MotoGP – Rossi: Yamaha, Ducati, Ferrari, Punto… what indecisions

Poor Valentino. When you can choose what to do in the immediate future, without anyone forcing you to take rough roads that you don't want, you get strange ideas in your head. Or rather, it is the journalists who invent strange solutions to confirm you at the top in the MotoGP or even important in the four wheels. Different paths to the only goal of glory, with Gibo Badioli, your manager, to help you achieve what you want. Or rather you believe. Let's see. Stay with Yamaha, again, to continue your winning streak and sell quite a few motorcycles that would otherwise be stuck in dealerships around the world. A challenge already won, won by a landslide, worthy of an anthology of motorcycling, between utopia and the unreality of something unique, never seen on two wheels.

According to Davide Brivio, the negotiations for reconfirmation (or rather, the desire to remain with Gerno di Lesmo's team) are well underway. At Le Mans thunder and lightning led to writing of an agreement already found, soon transformed into the "It's still early" of Mugello to the "We'll see" of Montmelò. Spain achieving their fifth victory in six matches, super escape in the standings, championship discussion if not completely archived at least mortgaged. Why leave Yamaha, why? Maybe because there's a Ducati wooing you.

The words of Claudio Domenicali in the Luciano Moggi version matter little: "Rossi obscures the brand, we don't care". Find me a home in the world, late 2003 Honda aside, that wouldn't want the Martian. One, no more is asked. Even if Ducati didn't want the international Valentino (thinking that isn't it better to be overshadowed by one of your own riders than by a competitor's rider? Yamaha sales data confirms this...), Marlboro certainly is. A fixation for the red and white tobacco brand, always, ever since Rossi became more important even than Michael Schumacher in the eyes of the public. For Marlboro it is easier to dress up the Yamahas (expiring with Altadis, but there is talk of a renewal already found) or to woo Valentino towards Ducati, also offering him plenty of tests with Ferrari Formula 1 for any possible decision by Rossi for 2007 ?

Obvious answer, solution found. Because Valentino hasn't kept an eye on the cars, because the test on 21 April 2004 had gone too well not to open up future scenarios, because the Red is always the Red and with Rossi it would be even more so. Controcampo, Mediaset's weekly magazine, had headlined the front page shortly after the weekend in Barcelona (and Montreal as regards F1) in: "Ferrari wins in 2007", considering the triumph of Valentino in MotoGP and Kimi Raikkonen in Formula 1. A combination which for Ferrari would represent guarantees of success (at least for the Finn) and very advantageous advertising returns shortly after Michael Schumacher's eventual competitive retirement (his contract expires in 2006). Journalistic inventions, perhaps, but with a natural basis of truth.

As everyone knows, Valentino Rossi's interest in rallying. A WRC RAC in 2002 ended prematurely with the Peugeot 206 WRC of the Grifone team, but also many positive appearances at the Monza Motor Show and Rally with the Toyota Corolla. A passion that has enveloped him since he was a child, and hence strange hypotheses of his future in the World Rally Championship linked to Fiat, which is preparing the Punto Super2000 in Chivasso (ready for the new FIA regulations) for the great return to the world of countersteering. The presence of Matilde Tomagnini (head of Fiat Auto Corse, and in the past collaborator of Max Biaggi...) and Lapo Elkann (President of the Fiat Racing Committee as well as director of the "Brand" of the parent company) in Barcelona have opened up futuristic scenarios of a Rossi rally driver, as SportAutoMoto had anticipated a few weeks ago.

Hypotheses that turned into the reality of a commercial agreement between Fiat (in this case “Felpe”) and Dainese. A joke, you might say. But wasn't his alleged farewell to Honda for Yamaha also like this in 2003? Anything can happen, but of course choosing between a Punto and a Ferrari... Or a Ducati very close to having it in 2004, for an all-Italian challenge. Yet another, for Valentino Rossi.

Alessio Piana