Valentino Rossi-Marc Marquez, a MotoGP legend makes his choice and reignites the debate
Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez again face off, if only in words: at the top of the list of the best riders in the history of MotoGP, in fact, six-time world champion Jim Redman inserts precisely the ‘Doctor’ and the current world champion (with a slight preference for the latter), explaining the reasons why both have not only been able to pick up the baton from champions such as Mike Hailwood, Giacomo Agostini or Kenny Roberts (other centaurs cited by Redman himself), but have done so by redefining the sport itself.
“Valentino Rossi is the man who forever changed the definition of a rider,” Redman said in a lengthy interview with the Spanish portal ‘Marca.’ With him on the track, racing had become something completely different: it was no longer just about speed, courage or technique, it was about the mind. Rossi was not just racing against you, he was studying you. He was learning your patterns, your weaknesses, the corner where you hesitated, the exact moment when your confidence cracked. And he used all that against you.”
To explain Valentino, Redman cited the historic overtaking at the last corner of the 2009 Catalan GP against Jorge Lorenzo: “In my day, a maneuver like that would have been suicide. The tires and brakes would not have held up. But Rossi had something we didn’t: information. He knew the tire, the grip … and most of all he knew Lorenzo. He knew exactly where to hit. That was his brilliance. Not just the talent in the saddle, but the ability to read a race, read an opponent and break him at the perfect moment.”
Rossi had seemed, to the winner of the 250 World Championship in 1962, 125 and 250 in 1963, 350 from 1962 to 1965, literally unattainable, “At least until I saw a boy from Cervera get on a motorcycle. The first time I saw Marc Marquez I thought he was reckless. He would fall, fall again, and then fall again. In my day, someone who fell that far would either die or quit racing. There was no third option. I looked at him and thought he wouldn’t last. But then I started watching him more closely….”
“He drives way over the edge: the fall is the price, the toll. He pays it and comes back every time,” he added, speaking about number 93. I spent my whole career thinking that greatness was staying inside the limit, controlling the risk, surviving. But Marquez forced me to rethink everything. He doesn’t stay inside the limit, he doesn’t stand it: he takes it over. Other riders are legends, but if you ask me at 94 years old who is the greatest, there is only one answer: the one who turned the impossible into routine.”
Words, those of Jim Redman, destined to rekindle the discussion between the fans of the two champions, who in two have collected no less than eighteen World Championships, equally divided.
