The 2004 season was not only one of the most exciting we've seen in
recent memory, but was also historic. Valentino Rossi accomplished
something no one in the history of the sport had ever done, when he won
the first race of the season in South Africa on his first outing on the
Yamaha. And by winning the championship he became only the second rider
in the history of the sport to do so on different machinery on his first
try. We could go on and on about Rossi's accomplishments, but we'll
leave those stories for another day.
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Valentino Rossi. Photo by Marlboro Yamaha Team.
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Instead, let's focus on the events that conspired to allow Rossi in 2004
to cement his name as one of the greatest riders that have ever lived
and how he went on to defeat the mighty Honda Racing Corporation.
In the first part, we'll take a look at their history. Where did Honda
and Rossi come from and how was their relationship during their years
together. Secondly, we'll look at Rossi's and Jerry Burgess's insight
into HRC's lack of development leadership and arrogance and how the two
exploited these weaknesses. Later we'll look at Michelin's new rear
tires and their effects on the mighty V5. Lastly, we'll take a look at
Yamaha's new-found commitment and how much of a difference it made.
We'll conclude it with a prediction for the 2005 season.
History
Honda Racing Corporation, a.k.a. HRC, is the racing arm of
Honda Motors. Much like any of the contemporary successful racing
outfits, Honda began life at a race track. However, unlike the Ferraris
and Mercedes-Benz of the world, Honda began life at a motorcycle road
course (a true road course on a public road).
In the mid fifties, Mr. Soichiro Honda decided he wanted to not only
race, but beat the Nortons, MVs and Triumphs of the world. Initially,
Mr. Honda, bought European motorcycles and tried to make them "better".
This initial approach failed. But Mr. Honda was not a man that was
simply going to quit, instead he decided to think outside the box and
engineer motorcycles of his own. By the early sixties Honda was a
household name in the Grand Prix paddock and soon thereafter it began
to dominate the smaller classes. Though Honda did not win its first
premier-class 500cc title until the early 80s, by the 90s it won more
than half of that decade's championships.
As Mr. Honda became more and more successful racing and selling
motorcycles, he decided he could take on automobiles too. In the 60s he
began building small economy-boxes and by the 80s Honda was winning F1
championships. One could say Honda was becoming a sort of giant.
Today Mr. Honda is no longer with us, but anyone that knew him would
tell you he was an engineer first and a businessman second.
Valentino Rossi also began life like Honda, at a race track, the son
of 70s and early 80s GP rider, Graziano Rossi. V. Rossi grew up around
race tracks following his father and stories say he learned to ride a
motorcycle before he learned to ride a bicycle.
G. Rossi knew how difficult and dangerous motorcycle racing is and tried
his best to steer V. Rossi away from motorcycles and onto karting. But
karting (like any form of four-wheeled racing) proved too expensive
for the duo. What to do? The answer came in the form of mini-motos
(PocketBikes), the new craze sweeping Italy's youth in the late 80s and
early 90s.
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Valentino Rossi. Photo by Richard Sloop.
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V. Rossi took to mini-motos like a fish to water and soon the two
could be found at any mini-moto event under a tent, working on V.
Rossi's bike. As V. Rossi became more comfortable and began to win on
mini-motos, the natural succession was 125cc bikes. In 1993 he was third
in the 125cc Italian Sport Production championship and the next year he
won the title. In 1995 he won the 125cc Italian championship on his way
to graduating to the 125cc World Championship the next year.
With the "forced" retirement of Mick Doohan after the 1999 GP season,
Honda decided to field Rossi under the care of Jeremy Burgess, a
long-time Honda crew chief that led Doohan to five premier-class titles,
but without "full-factory" support.
By the time Honda and Rossi met, Rossi was already a two-time World
Champion, having won the 125cc and 250cc championships. Though Honda
did not win the 2000 500cc rider's championship, they focused their
attention on the young and lanky Italian. Rossi's throttle control was
legendary even then. Legend says that on his first try aboard the 500cc
monster, the data acquisition computer recorded his throttle control to
be on-par with that of many of the premier-class veterans.
During his first year at Honda, Rossi followed the same pattern he
used on his way to victory on his previous world titles; learn the
first year, dominate the second. HRC provided Rossi with a V4 500cc NSR
and parts, as it waited patiently for the Italian to blossom. During
the first few races of the 2000 season it looked like HRC had lost
their mind, as Rossi crashed more bikes than one can count. But by the
second third of the season Rossi was beginning to challenge at the
front and by the British GP he had taken the very top of the podium and
his first-ever premier-class victory. Rossi went on to claim one more
victory during the Brazilian GP. But this was not enough; in 2000 Rossi
finished second to American Kenny Roberts Jr.
HRC was no dummy and the next season Rossi became HRC's number one
rider. As expected, Rossi's domination began early as he won the opening
round of the season and gave HRC their 500th GP victory. On his way to
his first premier-class crown, Rossi not only dominated, but also broke
many of the long-standing lap records.
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Race winner Valentino Rossi. Photo by Marlboro Yamaha Team.
