MotoGP Blog

An interview with Rick Broadbent.

Ring of Fire: The Inside Story of MotoGP tells two comeback stories – that of Mike Hailwood to win the ’78 TT, and of Rossi’s in 2008 to take the MotoGP title for the eighth time. Interwoven between these threads is a portrait of the paddock and its personalities from both eras. The book lifts the lid on the paddock to let us see what the team PR machines would keep from us – the grim, sometimes unfair politics as well as the practical jokes and mind games.

MotoGPBlog spoke to the book’s author and Times journalist Rick Broadbent, on the book, the state of MotoGP and the personalities.

MGPB: It’s obvious from your writing, both in the book and for the Times that you are a massive fan of the sport, and of the high-jinx in the paddock.

RB: I cover a lot of sport for [The Times]. I have always liked doing the bikes as they are just more entertaining people, more colourful. I know a lot of guys in the press room reminisce about the old days, but they still get up to stuff now. They still have a bit of fun.

MGPB: The book has a lovely cover photograph - who took it?

RB: An Italian snapper called Mirco Lazarri. He takes shots that are a little bit out of the ordinary, beautiful.

MGPB: A common theme through the book are the jokes the riders play on each other. Some of the tricks played on Biaggi were awesome.

RB: I always had a soft spot for Max, just because he was always good to me. He did bring a lot of it on himself; he had an uncanny knack of getting up people’s noses and under their skin. In terms of dealing with him, he would always give me a decent interview. Some others found him offhand or downright rude, but he wasn’t like that with me - it might have been because it was for the Times, in national terms an important paper.

MGPB: In my interview with Mark Neale, he commented on how Biaggi freaked him out by listening to his questions but answering to the camera.

RB: To be fair to these guys, a lot of it comes down to how good their English is. Rossi’s English is very good, and he understands some of the colloquial stuff, the quirks of the language. Biaggi’s English is not bad either. Melandri’s English is good, but nowhere near as good as Rossi’s. As a result [as a journalist] you get better stuff out of Rossi than you do, say Loris [Capirossi] or Marco [Melandri]. Rossi is also a great communicator. Ali Forth (ex Yamaha Media Team) put it best - he has this innate way of connecting with people, whether through a camera or in person. Lorenzo has said that he has studied him, as he [Lorenzo] had this bad image of being a stroppy, spoilt brat. He hired what he called a Communications Coach and studied Rossi’s mannerisms and how he spoke to people to try and improve in that way. The thing with Rossi is that it is all natural, he’s an outgoing, extrovert character. I don’t think there is anything put on there, although Biaggi would tell you that it is all put on, and that he is a total fake!

Those two were great, I used to love that rivalry both on and off the circuit, and it was probably as much off the track as on it. There is no doubt that Rossi is very astute, he deliberately tries to undermine people at press conferences; talking across them, and behind their back, not looking at poeple. Sometime is doesn’t matter, but when things were going off with Gibernau it was all designed to have an effect, and it did. It was the same with Max, and to a lesser extent, as he is not so easily ruffled, with Stoner as well.

MGPB: You cover the famous Rossi/Biaggi scuffle on the way to the press conference in the book. It sounds like Rossi was the instigator in your account.

RB: The truth to that is that there are very few people who categorically know what went on. You get one account from Rossi’s autobiography, but other views from elsewhere. I heard from a few people at Yamaha that it got quite heated, and Max’s right-hand woman Frederica, who was always around him, had a cut face. We know that Rossi threw a punch because Max was the one that was bleeding in the press conference. It was great theatre. We should not condone these things, but from a media point of view it was manna from heaven, a rivalry like that.

Biaggi also did some strange things; one of the stories in the book relates when he drove his scooter into an awning around Marlboro hospitality because they wouldn’t let thirty of his mates in. Rossi knew about all of these things and there is no doubt Rossi can work people and used Max’s personality to his advantage.

MGPB: There was then the Gibernau rivally. I think there is no doubt he completely owned Gibernau and took him out.

