#Max Biaggi

[muxas-world]

WE CAN'T HAVE THIS ANYMORE CAUSE OF WOKE CURRENT GRID COULDN'T HANDLE TENEGE VALENTINO AND BIAGI FIGHTING AND VALE COMING AOUT SREMING TO THE MEDIA "I HIT HIM I HIM"

[kwisatzworld]

Mugello 2004: Sete Gibernau raised Valentino Rossi’s hand on the podium.

[forza-beznaia]

“He’s more of a product than a person. He cries so much he should be sponsored by Kleenex.” - Mick Doohan about Max Biaggi (1998)

[sebmaxrc]

idk i think its funny

[coimbrabertone]

A Postmortem on the Competitive Era of MotoGP

Okay, that is a very dramatic title, and hopefully, a year from now I'll be able to look at this and say I was wrong, but...I think MotoGP's competitive era is over.

First let me explain what I mean by competitive era.

Grand Prix motorcycle racing, more so than other forms of motorsport, I think, is prone to eras of complete dominance. Agostini in the 60s and 70s, Doohan in the 90s, Rossi in the 2000s, and Marc Marquez in the 2010s. Marc Marquez's run of dominance, however, came to an abrupt end at the 2020 Spanish Grand Prix.

Here, Marquez crashed riding maniacally to make his way to the lead. Marc broke his right arm and started a multi-year struggle with injury that would impact his 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 seasons. This would also ultimately end Marc's relationship with Honda, as at the end of 2023, he decided to move to a Gresini Ducati.

In the meantime, MotoGP was wide open.

Joan Mir on a Suzuki won the 2020 championship on consistency over the Petronas Yamaha of Franco Morbidelli, with teammate Alex Rins in third.

Fabio Quartararo on a factory Yamaha won 2021 over the raw speed of Ducati's Pecco Bagnaia and Suzuki's Joan Mir.

Pecco Bagnaia got the upper hand over Fabio Quartararo in 2022, with additional challenges from the Gresini Ducati of Enea Bastianini and the Aprilia of Aleix Espargaro.

Bagnaia won again in 2023, but it was a new cast of characters around him. Instead of being pressured from outside, he was being pressured from within as the Pramac Ducati of Jorge Martin and the VR46 Ducati of Marco Bezzecchi challenged him for the championship.

2024, however, is when things started getting stale. Jorge Martin won the championship over Pecco Bagnaia - the same top two from last year, just in a different order - whilst Marc Marquez on the Gresini Ducati was third, and Enea Bastianini on the factory Ducati was in fourth.

Five years with four different champions.

Suzuki riders, Yamaha riders, factory Ducati riders, and satellite Ducati riders.

It was variety, it was amazing.

However...it was already getting stale this year.

Ducati has been the strongest for a few years now, I admit that even as someone who initially was in favor of Ducati dominance - my logic being that Honda and Yamaha have dominated MotoGP for so long that it was nice to see a European bike take a turn on top - and they've really mastered it this year.

KTM didn't win anything this year.

Aprilia only won two sprints and a single race.

The entire winning constructor column on Wikipedia is a sea of Italian flags without interruption.

And I fear it's only going to get worse for 2025, because Marc Marquez will be on a factory Ducati. After four years of being broken and one year of being on year old machinery, I fear that we may be seeing the Marquez revenge tour for the next few years.

Now, I'm sure for Marquez fans, they'll have a lot of fun.

But...I'm not a Marquez fan.

I'm a Ducati fan, I suppose, but even then, I'm more of a competition fan. The last few years I've found myself turning away from Ducati and becoming an Aprilia fan. The problem with Aprilia, however, is that Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales are good riders, sure, but they're not the kind of riders Aprilia needs to take the fight to the Bolognese.

So Aprilia has made a change for 2025.

Jorge Martin and Marco Bezzecchi.

