Before anyone gets jealous, it is good to clarify that there is not really a naked person here--nor is there anyone who is mini-naked, on the contrary.
The title refers to a situation, to a figure, geometric, not at all regular. A figure, laid bare.
We speak of the virtually infallible sports marketing quadrilateral whose sides are Yamaha, Petronas, Razali and Rossi. A top factory, an impressive sponsor, a manager who doesn't miss a beat, and the biggest sports money machine in years. And here, it is well understood, there are no gifted minis. Not one bit. There is, however, some nudity.
Going in order, there were three sides initially, and they worked great.
Yamaha had met Petronas with Razlan Razali, sports team boss, deus ex machina of the operation.
How well had it worked, from one to ten? At least fourteen.
In the "annus schiaffonis" of the factory team, which at the time of taking advantage of Marquez 's absence had been killed by Mir on Suzuki, the slaying had also continued at home, in the most mocking way possible. With the men in blue no longer knowing who to take it from.
No Quartararo, a paying official (one who had the best bike on the team and not content had put a little extra on it by paying for it), but that other one, he had reversed the previous year by doing better than all the tuning forks, almost bringing home a coup that one does not know how desirable it would really have been, being the "wrong" winner.
The Petronas SRT team had done as it did in F1. Method, right choices, peace of mind, and victories. In the face of the "predestined."
Razali, who is one who knows how to take chances and create them, must have thought that if that was the student, let alone the master.
And he must have thought that, back home, the chance to celebrate the forty-sixth year of the company he works for, with the best reference to forty-six there is in the world, should not be an opportunity to pass up.
And he was right. Because Valentino Rossi may have been in decline for a few seasons, however, he is still the biggest draw motorcycling can have. Especially looking at a long wave that in far-flung popular Asia takes a while to kick in.
Razali made his movie, and he made it well.
A tot (guess how many) of YZFR1 replicas, at 46,000 euros, even a tot OHVale (planned) with the same numbers, and a whole series of initiatives to capitalize on the affair.
In a market that we can't even imagine how big it is, but that really in the East does numbers that make it seem nonexistent to us.
After all, even not winning, what could have gone wrong?
VR is no longer a leader in the standings, but he is still someone who entertains and, more importantly, he entertains himself. Which essential to communicate the right mood. In short, a great initiative that might not have paid off sportingly but from an image standpoint would have been great. Top. The best combo on the market.
Instead, it became clear pretty early on that nothing worked at all. In reality we are only at the beginning of the season and everything can be straightened out, however ... such inprinting is hard to put right.
It started so bad, that even what had worked the year before broke down. Quartararo to win and Morbidelli to flounder as he had never been seen to do. Rossi then, no opaque, but pitch black. A front row trailed by one of his own, which you really have to not want to see to not realize is sad stuff, and a triple set of horrendous qualifying and racing. Stuff you can't even joke about if things pick up afterwards.
These are the worst situations that can occur when you do marketing. That is, that your own testimonials, the ones who are supposed to convince you of the goodness of the product, are officially disgusted by it. Because we take into account that Rossi, not being there to win, should have been the one to put on a good face. Instead, the good face did not show.
And so the mountain (of money) gave birth to a mouse, but not even. And the imperial matchup actually laid bare the fact that theory is one thing, but reality, is another.
Ora spiegalo tu ai Malesi o Malesiani, fate voi, che una roba così figa che quasi non si sarebbe potuta rovinare, è andata così a gambe all’aria da non essere contento nessuno di quelli che ha partecipato a metterla in piedi. Con tanto di dissapori interni e insoddisfazione dell’unico che stava al posto suo, e a cui adesso tira un po’ il culo notare che quello che lo dovrebbe aiutare in realtà, amici amici, ma poi ti rubano la bici. (vedi questo video qui).
La stampa ha fatto il resto. Ha cercato di mettere contro “le due Yamahe”, i piloti delle stesse, rivendicando ora per l’uno, ora per l’altro dei due Petronas, più attenzione, più assistenza, più ufficialità, tirandola via, come in una legge dei vasi comunicanti, proprio a “quegli altri”.
Ma questa è una cosa che funziona quando gli altri non funzionano, non quando vincono tre gare su tre. Autogoal.
E quindi cosa succede, alla fine? Non lo sappiamo perché non siamo alla fine. Quello che però sembra è che siamo all’anticamera dei vaffanculi e che Petronas, invece di allontanarsi, dalla Yamaha, si sta avvicinando ancora di più, con tanto di dichiarazioni di intenti di partnership pluriennali e baci bacini che hanno tanto il sapore speziato di presa di distanze dalle scelte fatte, indovinate quali.
Il che vuol dire una sola cosa: che la partnership messa insieme per fare belle gare, bei soldi, belle cose, è un tavolino a tre gambe che non si regge nemmeno su una… e che quindi, ciaone a fine anno, se non prima.
But even should it last, it seems so much like one of those relationships in which, when certain things happen or are said, nothing ever goes back to the way it was.
Then the effects on the professional careers of the various protagonists, matter the right amount. Here we are not talking about those, but about the initiative, the combo that was supposed to be perfect and instead is not working at all.
We are at a point that looks so much like the joke where there is a boxer who comes back to the corner staggering and asks his trainer how he is doing. And the one in response, "If you kill him, you make it even."
MIsterhelmet Gianluigi Ragno