RB: He did. He got into his head. It is easy to forget now how good Gibernau was, he was for a while up there, challenging and beating [Rossi]. That incident in the desert with the controversy over cleaning starting positions: Rossi blamed his time penalty on Gibernau, which in itself was wrong because all of the teams were complaining, not just Gibernau. Clearly that got to Sete, and Rossi made it fester until the next race, when he brought out his t-shirt with a cartoon figure with a mop - really taking the Michael out of the whole thing. It seems strange that something like that can get to [Gibernau] when he is hard enough to ride a bike at that speed.

The thing is, Rossi is the best rider out there, and the rest of the riders know that to beat him they have to be absolutely at the top of their game, and perhaps he has to dip slightly. For them to know that he is also mentally the toughest makes him almost unbeatable.

MGPB: Of all the riders who have challenged Rossi, Gibernau seems to be the one who’s talent was most in his head. He seemed to improve when he was riding his socks off after Kato’s death.

RB: He definitely drew a lot of emotional energy from that period, and that was his peak. He obviously got a better bike as well, but I think it went beyond that. The race at Le Mans was incredible really, and they were really tight a lot of those races at that time, and he was edging Rossi.

Rossi did dip a bit in 2006, although there were circumstances causing this. Jerry Burgess would later say it was amazing he got as close to Hayden as he did that year, as he was let down by Yamaha. Having said that, you would not expect Rossi to be winning going into the last race and put his bike down in lap 5. It was a strange one, as [Rossi] does not crash a lot, or if he does he gets away with it. Look at Pedrosa. Every time he crashes, he breaks something! It was the same with Lorenzo last year. Rossi could have an enormous crash and somehow walk away with it.

As I mention in the book, riders seem to be doomed or charmed. As Ago said, when him and Hailwood were at the TT one year and both crashed at the same corner, Ago was out and Mike just picked it up and got on with it: the same crash, two different outcomes. There is a lot of luck involved; that is part of what is so appealing about it. There are a lot of things that can go wrong.

MGPB: A criticism levelled at MotoGP is that recent races have been processional in comparison with the 500cc era. Why do you think that is?

RB: I think the rule changes have a lot to do with it. When they went to 800’s a lot of people were saddened by that. Then there is the electronics and traction control - I think it has all become a bit too much. I risk sounding like a grumpy old git, but I do hark back to the days of the two strokes.

MGPB: My own personal golden era of MotoGP was to 990’s. They wouldn’t bite in the same way as the 500’s but they were still awesome machines. The 800’s are perhaps a bit too clinical.

RB: The races these days can be a bit processional, but great races can still happen, when we get a weekend like Laguna [2008] or Catalunya [2009]. I do think they need more bikes on the grid, and I don’t agree with this new rookie rule. If satellite teams become more than that and almost become good enough to compete, then fair enough. I’d like to see Simoncelli come straight into a factory team and go for it. They’re all good, but I think Simoncelli is better than the likes of Dovizioso. He has a bit of Rossi in him - they are mates as well. It is a shame he will have to waste a year in a satellite team.

MGPB: You do wonder where they get the rule changes from sometimes! This mad rule about each rider only having a single bike (which has now been reversed)…

RB: I don’t understand that. It could never happen. Were they seriously saying that if Valentino has a crash on Saturday and wrecks his bike that we would not see him on Sunday? At the same time, they have to do something; with the credit crunch things are difficult, and [Dorna] pay so much in subsidies to the teams to keep them going. I’m sure it will be ok, because the fan base is there, but it will be interesting when Rossi goes, and we see what happens. They are lucky they have Lorenzo to fill the gap, as he is a real personality.

MGPB: He seems to be manufacturing his persona in front of our eyes.

RB: There are elements of Rossi in him, apart from the riding: getting dressed up as a gladiator, the flag planting. The problem is you end up getting accused of plagiarising Rossi. Having said that, I do like Lorenzo. I loved it last year when he had two broken ankles, Stoner was basically accusing him of putting it all on and he was getting carted around the paddock in a wheelchair. There is definitely a touch of the theatrics about him. He was getting acting lessons at one point, and his biography is hilarious, unwittingly hilarious. He has a whole page where he says he wants to sing like Sinatra, dance like Fred Astair, paint like Picasso, and it goes on and on. And then he stops himself and says “Actually, I don’t want to be like anybody. I just want to be me!” It’s like Mike Yarwood! [Mike Yarwood was an impersonator on British TV in the '70s].

