Valentino Rossi risks tarnishing legacy with 2015 Marc Marquez conspiracy theory

Nine years after the fact, only one person can truly take the blame for Valentino Rossi not winning the 2015 MotoGP world title. And it’s him.

The nine-time world champion has never wavered from his stance that Marc Marquez conspired against him to ensure Jorge Lorenzo won the 2015 crown. It’s a view that has radicalised a portion of the MotoGP fanbase and is the main reason a chorus of boos tends to follow Marquez around whenever he races in front of former Rossi strongholds.

It is a cloud that has forever hung over MotoGP since that Malaysian Grand Prix weekend almost a decade ago and one, sadly, that shows no signs of ever disappearing after Rossi stoked the fires again earlier this week.

Taking to the ‘Mig Babol’ podcast - a show hosted by former VR46 Academy rider and current VR46 Racing team rider coach and video analyst Andrea Migno - Rossi doubled down on his rhetoric about 2015.

He reiterated why he called out Marquez in the pre-event Sepang press conference after ‘irrefutable’ proof of conspiracy was discovered at Phillip Island the week before. He doubled down on the fact that, in the Malaysian GP, Marquez tried to make Rossi fall before their infamous penultimate corner clash.

Perhaps the most bizarre declaration from Rossi aimed at Marquez was this, which seems to conveniently forget some of his own on-track battles and those of just about every racer in history: "No one, among the great stars of motorsport, has ever fought to make another rider lose, that is what marks the line. Normally those who did certain things did it for themselves, they were dirty to gain their own advantage, because they wanted to win. No one has been as dirty as him."

He also claimed the rulemakers dished out a harsher punishment than he should have received, before alleging that Marquez’s manager Emilio Alzamora “insulted” Rossi, and that when the Italian’s punishment for Valencia was handed down Marquez “looked at Alzamora as if to say: 'We have done it’.”

Some of Rossi’s comments are venturing into potentially problematic areas for him if either Marquez - who is unlikely to dignify any of this - or Alzamora elect to go after the Italian.

It’s worth noting that neither Marquez nor Alzamora have made any public response to Rossi’s comments yet.

Rossi threw away the 2015 title

When it comes to 2015, reason is something hard to come by. But the fact of the matter is this: Rossi’s paranoia extended beyond the Australian GP. Dani Pedrosa noted that Rossi had asked him if he deliberately fought him hard at the Aragon GP that year over second place, which was won by Lorenzo.

In Australia, several laps where Marquez dropped off from Lorenzo - which was to lower his tyre temperatures for a late push - was seen as proof that the then-Honda rider was trying to disrupt Rossi in favour of Lorenzo, because Marquez apparently held such a deep-rooted grudge for run-ins earlier in 2015. If that were the case, it seems baffling even to this day that Marquez would then overtake Lorenzo a few corners from the chequered flag to steal the win away from the Yamaha rider.

Fundamentally, though, the biggest mistake Rossi made was poking the bear. When Marquez and Rossi met on track in the early laps of the Malaysian GP, the former raced more aggressively than he would have done under normal circumstances and it allowed Lorenzo to scamper away at the front. What culminated in the infamous ‘Sepang Clash’ was Rossi’s frustrations boiling over.

The subsequent back-of-the-grid penalty for Valencia was totally of his own making. For someone as experienced at winning championships as Rossi is, he threw his shot at winning the 2015 title in the bin by making those public accusations about Marquez. He reaped what he sowed and the consequences were what they were.

Should a penalty have been handed out in the race? That certainly would have led to the least amount of trouble. Subsequently, a knee-jerk reaction was taken to take stewarding out of the race director’s hands and form the FIM stewards panel. Oh, how well that has gone since…

Rossi had spent years stepping on rivals and coming out on top. In 2015, for the first time, it didn’t work and this led to an ego-bruising that doesn’t seem to have healed all these years later.

