Thats a bit like playing to watch someone like Ronaldo do tricks though: incredible skill and at a level very, very few can match. But I'd rather watch Mesi or Giggs or Best taking half the team on!! TNF Marquez is a bit of both: Stoner certainly is not.
But when they do take half the team on they invariably win, isn't that the point ? You have to admit watching MM in qualifying is never dull though. Although I will conceed that would watch MM over Stoner if I had to pick.
I wondered in the early days of MGP 2020 whether MM93 should've settled for 2nd or 3rd at the 1st race in Jerez. However I realised he only had visions to try and win every race regardless of what carnage he left behind. For such a so-called talented rider with MGP experience, he definitely didn't use his brain and accept the points seeing how close every round was last year. Rose tinted glass and Honda have an expensive injured rider. Can't see him returning until mid season in 2021. MGP doesn't look like they miss him either, Honda might do though.
I’d like to think he’ll finally realise the season is more than one race and perhaps will settle for a top 6 place at rounds where it’s not working for him or even winning is enough rather than trying to to get pole and fastest lap as well? Maybe he’s been told you break it again your career is over and your spend your retirement supping your beer from your other arm? I suspect though he will come back, try and be just as fast as he was before, try and break his own fastest lap in qualifying despite being 1.5sec faster than the next best and crash, breaking it again and ending his career?
We all thought he wasn't human with what he could do on a bike , and what he could get away with. But, we found out that he is in fact human after all. The risk / reward factor now has career ending injury attached to it also. It's got to be in the back of your mind has it not ?
Rossi in his hey-day did what seemed impossible. So has Marquez and raised it a level as well. I watched them both slack-jawed. I soooo hope to see him do it again. I have no idea if he’ll come back with the same hunger and ability but I sooo hope he does. He is truly ‘awesome’ and no-one came close to displaying the same talent last year. Fingers crossed
you are entitled to you opinion. MM is undoubtedly the finest rider in a long, long time. He dominated MotoGP in the era of control tyres and control electronics. He never raced Stoner which would have been a tougher test for him. Rossi? The data is not kind to Rossi. his stats fell off a cliff the moment Michelin were banned from flying in tyres and they never recovered with the control tyre. there is a post on one of the American Ducati forums listing his wins ratio and how it dropped when the rules that favoured him changed. An interesting example was when Tony Elias on a satellite bike beat Rossi at Estoril. A second place for Rossi which iirc cost him the championship that year. Dani Pedrosa passed up his factory team tyre allocation and they were passed to Elias. On the better tyre Elias could challenge. is it a surprise to anyone that Burgess went from finding something overnight before race day in the setup which always miraculously worked? But then when the control tyre arrived these miracles stopped happening. before the control tyre and the tyre fly in ban, Rossi was undoubtedly getting better tyres than everyone else
Stoner would have retired after two races with Marquez. He whinges too much and isn’t keen on close contact
Maybe the question should be can Marquez return. Doesn’t matter how strong you are mentally if the injury is so debilitating that you simply can’t do the things that you want to. Looking at the injury what would be a satisfactory outcome 70-80% of the arm’s original strength / movement. Realistically it’s never going to be 100% again so he’s going to have to adapt his riding style putting more strain on his shoulders which dislocate with a slap on the back. I sincerely hope the guy makes as good a recovery as possible but the lack of updates from him and Honda are very worrying.
I would argue that Rossi’s stats dropped off when Simoncelli died. Which would say to me that it’s the mentality that makes the difference.
Be interesting to see how he'd go about changing his style when it was such a win at all costs type of affair. With that kind of doubt in the back of your mind it cant be an easy thing to just switch on and off. I hope he comes back even though he bugged the shite out of me you still want the strongest grid possible.
I think you hit the nail on the head. He has always been prepared to win at all costs. I very much doubt that has changed. He will still want to win regardless of cost.
In 2006 Rossi came second to Nicky Hayden in the World Championship by 5 points. Yes Elias’ win at Estoril cost Rossi 5 points, but I would say the three DNFs that Rossi had that season compared to Hayden’s one is actually what cost him the championship that year. Rossi’s performance declined massively, not after the tyre regulations changed and he stopped getting special Michelin’s, remember that he won in 2008 and 2009 on Bridgestones. Nor did his performance drop after Simoncelli died in 2011. His performance never returned after he broke his leg in 2010. His two years at Ducati in 2011 and 2012 didn’t help either. The difference in performance between those at the top of a sport is a mental one. Once someone starts winning a lot, Rossi, Marquez, Hamilton, etc. they become almost unbeatable. That is because their competitors think that they can’t be beaten, maybe occasionally beaten, but not consistently. If you come back after injury and don’t win you lose your mental advantage of perceived unbeatability. You also dent your self belief that you are the best, which also helped you to win. It then becomes very difficult to get back to being the unbeatable one. Even if he is physically 100%, which may not be possible, Marquez may struggle mentally to get back to winning unless when he returns he wins straight away and keeps winning.