He is definitely a character. I think Lorenzo, if he stays fit, will push Rossi all the way.

MGPB: Do you think he is immune to the Rossi mind games?

RB: Yeah. In the book I relate a time when he basically made Rossi sit on his knee on the podium, when he had the problem with his ankles. You could see Rossi thinking “Should I do this or will I lose face?” It was the first time someone has taken Rossi on like that. Stoner tried it by being a bit die-hard-Aussie-bloody-minded but last year at Laguna, a fantastic race, and he came out moaning about Rossi being too aggressive. The the way he did it, everyone sided with Rossi and he lost a lot of face. I think Lorenzo is the best thing that has happened in a long time, and it helps he’s on a Fiat Yamaha. The race in Catalunya was a big test. In some ways, that could have been a defining moment. If he had beaten Rossi on the last lap, that could have almost made him. It will happen, but it needs someone to do to Rossi what he has done to others, like giving Biaggi the finger or pushing Gibernau into the dirt on the last lap, to show they mean business. Lorenzo or Stoner could possibly do this.

MGPB: What do you think the issue with the Ducati and only Stoner being able to ride it?

RB: Well, you know who thay want on that bike: Rossi.

MGPB: Do you think he’d go anywhere near it?

RB: I think he might. Possibly not at the moment, but there is certainly a bit of romance there for an Italian. Look at Yamaha: when he got there they were a mess, and just by him being there they did more to that bike than they would have for Biaggi. A lot of it was down to Rossi’s skill, but also the whole racing team was reorganised because Rossi was coming. He could not be there with Stoner, obviously, but he could take Burgess and his Aussie crew with him.

Getting back to why it is so hard to ride the Ducati. I don’t really know, but I think you have to give Stoner a huge amount of credit which he hasn’t got. He does whinge, but some of it is whinging with a cause. He didn’t get the credit he deserved in 2007, top riders have tried to ride [the Ducati] and can’t do it. It’s a beast of a bike and he has wrestled it into submission. He is right when he says in 2007 he had the straight line speed, but he still had to get it around the corners. I think a lot of it is down to Stoner being a good, in fact great, rider.

MGPB: Ring of Fire moves between Rossi’s 2008 season and Hailwood’s comeback at the TT. What was your thinking behind this structure?

RB: Initially I wanted to get in some tales from the “old days” when things were really wild. Knowing Rossi is a big Hailwood fan - you’ve seen it in his celebrations when he has acknowledged Hailwood - I thought it was a way of linking the two parts of the book together. Obviously Hailwood at the ‘78 TT was one of the great sporting comebacks. I contrasted this with Rossi’s comeback in 2008 from being beaten twice by different bikes and riders. I also thought there were a lot of links - some of the pranks they get up to now, compared with what they got up to before was far worse (or better, depending on how you want to look at it!). For all the safety that has improved now, at the end of the day they are all still risking their lives and doing an incredibly courageous thing. The book highlights the differences between the two eras but also that underlying similarity.

MGPB: The book provides a gimpse into the real people and life in the paddock, rather than the product of the team’s PR machines.

RB: Hopefully the book shows them as three dimensional people. For example, the book tells a part of the story of Chaz Davies, another young Brit who was trumpeted but it has never quite happened for him. It’s interesting that he is mates with Casey, and just seeing how their paths diverged. It’s not success and failure, but the parallel tracks their careers have taken. Also, Stoner’s story around when he was starting out and he and his family were living in this mangy trailer. I think a lot of people think it’s all a life of luxury, and it is not. These are real people risking their lives each racing weekend.

Ring of Fire: The Inside Story of Valentino Rossi and MotoGP is out now. Buy it through the links below and you’ll be helping to support MotoGPBlog.