I think this is a good change. I don't like Martin, his personality rubs me the wrong way and I've spent the last two years rooting against him, but hey, it's Aprilia nabbing the reigning champion, so I understand why they'd want that.

Marco Bezzecchi I'm more excited about. I like him more as a rider, and while I expect Martin to be faster, I hope Marco gets some success too, because then I could at least enjoy some of Aprilia's successes.

Assuming, of course, that Marquez doesn't go and win everything next year.

Will KTM be able to provide any resistance? Maybe. Pedro Acosta is impressive, and Brad Binder has put on some performances at the end of this year to finish ahead of Acosta in the standings, but neither of them have finished any higher than second, so...what they can do depends on where the 2025 KTM is.

The same goes for the new Tech3 KTM lineup of Maverick Vinales and Enea Bastianini, two riders I like - I was glad to see Vinales succeed at the USGP, while Enea has been the rider I've rooted for in MotoGP ever since I became an active fan - they're both moody riders. On their day, they're invincible, problem is that their day doesn't come around nearly often enough to mark a consistent challenge.

And to add insult to injury, Pierer Mobility Group is suffering poor sales globally.

This is why Tech3 is going to be a KTM team instead of a GasGas team, because Pierer is refocusing their marketing on their core brand to try and regain stock value.

So...maybe they can challenge, but I'm not particularly optimistic.

Yamaha? They're gonna need a hell of a lot more speed if they want to challenge.

Honda? Look, yesterday at the Solidarity GP, Joan Mir crashed on the Honda and Neil Hodgson went "oh it's Mir time" so...the less said about Honda right now, the better.

Especially with Repsol gone.

How about the rest of Ducati?

Well, Bagnaia still won eleven races this year, so he's certainly still a force, but is he capable of beating Marc Marquez on equal machinery? I hope so, but given that Bagnaia just got beat by Jorge Martin on equal machinery, I'm not sure if I'm optimistic.

There is also only going to be one more factory-spec Ducati in 2024. Pramac has gone over to Yamaha, while Ducati has given a single GP25 to VR46, putting it in the hands of Fabio Di Giannantonio.

I think Digia will be good on the GP25 this year, and maybe he'll win a couple of races, but I expect him to finish somewhere between third and fifth. Third if no one else can challenge Ducati, fourth or fifth if the likes of Aprilia or KTM can start to pressure the Ducatis.

So overall, I think most races next year will finish with Marquez and Bagnaia in the top two slots, and everyone else fighting for third. The bright side for everyone else, I suppose, is that both Marc and Pecco can be crash prone, so maybe that's where all the other wins will come from.

Will that be good?

We'll see.

Was this competitive era good?

Yes.

Hearing about 2020 and 2021 and paying attention to the very end of the 2022 season is what made me want to become a MotoGP fan. I watched the entire 2023 season on janky streams, I was relieved as hell to see the 2024 season come onto Max so that I could watch MotoGP legally and safely - and share it with my racing friends - so for me, this competitive era has been great.

The entire reason I'm writing this blogpost is because I'm scared that MotoGP is turning for the worse just as I've become a fan.

So what era do I think is most comparable to this competitive era?

The early 2000s. Let's say 1999-2003 for instance.

1999, Mick Doohan gets injured and suddenly the best 500cc GP rider is out of the picture. Alex Crivillé on a Repsol Honda and Kenny Roberts Jr. on a Suzuki battled for the title, with occasional appearances by the other two Repsol Hondas of Tadayuki Odaka and Sete Gibernau, as well as Max Biaggi who was dragging that Marlboro Yamaha forward.

2000 continued the trends, with Kenny Roberts Jr. winning on the Suzuki, Valentino Rossi pressuring him on a Nastro Azzurro Honda run by Mick Doohan's former crew. Max Biaggi on the Marlboro Yamaha was third, with a huge variety of satellite riders involving themselves as well. The Emerson Hondas of Alex Barros and Loris Capirossi, the Red Bull and Antena3 Yamahas of Garry McCoy and Norifumi Abe, Carlos Checa on the other Marlboro Yamaha, and Alex Crivillé struggling on the overpowered - no literally, it had too much power - Repsol Honda, only taking one win in his title defense.

