#yeah yeah valentino and those phillip island yellow flags i know

[batsplat]

1.

Now, the problem with the corner post in the hairpin is that it's set on the inside of the hairpin, well away from the track, in a location with less than ideal visibility from the riders' perspective. As Rossi passed Stoner, neither Rossi nor Stoner saw the yellow flag, but the eagle-eyed Nicky Hayden, following in their wake, did see it being waved, and assumed that Rossi would be punished for passing under yellow. The penalty for passing under yellow is to raise your hand and immediately cede the position you have just gained, or else cede the number of positions decided and communicated by the Race Direction. But neither Race Direction, nor any of the marshals, spotted Rossi's infraction, and so no board was shown. To further confuse matters, Stoner briefly poked his nose ahead of Rossi again coming out of the hairpin and going through Siberia, the following turn. Technically, Rossi had ceded the advantage he had gained, albeit briefly. The issue would haunt the race, and the aftermath, for a while to come.

2.

Immediately after the race, Hayden's Repsol Honda team lodged an official protest about Rossi's yellow flag pass on Stoner. The protest was in vain, however. Neither the track-side officials, nor the Race Director responsible for monitoring the race via the TV images had seen the pass. Rossi and Stoner both denied seeing the yellow flag, and the crash situation which had caused the yellow flag seemed to be totally under control, meaning there was no danger to any of the riders either on or off the track at that moment in time. A punishment which would do justice to all the players in the drama seemed difficult to formulate, and impossible to apply. HRC were furious. A formal letter of protest was sent to the FIM, and a couple of days later, the race stewards at Phillip Island formally apologized to Nicky Hayden for not catching the whole situation. By this time, Hayden himself had become more gracious about the whole affair, saying "The bottom line is that he (Rossi) didn't pass me under a waved yellow so I've got no reason to complain". But the affair smoldered on, leading the FIM to announce a week later that they would be reviewing yellow flag procedures, including the possibility of using new technologies to improve communication around the track.

3.

Rossi, meanwhile, maintains that he didn't see the yellow flags and shouldn't have been punished anyway since Stoner retook him on the exit of the corner, although - once again - he should actually have let Stoner back ahead and raised his hand to avoid punishment. "I didn't see the yellow flags in Phillip Island, but I have been unlucky with them before and I was lucky this time. Stoner retook me and I was saved by that," claimed the seven-times world champion, who was stripped of his 2003 British Grand Prix victory for passing under a yellow flag, but won the 2003 Australian Grand Prix despite a ten-second penalty for the same offence.

Phillip Island 2006 (x, x)

[batsplat]

u r sooo right about the red team blue team rivalry which is also what I thought about the aesthetics of some pictures of fabio q vs pecco in the last title fight races of 2021. pecco was so unsure back then and fabio had more natural talent and gumption and pecco seemed nervous and fabio seemed like he was having a good time and they made for good a narrative in their blue and red leathers.

we have only had four title fights this century between a blue team and a red team! and even that is me being generous by including 2007 - which imo counts because casey had to outscore valentino not dani at motegi to clinch the title and dani only nicked second in the championship off valentino at valencia. so yeah, four title fights: 2007, 2008, 2021, 2022. just isn't good enough

I will say by the END of 2021 pecco had mostly finished finding his feet and was winning a bunch of races, whereas fabio was less self-assured and more going 'yeah this title is nice but... uh...? guys we might be a bit fucked?' but. yeah. aesthetically their title fights were nice vibes! I was totally pro that rivalry conceptually! in practise, these aesthetics were let down somewhat by the absence of this little thing I like to call 'actually fighting on-track', which as a traditionally-minded viewer I do on occasion like to see in my title fights. like, valentino and casey's whole rivalry aesthetic was enhanced by how you have cool shots of them actually being, y'know, in the same shot

a selection from some of my favourite on-track battles of theirs during the time they were at ducati and yamaha respectively (minus assen 2007 + phillip island 2009 for obvious reasons). very nice distinct colour scheme, colours really popped, we know casey was paying attention to luminous yellow covering things and it's symbolically neat that one of 'valentino's colours' is on casey's bike (no, I do not care about what the australian flag looks like and indeed refuse to acknowledge the existence of 'australia'). also generally liked their helmets during that era, strong stuff all round

I've been thinking a fair bit lately about how this era compares to the other era this century that is generally associated with poor quality of racing, aka the alien era. the word that is commonly associated with those few years is 'processional', not unfairly... I think a refrain I see quite commonly is that some fans still have too much nostalgia for the alien era because they're only thinking of the laguna 2008's and catalunya 2009's of this world, not all the many many races of that era that weren't laguna 2008 or catalunya 2009. which is true! my general take is that the average race quality these last few years has been higher and there's often something interesting happening somewhere - you don't get the abysmal lows of the alien era quite so often. on the flip side, while the alien era certainly is associated with technical regulations that produced some poor racing... well, it did seem to at least be possible when all the stars aligned to have a duel that lasted for more than three corners. that used to be a thing even in the alien era. like it did happen

as much as I find the alien era deeply frustrating and agree with the general point that race quality these days doesn't plummet quite the same depths, I also think you need those highlights!! just to give people stuff to remember seasons by, stuff that lives on in years to come because it was just such a foundational cool memory. the current dearth isn't primarily the fault of the riders, but we have been pretty short on outright classics since end of 2019 - and the ones we have had tend to be more in the dogfight category of the typical phillip island mould than the race long duel. my sense is the current formula makes these even more impossible than 800cc did, which also weren't conducive to duels but at least didn't have this infernal tyre pressure crap week in week out that makes it impossible for riders to follow each other closely. also does feel like one of the real issues with increased homogeneity between the bikes... like casey/vale was kinda the motorcycling rivalry for babies because you knew that casey would have the edge in the straights and valentino would have the edge in the twisty bits. now a bike like the current ducati just has a way more balanced performance profile, and that's what everyone else is chasing. which. y'know. harder to be doing dramatic duels if you're all good in the same places

anyway, the point is that fabio and pecco had all the ingredients for a perfectly enjoyable rivalry... fabio as the more precocious one but also by 2021 a somewhat steadier performer, pecco cerebral but also volatile, self-critical to a fault. pecco's actually someone who I'd kill to see in a better version of this sport just for a bit, seeing as one of his biggest strengths as a rider is how excellent he is at defending - which would be nice to see tested more in races where that like... actually matters. they're both a little bit too nice and non-confrontational for my tastes, like you kinda worry any rivalry between them is destined to just be quite friendly, but there was still enough contrast in personalities and approaches to theoretically generate intrigue. plus, obviously, most importantly - they did have a red and blue colour scheme

while I'm generally a fan of dark colour schemes, I do feel like the white of the fiat yamaha era did allow the blue to pop a little more. and maybe it would've helped if the red had been a bit brighter to provide more contrast - I like both of these designs on their own, but together they do look a tad bleak. also my god have these bikes become massive

unfortunately, however, it comes back to the lack of memorable on-track battles. 2021 and 2022 were both kinda weird years, with pecco not really establishing himself as The Title Rival until quite late into 2021, and then 2022 being... y'know, a truly bizarre experience. they were never really good at the same time! didn't ever really hash it out for the win! even when they came close, like jerez/mugello 2022, it wasn't all that much of a fight... it's a shame - we know they're both theoretically capable of perfectly compelling on-track battles, they just never really did it with each other. pecco's had more good fights with jorge than with fabio, and that's also not exactly happening at the rate I'd like

in conclusion. it is time to bring back red vs blue sports contests. let us return to this

and the only way to do that? well, that would be for the blue team to get its act together