In what came as a shock not just to us but also to the respected crew chief of Valentino Rossi, Jeremy Burgess, Rossi has announced his decision to terminate his relationship with his long time mentor with immediate effect. The MotoGP paddock is now in Valencia for the final race of the 2013 calender and till this shocker of an announcement came from Rossi all attention was on the two protagonists of the World Championship title in MotoGP, Marc Marquez (now being called the Joker as in the villainous character first portrayed by the great Jack Nicholson, who smile seems to exactly like that of Marquez’s. We are not talking about Heath Ledger who also portrayed the character of the Joker but did not look anything like Marquez or Nicholson when he smiled) and the bull dog of MotoGP (thus named by none other than the great Kenny Roberts Sr,) Jorge Lorenzo. Another subject of discussion has been about who will be the Moto3 champion from among three Spaniards Luis Salom, Alex Rins and Maverick Vinales (whats with the Spaniard domination? Pol Espargaro already became the Moto2 World champion and is a Spaniard). Now with Rossi’s sensational announcement the focus has slightly shifted from these issues to Rossi’s issues with Burgess.

Rossi and Burgess in happier times.

Rossi and Burgess in happier times.

Rossi has confessed that he only told Burgess of his decision to split with him just a little before the press conference where he made his announcement. When asked about how Jerry Burgess reacted, Rossi said “He was quiet, very quiet”. Apparently Burgess wanted to continue being the crew chief but Valentino Rossi needed a scapegoat on which he could push the blame for his poor showing on the Yamaha (in comparison with Jorge Lorenzo who has finished most races anywhere between 30-50 seconds in front of Rossi on a similar bike) and said he needed fresh motivation which could come only from a new crew chief. He did not announce who that person would be though he indicated that he had a couple in mind. One has to feel for Jerry Burgess here, not only was he sacked unceremoniously, he was not even consulted for his opinion. This is the second big mistake of Rossi’s career, the first being his shift to Ducati. We feel that this will probably be a bigger mistake. When will Rossi learn to think that the blame for the way things are going could be on him as well?