Rossi tirade to disrupt Marquez's wins

The timing of Rossi’s latest 2015 tirade isn’t coincidental. It’s been known for a while that the VR46 camp wasn’t happy with Ducati promoting Marquez to its factory team for 2025. A recent L’Equipe interview with Rossi, where he said he still couldn’t understand Ducati’s decision, followed by repeated declarations that his man Francesco Bagnaia is more than up to the task of beating Marquez was a gentle fanning of flames.

This podcast being released as Marquez has started winning again seems like a greater push to wind up the Spaniard as he puts yet more pressure on Bagnaia.

Former racer Carlos Checa recently said after a conversation with Rossi at the Brazil round of the World Endurance Championship that the Italian will help Bagnaia “in every possible way” in his battle with Marquez. For now, a PR war appears to be the method.

But all of this is only serving to put Bagnaia in the firing line. When he and Alex Marquez collided at the Aragon GP, it sparked up the Rossi/Marquez feud again in the press and on social media. Bagnaia’s claims that the younger Marquez brother deliberately caused the incident were later apologised for by the Italian.

But, as Alex Marquez noted at Misano: “the damage is already done”.

Bagnaia doesn’t seem like he’s interested in any sort of rivalry with Marc Marquez. The pair’s relationship off-track is cordial, and on the Misano podium last weekend Bagnaia wagged his finger at the fans booing Marquez. It’s a small gesture, but an important one.

Going forward, Bagnaia may well be asked about Rossi’s comments and for his opinion on the matter. Bagnaia will steer clear of it, but the more Rossi digs in the greater the dilemma the double world champion will find himself in. Across three fronts, he will have to protect his team, avoid anything to strain relations with his future team-mate, and do nothing to upset his friend and mentor.

That’s not a position any rider wants to be in, not least when they are currently the ones doing the chasing in the title race.

Legends must be dignified in retirement

Marquez’s return to winning with Gresini Ducati has made worldwide headlines, given all he has been through since badly breaking his arm in 2020. His is already being seen as one of sport’s best comeback stories and that will only strengthen the closer he gets to matching Rossi’s tally of nine grand prix titles.

As MotoGP also gets set to enter a new era under Liberty Media ownership, Marquez is more than likely going to be the poster boy for the series. A new generation of fans will stick to him like they did Rossi over two decades ago, such is the cyclical nature of sport.

Rossi retired in 2021, but last won a grand prix since 2017 and his last world title was in 2009. Enough time is now passing where the diehard Rossi fanbase is slowly being replaced and a new generation of fans’ opinions of him will be shaped by what they see happening now. And that’s not going to reflect very well on Rossi.

The court of public opinion is utterly merciless, not least in the social media age where anything you say or do is scrutinised.

Rossi is easily one of motorsport’s most powerful historical figures, and the impact he still has on the landscape is sizable. If his car racing career proves to be even half as successful as his MotoGP one, his already immense status as an athlete will only heighten.

But when you are someone holding legend status, you have to be an ambassador for your sport way beyond your active career. Therefore, there is a certain level of dignity you need to maintain because what you say matters. Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel are perfect examples of this in motorsport.

The problem with Rossi, though, is that he was MotoGP for a long time. The series’ growth through the 2000s is almost entirely down to the popularity of Rossi, his connection with fans and the TV value he gave through all of the rivalries he had. For most of the 21st Century, MotoGP sold itself off the back of Rossi - almost too much, as his retirement in 2021 brought about a decline in interest.

He has a certain untouchable aura about him that he can - or, at least, he feels like he can - say what he wants. Undeniably, he’s used his platform for good in MotoGP. The VR46 Academy plugged a big gap in the nurturing of young Italian racing talents and its success speaks volumes. To boot, the VR46 business operation deserves a lot of credit, while I was genuinely impressed by the VR46 Civico hospitality in the paddock's efforts to cut down on food waste and push for environmental sustainability.

But how much will a changing fanbase care about that when all they see is an old rider showing little grace in defeat of something that happened so long ago?

Rossi is entitled to say what he wants and believe it, too. But so too is the public allowed for its views to change the longer this baseless conspiracy is kept in the news cycle.

Given all that Valentino Rossi has achieved, it would be an utter tragedy to see his legacy lessened by his unwillingness to simply let the past lie…