I replaced Valentino Rossi - “It should have been handled differently”
“It was difficult, because I was young and didn't have the character to impose myself"
Marco Melandri insists that Aprilia should have managed his transition to replacing Valentino Rossi better.
Rossi had already won world championships in the 125cc and 250cc classes for Aprilia when, in 2000, he stepped up to the 500cc class and joined Honda.
His 250cc Aprilia went to another Italian rider - Melandri, who was then just 18 years old.
“I arrived at Aprilia to replace Valentino, who had just won,” Melandri told Relevo.
“Before going there, I tried Marcellino Lucchi's bike in France and I really liked it.
“Later, when I took Rossi's I didn't have the same feeling.
“It had a different chassis, but the biggest difficulty was that the team wanted to reason with me in the same way as it did with him.
“It was difficult, because I was young and didn't have the character to impose myself.
“I wasted a lot of time, because I was afraid to ask for completely different things. The beginnings in 250cc were not easy.”
Melandri found it difficult in Rossi’s shadow. Not the first, and not the last rider to feel that way.
“Yes, because I am different from him,” he said.
“In the way he rode, also with respect to physical dimensions, character...
“I was very young, and I think it should have been handled differently.”
Two years later, Melandri would conquer the 250cc class and win the championship, ahead of second-placed Fonsi Nieto.
Emilio Alzamora, better known as the former manager of the Marquez brothers, and a teenage Casey Stoner were notably in the same championship.
It would prove to be the only championship of Melandri’s career.
He stepped into MotoGP in 2003, where he was reunited with Rossi.
The peerless Rossi was in battle with Sete Gibernau and Max Biaggi in that era.
“In reality, in Italy they only talked about Rossi,” Melandri admitted.
“Motorcycling was him. Yes, there were other Italian riders like Biaggi, Capirossi or me, but we were his rivals.
“If Rossi won it was talked about on the news, but if we did it was not talked about.
“For the common people, he always won. You understand?
“Because when he didn't it seemed like he hadn't even raced.
“It wasn't easy for the others, of course. That said, Valentino has brought MotoGP into every home, even where he didn't like the sport.
“This indirectly helped the rest of us. Today they know us on the street because in that period everyone saw the motorcycles because of Rossi.”