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Honda has always prided themselves in engineering excellent products.
The manufacturing giant never liked the idea of racing a glorified
lawn-mower engine. No, Honda's forte is in engineering four-stroke
engines. 2002 gave Honda that opportunity, the opportunity of building
something new, something revolutionary; a 990cc four-stroke V5, the
mighty RC211V. And who better to ride and develop it than their newly
crowned 500cc World Champion.
But all was not well in the HRC garage and the 2001-2002 rumors were a
window into what would happen at the end of 2003.
Rossi's contract with Honda was for two years, as contract negotiations
got underway, it became clearer to Rossi that Honda did not appreciate
their riders' abilities. This was nothing new of course. HRC has always
felt riders are replaceable, hence their treatment. This sentiment is
not only Rossi's, just ask Colin Edwards or Ricky Carmichael. Riders are
considered mere controllers of their motorcycles, rather than "people
that make the difference". To make things even more difficult, Rossi is
not an easy person to work with. This is not because of his work ethics,
but rather because of his "old habits". As many of the greats, he is
eccentric. One of his eccentricities is his beloved race number, 46. The
same number his dad used when he raced. Rossi has been racing with this
number for as long as he can remember (or has been able to). So far, his
race number had never become an issue. This was primarily due to his
timing graduating between the GP classes. As Rossi climbed the world
championship title ladder and became champion, he'd move up to another
class where he was not expected to race the number 1 plate (indicating
he was the champion of the class). However, there is nothing higher than
the premier-class and after winning the 2001 500cc title, Honda expected
him to ride with the number 1 plate on the mighty V5. After all, this
is the reason it had spent millions of dollars developing the thumping
four-stroke.
The tension was so high with uncertainty during the 2002 pre-season that
Rossi was forced to miss one of the testing sessions in 2002 (due to
contract negotiations). But 2002 is history now, and we know that HRC
gave in and Rossi rode with his number-plate of choice. However, there
were other "conflicts", and one of them was PR work. As much as Rossi
and his management tried, his public appearance duties continued to
increase and HRC did not make it easier on the young champion even after
he clinched the 2002 title with ease.
By 2003 Rossi looked bored and tired. There was talk of how racing
was getting to him and how you could see it in his eyes. And his
performances showed it. He may have won the first race of the 2003
season, but his riding was getting sloppy. Twice he was beaten by that
year's revelation, Sete Gibernau, after committing silly mistakes. At
the Sachsenring in Germany, he was beaten to the line after he led the
first half of the race and then chose to give the lead to Gibernau and
follow him around. Rossi waited and passed him on the last lap, and
on the last corner made a rookie mistake when he out-braked himself,
opening the door to Gibernau and getting beaten by a wheel.
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Valentino Rossi and Sete Gibernau. Photo by Richard Sloop.
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In 2003, the summer break began after the Sachsenring. When he came back
he was the old Rossi his fans loved, colored hair and all. At Brno,
one of the best GP races of all time, Rossi battled with Gibernau,
Capirossi, and Bayliss for the entire race. Rossi lost the lead
countless times and every time he fought back. On the last lap, he and
Gibernau opened a small gap to Bayliss (Capirossi had a mechanical DNF
late into the race) and the two went head-to-head. Rossi won the race by
the smallest of margins, but he had done something more important, he
had found his motivation; the fun of racing. Rossi won the rest of the
remaining races with the exception of Motegi on his way to retaining his
crown.
Rossi's success lies in his approach to racing. Rossi appears to have
the perfect combination of the "killing instinct, aggression and
relaxation". When he's not racing he's very laid back (at least he
appears to be), but as soon as he puts his helmet on, he's in full-hunt
mode like a lion. The reason this is important is because of the impact
racing-stress has on the mind. Outsiders think that racing happens
on Sunday for 45 minutes and everything before and after the race is
"celebrity" time. This could not be farther from the truth. Racing is
a very stressful and draining activity. It requires 100% concentration
and focus, which take a toll on the mind. If this is not enough, try
man-handling a 240HP motorcycle at 200+mph for 45 minutes (not counting
qualifying and practice) and I can assure you that muscle soreness will
be the least of your worries. So when racers are not able to separate
the two, racing and non-racing, they can go mad (just ask Doohan). At
the same time, if you fail 100% focus during a race, the consequences
are deadly.
Knowing that without having fun racing he'd kill himself (see lack of
100% focus), Rossi decided that a challenge, as difficult as it seemed,
was more important when accompanied with "fun", than a stroll through
the park without "fun" (as he would have enjoyed at HRC if he'd stayed).
But Rossi is not a dumb person. Though he wanted a challenge, he was
not about to commit suicide. He understood that if he left HRC, they'd
become his enemy, and who better to be your enemy than someone you've
worked with for four years. Remember, know thy enemy.
Rossi understood HRC's weaknesses and this is what we'll explore in part
two.
Part 1: The rise of Rossi
Part 2: The breakup
Part 3: The new tires
Part 4: Yamaha's commitment
Part 5: The future
