And yes I fall into the world musical quote, between Aretha and the fabulous “Gimme slhelter” of the Stones, its insane intro from Keith, its female voice solo to bring tears, because the word “Respect” only makes me think of music and because “War Children” seems to me more suited to our sport of reference. To music and not at all to motor sports or high-level sport in general. After the race, yes, we shake hands, between a happy winner over the moon and an unfortunate loser who hates the other and probably himself. But what is hidden in the word respect? A single desire, that of asking the opponents to let Ducati and its official champion win without hindering it in any way, respect is “leave-me-in-front-and-don’t-come-to-embarrass-me.” “… You barely respect the rules but not your opponent, in the race. Yes, there is a form of respect when the guy behind understands and recognizes that he cannot go after the guy in front. When he returns his hand. But the almost Bondieuxard respect as understood by Ducati’s policies does not exist on a circuit. For a simple reason, in MotoGP, we are ready to suffer the devil or even die more or less slowly to gain a few tenths and place at the top of the podium. Because we have to stop being crazy, the podium is a great compensation, the only place that interests a real runner is at the top. Only Gigi, but he is the real boss, the others are supporting roles, just there to jump for joy when their champion wins and to look like a mater dolorosa when he falls to the ground, Gigi therefore dared to assert that he was amazed by Martin’s mastery and his racing intelligence during the Indonesian GP. Respect in MotoGP fashion we saw it at Misano, when Bastia becomes Martin in the last lap, certainly Martin gives an arm of honor on the finish line (in Italian we call it the umbrella sign, it is more elegant) but he then recognizes that he was fooled in a just muscular way and with the acceptance of the commissioners which is a good thing for the future, we leave the label to the golf players (which doesn’t stop them from hating each other profusely…). And we fight like hell. Throwing an opponent is common (in Indonesia, Miller did a sort of strike) but I don’t remember seeing a voluntary ejection gesture. There is of course the block pass, which consists of overtaking the opponent without giving him the possibility of countering, except by getting on the ground, this is one of the possible maneuvers in GP. There are few overtaking maneuvers, especially at the staggering speeds of the GPs. But we were about respect… To have had access to the confidences of the world champions on their opponents, generally also world champions, in a range of disciplines ranging from TT to Speed, including Dirt and Paris- Dakar, I know that the inner glue of a champion is pride which magnifies talent, so to go and talk to him about respect in the middle of a fight is to make fun of the world. Here, for “Respect” see here: and for Gimme Shelter here. Then good GP to all where it is talent and pride that will speak, not Bondieusard concepts never respected by Bondieusards…
