M?Lud,
My honourable friend, Graphite, is fully-aware of the need for consistency and continuity where racing matters are concerned. The very fact that, at the end of each season, riders, teams and team leaders are offered contracts to
ensure continuity seems to have escaped him! Rossi, in his genius, fully-recognised the importance of his team, and he has always asserted that the human factor in racing is the crucial element when it comes to victory or defeat. Why, then, should we be surprised that he chose, upon leaving Honda, to take his support team with him?
As for the status of the relationship between rider and team, this was illustrated recently by Colin Edwards, who, in his second year with Yamaha, revealed the importance of working in familiar surroundings with familiar people: ?Usually, at this time, I?m still trying to learn people?s names!
This is the first time in MotoGP that I've begun the season on the same bike and with the same team so I'm way ahead of where I have been every other year. I'm really looking forward to the new season!"
p0pc0rn41
The team is the ?family? that supports every competitor, and, as we saw at Jerez, there is no greater rider or competitor than
Valentino Rossi who, despite crashing at the first corner,
completed the race with no rear brake, no right footrest and a broken front brake lever. The fastest lap of the race was set at
1.41.248 by Loris Capirossi , while Rossi, on a damaged machine, set his own fastest lap at
1.42.184 ? less than one second slower ? but still
0.361 of a second faster than his team mate and only
0.023 of a second slower than the fastest Yamaha rider of the day, Carlos Checa.
Let those who wish to speculate further upon the uniqueness of Rossi?s talents continue to do so, M?Lud: but we must leave it the jury to consider this case on the merits, the facts
and the figures supporting my claim that
Vale is, indeed, the greatest? d34l
?(but he?s not a God!)