Doctor’s orders

I can only agree, running around at the back of the grid is hardly the sort of thing we connect with this particular doctor. What will he do now? Once upon a time he was linked with Ferrari F1 but now I can only see management or commentating on the horizon, or will he buzz off home?

In terms of what he, as an individual, has done for the profile of motorcycle racing he’s waaaaay beyond Senna or Schumacher in terms of their single effect on F1. Maybe the Schumacher effect in Germany is comparable but not on the international scale of Vale.

I don’t think he’s considering some kind of quiet retirement: he spoke of his liking for 4 wheeled racing in his announcement.

Only someone up there with the late great John Surtee's.

I’d beg to differ. Outside the fairly cloistered world of bike racing, Rossi is pretty much unknown in comparison to the two referenced. Walk down any high street and ask 10 people at random who Valentino Rossi is and you’d be lucky to get one person who’d recognise the name. In terms of public recognition no where near Barry Sheen in his day. That’s not to belittle his achievements, just fact.

An amazing insight into the UK mentality surrounding motorcycle racing and motorcycling generally - nasty things risen by knife wielding, tattooed thugs that you wouldn’t want your children bringing home as friends or lovers. This is accentuated by referencing Barry Sheene: yes very famous in the UK thanks to the insularity always enjoyed on these islands but like Schumacher’s current newsworthyness and like Senna’s very public death as famous for his huge accidents as any winning achievements. Rossi’s fame goes way beyond Italy and a far wider acceptance of motorcycling by society as a whole means that this prevails beyond the “cloistered world of bike racing”.

Take John McGuiness as a very British example of this hatred of motorcycle racing. If you saw him waiting for a lift outside Sainsbury’s you’d very likely assume he was some old geezer that worked on a building site, spending his pay packet on Friday and Saturday thus having to go back on the tools on Monday. In Japan he’s a super hero - first man to do 130mph lap of IoM, equalled Mike the Bike’s Senior wins tally. The UK press and general media have long despised motorcycle racing and demonstrate this by fervently publishing articles whenever there is a fatality, using data dug up from all their previous reports of deaths.

So I agree with your observation from a solely UK perspective.

Hang on til I fetch my tinfoil hat guys .. .. .. .. 

www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/sports-cars/valentino-rossi-will-race-to-win-in-cars-from-next-year

This is all I’ve heard in the last half hour of watching on Eurosport SK.