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The Valentino Rossi Effect

Sport

by Chris Hughes

The MotoGP championship is enjoying a period of brief respite after a run of three consecutive race weekends in Silverstone, Assen and Catalunya which has seen Spanish Fiat Yamaha rider Jorge Lorenzo utterly dominate the championship with three pole positions and three supreme race wins in quick succession.

For Jorge, the 75 points amassed over the last three weekends have been a near knock-out blow for his nearest championship rivals, and there is little evidence to suggest that the Spanish juggernaut will not continue for the foreseeable future. Let’s not take anything away from ‘George’ who has demonstrated a remarkable maturity in his racing this year and has performed flawlessly, but there is one Valentino Rossi shaped shadow hanging over his championship charge.

Rossi’s nasty accident in Mugello has rendered the seven-time MotoGP world champion out of action for several months and there are worrying signs from Italy that audiences are switching off in his absence.

Respected Italian motorcycle racing website GPOne reports this morning that just 3.7m people tuned in to see the Spanish 1-2 at last weekend’s Catalan GP, a drop of over 2 million viewers year on year. Such drops can often be dispelled as inconclusive but, tellingly, the year-on-year comparison with the Moto2 race, shown just prior to the main MotoGP event, actually shows a nominal increase rather than sizeable drop – an average of 1.88m this year, 1.85m in 2009 (when it was 250cc).

There were mutterings from within the MotoGP paddock at the time of Rossi’s unfortunate crash that his temporary absence would give the paddock a rare glimpse into the future of the sport, a future post-Rossi, a temporary flash-forward that would revert to normal once the Doctor returned to full fitness.

Do these early signs give MotoGP cause for concern? Perhaps not in Spain where the full complement of riding stars is intact and regularly gracing the podium, but in Italy almost certainly. German TV station RTL experienced a similar lull in figures when Michael Schumacher ‘retired’ from Formula 1. Their numbers have swelled since Schumacher’s return, even if the German has not been on his previous ominous form.

Let’s see what happens when Valentino makes his much anticipated return. The Doctor is already trying to diagnose himself fit and ready in time for the Czech Republic race in August. Italian TV producers will undoubtedly be counting the days, but there will inevitably come a day when Rossi hangs up his motorcycle helmet for good and if this brief glimpse into the future is anything to go by, MotoGP would be advised to take note of the implications that will have, if not on the racing spectacle, then on those Rossi devotees who still put the time aside to watch it.

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