It has been suggested that a great sporting rivalry needs both protagonists to enter into a bitter loathing of each other, while still maintaining often well-hidden respect for their talents.
It is true that there has been the case in a large number of some of the great rivalries in racing – Prost/Senna, Fogarty/Slight, Schwantz/Rainey, Rossi/Gibernau, Rossi/Stoner, Rossi/Lorenzo, Rossi/Marquez. There have been just as many that have not been rancorous – Hailwood/Agostini, Marquez/Dovizioso for example. But it is the angry ones that we largely remember because the off-track animosity just adds more spice to the on-track war.
The telling point, however, is that, after their retirement, the once mortal enemies are often pleased to see each other in the pits when all the dust has settled on their rivalries. The scales of competitive enmity fall away and, even if they are never going to be bosom buddies, they can at least see someone who is just like themselves, one of the few who could ever do what they themselves did to an equal measure: there is a bond of ability.
They might even be able to look behind all the competitive bluster necessary to succeed and like the rival for who they are as a person.
Nevertheless, the fact of the matter is that, while they were racing, they hated each other with all the passion they could muster and we, as fans, only want to remember them as wanting to kill each other on the track, however much the post-retirement bromances in pit lane might warm our hearts…!
So, how do we cope with the scenes at the end of the Austrian MotoGP race when the top three finishers – Bagnaia, Quartararo and Miller – and sixth-placed Aleix Espargaro all stopped together on the slowing-down lap and proceeded to have a chat about the race with an obvious passion for what they had all achieved, respect for each other and genuine pleasure for the guys who beat them. These are the guys who are leading the championship, for crying out loud: first, second, third and fifth in the overall standings and all with a strong chance – if a little mathematical in Miller’s case – of being crowned world champion.
Some will obviously bang on about how the fire has gone out of the sport and wish a rider would start a fight in the gravel trap after another rider took them out of the lead or make some barbed comment in the pits after the race.
But, in a world which is seemingly ever more bitter and angry, it is important for everyone to see just a bit of honest empathy and friendship in a sport which involves the competitors choosing to put their lives on the line and fight tooth and nail to beat the others and afterwards doing the equivalent of sitting down for a pint and having a good laugh about it. Ego has to come into the equation of their talent but I’d wager there’s a lot less in a motorcycle racer than in many other sports. Or, if there is a lot, it’s kept very much at bay.
Does the off-track friendship take away from the on-track action? Definitely not, because as soon as the lights go out, they’ll forget everything and want to kill each other anyway.
