Comment: Lorenzo plus Stoner equals Rossi

Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner both despise Valentino Rossi – and in 2017 they're teaming up to exact their revenge…

Lorenzo plus Stoner equals Rossi. What a stupendous mathematical equation that is. Next year, we shall see if it is valid. And if it can be proven on the fields of battle.

Valentino Rossi has had many enemies in the MotoGP paddock during his long and hugely successful racing career. But it's fair to say that none, with maybe the exception of Max Biaggi (who is long gone from the battlefield), have been as actively hostile to him as Casey Stoner and Jorge Lorenzo.

It is an enmity that cannot be overstated.

In 2011 at Jerez, it was Stoner who told Rossi that his ambition outweighed his talent when the Italian went into Stoner's pit garage to apologise for throwing his Ducati at Stoner's Honda. Stoner went on to secure his second World Championship that year, after a three-year drought, and retired the next year in 2012. He left with two MotoGP titles and a sour taste in his mouth for the sport, the politics involved in it, the media who fuelled it, and the fans he had polarised.

In 2016, he came back to Ducati to… erm, consult. There was no-one better. He could push the Italian machine harder than either of the factory riders, Iannone and Dovizioso, so his input into the bike's development was invaluable.

Rumours flew that Stoner would actually return to racing, and most recently it was revealed that he was offered a wildcard ride at Motegi this year, but refused.

I was not surprised. If he'd knocked back Honda's incredible Euro 20 million offer in 2012, a pay day that would have made him the highest paid Honda employee ever in the history of the universe, it was unlikely he would throw his leg over a Ducati for a one-off ride.

After all, if he did not win, the bursting of so many bubbles would have drowned the world. Stoner is not a fool. It is obviously better for him to remain a minor deity to his parochial fans – though we must remember that he did not retire as a champion, he came third in 2012, and he never managed to win back-to-back titles – than to pit himself against the likes of Marquez and the newly minted and competitive Rossi in one wildcard race, and probably fail.

His revenge on Rossi would come another way – via Lorenzo.

In 2017, the two of them will join forces at Ducati.

Their goal? To do what Rossi could not do – win a MotoGP championship on a Ducati.

It is obvious to anyone who watches MotoGP that Lorenzo has always lived in the shadow of Valentino Rossi.

The Spaniard, in his bizarre Black Mamba incarnation, and carrying the Lorenzo Land banner, conducted post-win celebrations exactly like Rossi, who pioneered the whole, "Watch me do strange shit after I win a race" schtick.

But what worked for Rossi, and endeared him to his ever truly fanatical fans, just never quite clicked for Lorenzo. A lot of it has to do with their manufactured media personas, which are maybe not so manufactured at all.

Lorenzo is a hard character to like. He is intense, mercurial and prone to tantrums when things are not going well. That he is one of the greatest motorcycle racers on earth cannot be denied. But it takes much more than talent to win over the fans.

By contrast, Rossi, win or lose, is always playing to the camera. He grins, he waves, he shrugs off defeat and disaster, and always looks like he's having the time of his life – and he understands what the fans want from him.

As a result, he has become the greatest drawcard MotoGP has – a fact which annoys the hell out of his rivals, all of whom have beaten him time and again, and simply don't seem to understand that even when Rossi loses, he wins.

No greater illustration of this is needed than last year's vicious end-of-season carry-on. Lorenzo won the championship, and no-one seemed to care. The majority of fans felt that Rossi had been cheated of the title, or at least denied a fair crack, and Yamaha even cancelled the traditional post-race festivities. Lorenzo was clearly wondering what it was he had to do to get the fans to like him.

He won fair and square as far as he was concerned, rode a brilliant and calculated season, and now had three MotoGP world championships under his belt. It was somehow lost on him that when he got involved in the savage Marquez-versus-Rossi stoush by offering, off his own bat, to testify against Rossi (the Italian had appealed against his three-point penalty, which saw him start last on the grid at Valencia and arguably cost him the championship) in the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), that this would not play well.

It would be fair to say there was a lot of naked anger, in-your-face hissing, door-slamming and toys-out-of-the-pram stuff going on when the curtain went down on Yamaha's 2015 season.

Come 2016 and Lorenzo is signing contracts with Ducati. His motivation is obvious. He is going to do what Rossi could not. He is going to win a title on the Ducati. If he does that, then he will be able to say that he did what the Great One could not do. In this way, he hopes he will come no little way out from under the shadow of the Italian. And that may well be the case.

If he can do it.

His partner in this is Stoner. Who is also hugely motivated by his obvious dislike for Rossi. And nothing would please Stoner more than to be part of the team that gave Lorenzo a MotoGP title on a Ducati. Except maybe a nice barra or a hole-in-one.

Success is always the best revenge. And hate is a great motivator.

It remains to be seen if that success will eventuate for Lorenzo and Stoner, because they certainly don't lack motivation.

Comment: Lorenzo plus Stoner equals Rossi

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