Bumping this up because couldn't find a more recent one.
As Valentino Rossi approaches his 41st birthday and what could end up being his final season in Motogp, I wanted to ask a few questions:
1) How good was Rossi as a teenager in the 125cc and 250cc before joining the motogp in 2000?
2)How good was Marc Marquez as a teenager in the 125cc and 250cc before joining the motogp in 2013 ?
3) How good was Rossi in his prime ? (2001-2009)
4) How good has Marquez been from 2013 to 2019 ?
5) You see what I am doing here, right ? So, to finish this up, who is the greatest between them ?
I realize Marquez is going to end up beating all of Rossi's records and will catch Agostini aswell, but that doesn't take away from Rossi's legendary career and I think it's fair to make comparisons between them.
1. Rossi was a prodigical talent. He was a 125 and 250 world champion before taking on the premier class. I mean, until 2007, he'd never finished less than 2nd in any class (including rookie years) which says enough. His marketability was a big factor especially with a younger audience. It wasn't so long ago that you were in your mid 20's before you moved up to the Top Tier.
2. Same as Rossi. Both exceptional talents who were ear marked for success before even entering the junior classes.
3. Peak Rossi is considered by many to be arguably the best rider of all time. I disagree on the fact that he had the benefit of an all conquering Repsol Honda setup followed by taking virtually his entire team over to Yamaha (including Jeremy Burgess who's engineered bikes had won a staggering 8 of the previous 10 world titles (5 Doohan, 3 Rossi). Accordingly, it was not surprising he was able to make Yamaha comeptitive but I think it was far more to do with Yamaha than they are given credit for. He also had a period of some pretty rubbish comeptition. Up until Lorenzo, Stoner and Pedrosa came into the series, everybody else was kind of a bit meh. He's certainly right now failing to demonstrate that it was him all along. Stoner was better.
4. Better than Rossi but not by much. Bigger claim to the best of all time, except for one issue. Casey Stoner who had proved he was better than Rossi. Marquez has never raced him and from what my sources tell me, couldn't keep up with his pace on the same machinery when Casey was still test riding for Honda.
Further it is all well and good having stats in your favour, but Marques lives in a comfy HRC bubble where the bike is built around him at the detriment to every other rider under the umbrella. This doesn't happen often and even Doohan and Rossi never had the same benefit from HRC or Yamaha. They were given preferential treatment yes, but that was it. This doesn't destract from his natural talent, but he needs to prove himself elsewhere.
5. Marquez may well have all the titles by the end of his career, but nobody will care. He has no charisma, no personality, his pathetic flag waving even when losing a race and the clear marketing bullshit from Dorna pisses alot of people off. He's a product of a machine and not one of personality unlike Rossi, hence despite his ridiculous success, Rossi is still far more popular (even in Spain) compared to Marquez.
6. Personally, Stoner is the greatest rider of all time followed by Mike Hailwood then Marquez then Rossi/Rainey/Schwantz/Lorenzo. Stoner for his faults as a racer, is simply untouchable when it comes to our ride speed and ability to generate a laptime on a motorcycle. What he did on the Ducati between 2008 and 2010 despite lactose intolerence and everything else, is next level.