentino Rossi will be a little more of a racing driver in 2023 due to his now status as official driver of the BMW brand. But he will always be remembered as the one who shook up the codes of what has been his natural habitat for decades, the Grand Prix paddock. A journey characterized by its nine world titles, including seven in the major category. However, the Doctor also spent his last twelve years of service on a MotoGP without being able to win the tenth title he so hoped for. For what ? For various reasons, one of which has been identified: the generational change of adversaries, mentally formatted differently from previous ones.
Valentino Rossi retired as a starting rider in MotoGP in 2021. He left a certain void which was one of the elements which caused the stands on the circuits at the arrival of certain Grands Prix to become sparse. Vale has left its mark on the paddock, whose promotion goes to the men of Carmelo Ezpeleta united within Dorna. With an approach as daring as it is incisive, he also shook up his contemporaries, opponents who did not expect to be put under such pressure, including off the track.
« Valentino Rossi has destroyed more than one mentally during his career«
It worked for a while and Ramón Forcada, with a career as long in the industry as the Grand Prix legend, notes this aspect of the Doctor's story. The chief engineer never worked with him, but he remembers him as an excellent person from the point of view of strategy and psychological games. Speaking to YouTube PecinoGP in comments relayed by motorcyclesports, he first notes: “ Valentino was an expert in psychological warfare, until he found pilots more cunning than him ».
The arrival of a new generation which changed the situation according to Ramón Forcada : " this is why Valentino is one of the best drivers to ever exist and hasn't won since 2009 : because others arrived and assimilated this aspect of things for the first time. The generation arrived, a few years apart, made up of Dani Pedrosa, Casey Stoner, Jorge Lorenzo, Andrea Dovizioso who said to themselves: “ this guy is here to be beaten, not for anything else ". They were the first to understand and they were the ones who succeeded ". And the Spaniard finishes: “ Valentino was the number one strategist and we saw how many he destroyed mentally during his career ».