2001 was a turn towards dominance with Valentino Rossi on that Nastro Azzurro Honda, but we still saw wins from Max Biaggi on the Yamaha. We saw the Pons team - now West Honda - continue to pressure the front with Capirossi and Barros, and Sete Gibernau won a single race on the Suzuki. Interesting how that happened twice in a row. In 1999, Crivillé on the Repsol Honda won the title just to win a single race in 2000, while in 2000, Roberts on the Suzuki won just for Suzuki to only take a single win in 2001 with Sete Gibernau at Valencia.

2002 I think lines up with 2022. Valentino Rossi, now brought into Repsol Honda, wins the first 990cc title over Max Biaggi on the Marlboro Yamaha. Tohru Ukawa on the Repsol Honda and Alex Barros on that West Honda also challenge for wins on the same bike as the champion, playing that Enea Bastianini role.

2003 then, is the Honda show much like 2024 was the Ducati show. Valentino Rossi on the Repsol Honda, Sete Gibernau on the Telefonica Gresini Honda, and Max Biaggi, now on the Camel Honda - Pons with a new title sponsor - with Loris Capirossi at Catalunya playing that Maverick Vinales at COTA role as the sole win for a different manufacturer.

2004, however, marked the end of that era. Valentino Rossi went to Yamaha and still won the title in dominant fashion. Five Hondas in the top six but it was Rossi on top with nine wins on a bike that hadn't won since 2002. That shattered the idea that Valentino Rossi was simply the best of the Hondas, instead, he was the best in the world, perhaps the best ever.

And maybe on an optimistic note, in 2025, his protege, Pecco Bagnaia, will prove that he is more than just the Ducati champion. Perhaps Bagnaia will weather the storm of Marc Marquez as his teammate and win the championship anyway.

MotoGP seems to be in a bad way, with Ducati dominant, Bagnaia having been beat by Martin, and Marc Marquez coming into Ducati and threatening to dominate.

But in 2003, everyone swore up and down that the 990cc five-cylinder Honda was the best bike in the world, only for Rossi to go onto the Yamaha and win anyway.

Honda seemed invincible in 2003, but Yamaha beat them in 2004.

Marquez seems inevitable in 2024, but maybe someone can stop him in 2025.

Maybe Pecco, maybe Martin on the Aprilia, or maybe the Japanese will shock everyone and somehow bounce back.

It's unlikely, but...maybe there's still hope.

[bikefuckersoftheworldunite]

lmaoooooo

[certifiedbi]

Absolutely love how the Rossi/Biaggi rivalry is like the opposite of the Rossi/Marquez rivalry. Like Marc moved into the MotoGP having idolised Vale yet Vale moved into the 500cc category deciding he already hated Biaggi. I think it's beautiful

[boanerges20]

Max Biaggi Vs. Tetsuya Harada

[indiangp]

Out of context Yakuza game screenshots + MotoGP riders (3/?)

[muxas-world]

Saw i take so bad abaut vale that make me want to screm girl this whole stupid repeated argument that Valentino wasn't that good because he was fighting Biaggi and other low clas riders is so dumb. First, those pilots were good as hell, some of them champions in 125s or 500s. Also, the argument with Valentino doesn't exist. He battled and won against Casey, Jorge, Dani, and in some races, Marc. So, saying that to disrespect the rider that Valentino was is not only dumb but, most importantly, a boring and fake take.

