Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez: Criminologist Roberta Bruzzone Takes a Clear Stance
Valentino Rossi’s interview on *Che Tempo che fa* inevitably sparked debate: “The Doctor” reiterated that he feels “just like he did on the night in Valencia” and that he hasn’t changed his mind about Marc Marquez, who “wasn’t fighting for the World Championship but to make me lose.” Psychologist and criminologist Roberta Bruzzone weighed in sharply on the issue on social media.
“Eleven years have passed, and that World Championship continues to be portrayed as a title that, according to Rossi, was taken away from him. I see it differently. Rossi lost that World Championship. Lorenzo won it. And that season, Lorenzo won seven Grand Prix races, while Rossi won four. The standings—though perhaps a bit tactless to point out—remain the same,” Bruzzone begins.
“Rossi has been an extraordinary champion (…). That’s precisely why it strikes me that, with all he’s won, people still so often return to talking about what he believes was taken from him. And I understand why the prospect of Márquez reaching ten titles makes that old story even more of a burden. The guy who was supposed to remain the villain of 2015 keeps racing and winning. It does, in fact, create a certain narrative awkwardness.”
“When you’ve built a significant part of your identity on the idea of being the one no one can beat, admitting that someone else was better that one time can cost you dearly. And so it can become more bearable to tell yourself that you were cheated. At that point, the rival becomes the perfect scapegoat. And if a friendly mouthpiece keeps repeating that version for years, so much the better. By hearing it over and over again, even a convenient excuse can start to seem like a fact,” the psychologist continued.
Bruzzone draws a parallel with the legal cases she follows daily: “Someone stakes their reputation, visibility, and perhaps an entire imagined career on a thesis and a single case. ‘Unfortunately,’ the thesis is spectacularly wrong. Then come the court documents, the investigations, and a ruling that disproves it. And that’s when you see how they handle losing. There are those who go back over the documents and ask themselves where they went wrong. And there are those who, once the arguments about the case are exhausted, begin to devote themselves wholeheartedly to undermining the reputation of the person who proved them wrong—all to avoid facing their own failure. A curious form of professional development.”
“The most bitter part is that, while you try to diminish the achievements of someone who succeeded where you failed, you can end up spending years orbiting around them, steeped in resentment,” concluded Bruzzone. “Because he didn’t just imagine an extraordinary career—he built it step by step with determination. He’s won nine titles, he’s changed a sport, and he’s had a career that almost anyone would sign up for without a second thought. And so a question naturally arises that I’d gladly ask Rossi: How much more attention do you want to give to the one world championship we’re talking about precisely because you lost it?”
