#'where did casey randomly come up with such a banger line from' well akshually if you did a close read of their collective output -

[batsplat]

"I believe that I can be faster than Rossi. He knows that too and it worries him. I probably shouldn't say it but I think that it was because of that in Laguna he let his ambition to win take control over his technique."

one thing that nobody ever brings up with the casey/valentino rivalry is how casey kinda preempts his jerez 2011 line right after laguna 2008, which is a nice little moment that helps to make the rivalry as a whole feel more cohesive. "he let his ambition to win take control over his technique" his ambition, yeah?? 'technique' obviously not quite the same thing as 'talent', but they basically both function as ways of capturing actual 'skill' - rather than anything of a more 'psychological' nature. always comes back to the same things with the two of them, in the end

it's neat how that one line at jerez 2011... y'know, of course it does work well out of context because it's just sort of an elegant, pithy way of saying your enemy is suffering from a case of the hubris, that he isn't as good as he thinks he is. which IS definitely what casey was saying, but there's a little more to it than that, right. it's notable that casey in his autobiography does use the line to make such a broad sweeping assessment of valentino's entire career. casey says outright that he meant the comment... because valentino had the luck of coming through a weak era and building up a lot of confidence (that clearly casey feels is unearned) - which made him such a great rider. and... it is a slightly shaky bit of logic when you hold it up to scrutiny. confidence is all well and good, but it can't make you any better than however good you are fundamentally capable of being. whatever 'talent' is, the whole point of that concept is that it imposes an ultimate ceiling on your potential. you can maximise your potential more effectively than others, sure, and confidence may very well be a part of that - but confidence only goes so far as an explanation for why someone is as good as they are. it'd be different if casey had said valentino was statpadding in a weak era and was shown up once decent competitors arrived, but he mostly isn't doing that. and at the same time, casey has this... y'know, a bit of a sore spot, where any suggestion that he might not be mentally up to scratch is something he's highly sensitive to. which he reacts to by being extra strident about his own mental strength; he's typically very insistent about how he isn't a victim to fluctuations in confidence. he says as much in his autobiography - he's always felt that he's one of the mentally strongest out there, he knows he can have confidence in his abilities, he doesn't need to make excuses unlike other riders. and, yes, obviously his frustration at how frequently his mentality was derided is justified; casey was certainly a lot tougher than he is often portrayed. to the extent that this is even measurable, he really was one of the mentally strongest and most confident riders. at the same time, casey isn't as unaffected as he sometimes tries to sell it - because nobody is. nobody can be mentally perfect. casey's ideal of racing is a pure one, unaffected by any sort of politics or requirement to perform for the outside world or any of it... and it is also one where his body and mind never let him down. the reality won't ever be quite so sweet

all of this does leave you in an interesting position. what casey is essentially suggesting, right, is that valentino's success is a bit of a mirage. not reflective of his true ability, a scam of sorts based on (over)confidence, how everyone around him has treated him like a god when he is anything but. yes, valentino might be a good rider, but he isn't that good. the ambition is greater than the talent; his confidence is greater than what his technique warrants. bridging the gap between the two comes down to one sleight of hand after the other - an ability to exert pressure off the track in ways casey does not consider a legitimate element of the sport, a dirty approach to riding that frequently crosses the line to the actively unfair. ways of gaming the system that allow valentino to make up for a deficit in raw skill in other ways... see casey talking in 2021 about how valentino could not do a fast lap without a tow (towing of course being one of casey's least favourite things in this plane of existence). this line of argumentation does run into a bit of trouble with casey's position that mind games don't affect him, that if anything they have a tendency to backfire on the person playing them. if you do them wrong (which casey clearly believes valentino is doing), then you're just making enemies for yourself. all of these things can't really be true at once, right - either your mental game is making up for your lack of talent or your mental game is actually hurting you. the results have to be coming from somewhere. to the extent that valentino's ambition outweighed his talent, it does feel like this might have been a winning approach. maybe self-delusion is the correct method after all. as long as you're winning, does it ultimately really matter if you have the talent to win as much as you do?

while valentino did at times rankle at the suggestion that casey is the superior rider when they were actual rivals... generally, when it comes to talent, it does feel like he's more or less willing to concede the point. it's by far the descriptor valentino uses the most in conjunction with casey. "he's very, very strong, very young," says valentino after catalunya 2007, "a great talent who rides without many problems. he is riding like a god!" and since casey's retirement - "one of the greatest talents ever in motogp", "one of the most talented and difficult riders to beat because, for me, about the pure talent, he’s unbeatable", "the most talented rider I saw"... valentino might not explicitly be calling casey more talented than himself, but he's hardly far off. casey's comments at the top of this post weren't particularly well-advised in the moment, but are the two of them even in all that much disagreement? of course valentino was worried about casey. yes, in the middle of 2008 casey was for all intents and purposes the faster rider. casey was obviously right that valentino wasn't winning through raw skill alone. in that recent podcast appearance of his, valentino is quite clear about this... casey was so fast that valentino decided he needed to target him mentally. valentino played dirty - and he had no compunctions whatsoever about crashing them both out if he had to. in no way does that devalue the victory in valentino's mind. if his ambition really took control of his technique... well then, so be it. and casey did let valentino get in his head. there's a reason why casey frames it as such a turning point - he learned some important lessons that day. lessons he would much racer have never needed to learn, but lessons nevertheless (see x, x)

and y'know, for all that they both (especially casey) aren't necessarily fans of this framing that casey is the talented one and valentino is the clever/mentally strong one... well, they do lean into it themselves. that's what I found so charming about this particular juxtaposition of backhanded compliments/insults, right. casey says that valentino is less talented than jorge, that valentino is more talented than casey in some ways but less in others - and, extremely tellingly, his example for what valentino is more talented at is "dealing with the media". valentino says casey is "unique" and rides in "an incredible way", but also essentially implies... idk, that casey needed to be "not particularly intelligent" to ride the ducati that way? but like, as a compliment? but also clearly not? obviously they're both being pretty rude about each other here - but that's basically the point of this post. even their insults are thematically cohesive! it all comes together rather nicely... as we've established valentino has called casey talented plenty of times and casey has been rather less complimentary of valentino in that regard. on the flip side, casey has spoken about how "clever", "savvy", "cunning", and so on, whereas valentino has at the very least flirted with calling casey mentally fragile and less intelligent. idk, isn't there something neat about having such a clearly defined contrast between two rivals? one that also reflects their entire mindsets, their approaches, their value systems, their self-conceptions... it's this dynamic, right

and

that particular post is talking mainly about the similarities between the pair of them - which are fun, but in no way serve to remove the gulf between them. you need a good gulf on some dimension or another for a top tier rivalry, like that's where you get the tension from, the narrative juice... valentino's ambition was so considerable that his talent could never have matched it. and casey's talent was so unbeatable that his ambition was always going to struggle to keep apace. mind versus matter, style versus substance, will versus ability, ambition versus talent... if given the choice, neither of them would switch with the other, because they both firmly believe that their way is the most satisfying way to win. the contrast between the two of them also happens to delineate what they both pride themselves the most on. still, valentino had to reinvent himself to beat casey, casey had to learn from valentino to get back at him... that's what you want from a rivalry, ideally - two strong characters with immutable core characteristics that are fundamentally in opposition to those belonging to their rival, embroiled in a conflict that reveals the similarities between the pair of them as well as forcing them both to adapt and change in response to each other. 10/10 rivalry what can you say