Ladies and gentlemen, this may be Italy’s best chance to replace Valentino Rossi. Romano Fenati was at the heart of an amazing story in Qatar. The Italian Motorcycle Federation brought a last-minute effort to the Moto3 race with no sponsorship and a rider unknown to practically all but themselves. (Once the buzz started, I asked about him and no one I talked to had ever heard of him.) But the 16-yr-old finished 2nd to a much more experienced Maverick Vinales in his debut GP.
In the Dubai airport while waiting for the connecting flight to Qatar, I chatted with an Italian photographer about the Rossi problem. With great passion (no surprise), it was explained to me that Italy’s love for MotoGP is much more a love for Valentino Rossi than for anything to do with motorcycle racing. My friend felt the situation was similar to when Alberto Tomba had won those Olympic gold medals and suddenly Italians were skiing and showing great enthusiasm for that sport. Once Tomba faded from international prominence and his successes ended, Italian interest in skiing fizzled. The same will happen when Rossi leaves MotoGP, or so my friend fully expects.
This is a problem not only for Italy, but for Dorna (the company that runs MotoGP as a business), the FIM (the sanctioning body of international motorcycle racing), and for MotoGP fans everywhere. MotoGP’s success in the last decade plus has been driven largely by global enthusiasm for not just Rossi’s successes but for his personality and panache on and off track. Though others have tried to copy his style, for example with their own remarkable post-win theatre, you can’t choose to have that special something Rossi has shown us any more than you can choose to be clever. You either have it or you don’t, and no one in MotoGP right now has it other than Rossi.
Someone who had, if not the same thing, something that might do just as well was Marco Simoncelli. But we lost him and his potential to win, thrill and inspire last season at Sepang.
In Qatar, this recent conversation was in my mind as I observed Fenati. Beyond his obvious abilities on track, he has a charm that can’t be created by sheer effort. He’s a stocky little guy, with a full face and broad shoulders, physically much different in appearance from the other adolescents on the Moto3 grid. As the poster boy for the Italian Motorcycle Federation’s unsponsored effort in Moto3, he was a star, leading time sheets and placing second in his debut grand prix. It’s perhaps too soon to tell if he has enough of that charm to keep people who love the Rossi magic interested in MotoGP. But he is certainly someone to keep an eye on as the season progresses. And if the kid shows up to Jerez still with no sponsors plastered all over a plain white helmet, well, that just ain’t gonna happen.
