‘It is for Marco. He was the first rider that we helped’
Floyd’s album, Wish You Were Here, the band’s tribute to founder member Syd Barrett who went off the rails due to heavy drug use. The lid also featured some heartfelt and perfectly apt lyrics from the eponymous track, which summed up Rossi’s feelings for Simoncelli.
“How I wish, how I wish you were here.
“We’re just two lost souls swimming in a fishbowl, year after year,
“Running over the same old ground.
“What have we found?
“The same old fears.
“Wish you were here.” Simoncelli – who grew up worshipping Italy’s MotoGP superstar – and Rossi got to know each other during 2007, the youngster’s second year in 250 GPs. “One day Valentino watched me in practice and called me into his motorhome,” Simoncelli recalled. “He explained what I was doing wrong...”
Bit by bit they became closer and closer, until Rossi likened his friend – younger by eight years
– to “a little brother”. Simoncelli graduated to MotoGP in 2010 and Rossi was convinced he would become a MotoGP title contender, because in 2012 MotoGP switched from 800cc engines to 1000cc engines, which would have been much better suited to Simoncelli’s giant size (for MotoGP, at least). “I miss Marco a lot,” said Rossi earlier this month. “First as friend, because he was really, really, really funny and we had great times together, because whatever we did was always very funny.
“We miss him as rider also, because I think for 2012 Marco had a great chance to race a factory Honda with the 1000c regulations, which were better for his weight and size, so I think he could have fought for the championship and I think we would’ve enjoyed that a lot.” Rossi’s Pink Floyd eulogy was a minor tribute compared to what Rossi did next: the VR46
Motor Ranch and the VR46 Riders Academy.
The ranch had been on Rossi’s mind for a while, because he had always trained on dirt bikes, most recently with Simoncelli, who had become the nine-times world champion’s training companion. The pair visited the ranch site – just outside Rossi’s hometown of Tavullia – in the autumn of 2010. That day they sketched out a rough layout for the track, but Simoncelli was already gone by the time construction work began.
Building the academy
“Vale and Marco were always together – having fun and training – because Marco was the only guy who could stay with Vale on a bike,” remembers Albi Tebaldi, a childhood friend of Rossi’s and now CEO of the VR46 empire. “They were like brothers, so after Marco died there was something missing. A year or two later Valentino said, okay, let’s build something great. Life can be cruel and it’s incredible what fate can give you.”
Fate gave Rossi his ranch and academy, which signed its first rider in 2013, less than two years after Simoncelli’s death: a teenager by the name of Franco Morbidelli. “I think that my academy is in Marco’s honour,” Rossi added. “Because the first rider we helped was Marco, so this is for him. It’s not a big thing, because we would prefer to have Marco with us, but it’s all we can do.”
The VR46 Riders Academy may be all that Rossi can do, but it’s quite something. The original concept was to transform young Italian riders into GP winners, at a time when all three MotoGP classes were dominated by Spaniards, by offering them all the training, guidance, support and management back-up they could need.
And it’s been hugely successful. There are three VR46 riders in MotoGP and two have won world titles: Moto2 kings Morbidelli and Pecco Bagnaia, now factory riders with Yamaha and Ducati.
And then there’s Rossi’s halfbrother and MotoGP rookie Luca Marini, current Moto2 star Marco Bezzecchi, Moto2 rookie Celestino Vietti, Moto3 men Niccollo Antonelli, Andrea Migno and Alberto Surra. VR46 also has teams in MotoGP (thanks to a deal with Ducati), Moto2 and Moto3, as well as squads in the Italian CIV and Spanish-based CEV series.
All these youngsters race together, train together, hang out together, creating a support system that helps them survive the slings and arrows of GP racing.
This is Simoncelli’s legacy, which we watch every MotoGP weekend, without even realising it, forgetting that his departure from Rossi’s life was the catalyst for this army of young kids, who train with Rossi and race at GPs.
In fact the VR46 Riders Academy is more than an army, it’s a brotherhood, recreating the relationship that Rossi and Simoncelli enjoyed so much.
‘He was really, really funny. We had great times together’