[ross1fum1]

In 1997 in Suzuka Vale meets Biaggi at a restaurant while he is having dinner with journalists. When Vale passes by him Biaggi to show off says "look there is the Biaggi of the 125cc" (addressed to Vale) and Vale replied "at most you are the Valentino Rossi of the 250cc" and Biaggi remained silent😭😭

[kwisatzworld]

Max Biaggi - Oltre: Nelle pieghe della mia vita

[formulapookie]

Biaggi calling sprint races “Marc races” i’m DEAD

[bikefuckersoftheworldunite]

meaningless motogp stats:

max biaggi and valentino have shared the same number of podiums as valentino and marc - 34

vale&biaggi’s first and last shared podiums were at the same gp - Brno, 2000 and 2005

Brno 2000

Brno 2005

marc&vale’s last pre-sepang podium was also in Brno

Brno 2015

[bezzplaining]

I can understand why biaggi didn't like valentino...

look at that little fucker

[batsplat]

'I am not different. Or, what I mean is, I'm just like everybody else and truly everybody is different. If you compare yourself with others you see similarities but everybody has their own paranoia, their virtues and their defects. There is a whole world inside every person!' More than anything, this comment - one of many - was a statement of intent from Jorge Lorenzo. One of his biggest motivations in life is to differentiate himself from everybody else. He doesn't mean to be pretentious, he simply has a healthy desire to create a style that sets him apart. 'I just think he wants everybody to look up to him,' observes Cheni Martínez. Sometimes it is easy to create a persona by observing and being inspired by someone whom one already admires - and even though Jorge might not admit it out loud, the person he looks up to (as, of course, do many others) is Valentino Rossi. Interestingly, some of Jorge's first fall-outs with his father were about Valentino. Chico isn't exactly Rossi's biggest fan, but he'd always insisted that 'The Doctor' was a better rider than Biaggi. So Jorge, partly because he liked to ride like him and partly because Max was Rossi's biggest enemy, rebelled against his father and became a Biaggi fan. 'The truth is that I started siding with Biaggi to wind my dad up in the Harada era. In 1997, when Biaggi signed for Honda after Aprilia decided they didn't want to continue with him, nobody thought he could win the title because, at that time, the Honda wasn't a winning bike. So when my dad used to go on about it, I'd say, "We'll see." And Biaggi won the first race at Shah Alam by 13 seconds! But then it developed into a difficult season, with a couple of crashes, and they arrived in Barcelona with Waldmann holding the advantage. I was at my mother's house watching the television. Biaggi led the whole race until two corners from the end, when Waldmann passed him and won! I was so upset that Biaggi had lost, I cried.' Rossi himself admits in his autobiography (written in 2006 with Enrico Borghi [actually published in 2005]) that he was a Biaggi fan as a youngster. In 1993, aged 14, Valentino had a Biaggi poster on his wall. Jorge didn't quite go that far, and he had probably already realised that Rossi was the more complete rider, although he couldn't say so. If you were a Biaggi fan, you were a Biaggi fan. Nowadays he has no trouble at all admitting that Rossi is the greatest there has ever been, although he hasn't come to that decision totally on his own: there has been the occasional push in that direction over the years from people like Juanito Llansá. 'I said to him, "Jorge, if you have to look up to somebody, focus on the best ... and that's not Biaggi. You can have your own heroes, but the best of the lot is Rossi." Now he needs no convincing - especially since riding alongside him in MotoGP, on the same bike. He realises that to win so many titles on one of these things, you have to be seriously good!" Even so, Jorge can't resist his rebellious side, claiming the best race he ever saw was won by Biaggi. 'I can remember perfectly Max's first victory at Suzuka in 1998 - his first on a 500! Nobody expected him to win there, people wouldn't have bet a single dollar on Biaggi. It's a bit like in football, when you're a fan of one of the smaller teams and they play against Barça or Madrid, you don't expect them to win. But not only do they win, they win 5-1! Doohan crashed but Max was already five seconds clear. It was incredible. I liked Biaggi's character - his wheelies, his designs, his number.'

Riveras Tobia's Jorge Lorenzo: My Story So Far