Hitting the buffers in MotoGP – two sad stories of modern racing

This is the fate of triple MotoGP champion Jorge Lorenzo, in his three races back since a horrid crash at Assen in June left him nursing fractures in two vertebrae. They were just the latest in a string of injuries that went back to the end of the previous year, when his Ducati seized and threw him in Thailand, then topped up over the winter with a broken wrist while training. The catalogue of bruises, strains and fractures continued into 2019.

Now Lorenzo had already unexpectedly quit Yamaha, on which he had won three titles and 44 races, to join Ducati, and in a conspicuous struggle over more than a year had adapted himself to a motorcycle and vice versa to win on the Italian bike.

For 2019, another great adventure. Hoping to become only the fifth rider to win on three different makes (after Hailwood, Lawson, Mamola, Capirossi), he joined Marquez in the class-leading Repsol Honda team. Much was expected. He’d already shown versatility, going from the smooth fast-cornering Yamaha to the brutish fast-accelerating Ducati. Surely a move to the Honda – basically somewhere between the two in character – would not be too much of a challenge?

Circumstances have proved otherwise, and after his still very tentative return from the back injury, Jorge has found himself repeatedly having to restate his determination and commitment, in the face of criticism and doubt not only from the Spanish press, but even from Honda team manager Alberto Puig. There are even suggestions he may be sacked. Which would be brutal, but not unprecedented.

But Lorenzo’s is not the only sad story of 2019. There is another glittering career which hit the buffers even more clearly.

Zarco had already turned his back on a Suzuki ride, and blames his (ex-) manager for messing up a chance to replace Pedrosa at Honda this year – the plum ride that Lorenzo took. But with Rossi and Vinales firmly settled in the factory Yamaha team, he wanted more. So, even before the first race of last year, he had already decided to join KTM, the determined and (through Red Bull) well-funded Austrian team striving to make its mark in the premier class, after joining in 2017. Over its first two years, KTM had made progress, but was still only an infrequent visitor to the top ten. But the commitment was clear, and the additional lure for Zarco was full factory support.

Well, it was a disaster from the off. Another silky-smooth rider who had meshed well with the in-line-four Yamaha, Zarco found himself completely at odds with the V4 KTM. His theoretically junior team-mate Pol Espargaro, whose riding style is all-action and aggressive, easily outranked him. Johann was completely at odds. Every time he pushed, he said, he would fall off.

It didn’t help when he was filmed at Jerez, the first European round, raging in the pits after yet another tumble about “a shit chassis, and a shit engine”.

At round 11 in Austria, home race for both Red Bull and KTM, Zarco requested early termination of his two-year contract. He meant at the end of 2019. KTM were happy to drop him after just two more races.

Zarco is now in the wilderness. There are no worthwhile seats available, and the best he can hope for is a test-rider slot, probably with Yamaha. He’s good enough to deserve it, but then again Yamaha now has Quartararo waiting in the wings for when Rossi quits.

Ah, Rossi. Another rider who abandoned Yamaha full of hope to join Ducati, with a swagger from his all-conquering team, convinced he’d be winning on the then-struggling Italian bike within a couple of races.

Alas no. The hitherto immaculate rider struggled through 2011 and 2012, achieving a couple of second places in the latter year, before swallowing a large slice of humble pie and a big cut in his income to beg for his old job back at Yamaha.

Rossi had some words of sympathy, if not comfort, for Zarco.

“I felt a bit similar… a lot of expectation from outside and also from me, but unfortunately not a very good feeling with the bike, especially from the front.

“This situation is very difficult – you lose motivation and the happiness, to think positive, to think you can do well. You start in a negative way. If you don’t have fun to ride the bike everything becomes more heavy – the travel, staying outside from your house, speaking to journalists, it is difficult to sleep.

“A lot of time I was thinking to stop, but in the end it was better to carry on. Also if you stop, you don’t have another bike. In the end I did some good races, had some podiums. It was right to stay.”

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.