@kenessex you are taking a very considered approach and viewing it through a current model of what it is sensitive to, including a cultural lens, and perhaps bringing your considerable past experience in education to it also? Oxley appears to be taking a blunt 4-beers later "she'll be right mate" approach. Which is the reality here. Perhaps dare I say, a bit of both? Or just one version? We will see in 2-5-10yrs time what remains of it.
And…it begins. Testing, testing, is this thing on. https://www.motorsport.com/motogp/news/vinales-to-make-aprilia-motogp-debut-at-misano-test/6653638/
this part is interesting..that he would race this year "This test would give Aprilia enough time to evaluate whether Vinales is ready to race the RS-GP as soon as the Aragon GP on 12 September, with the San Marino GP at Misano taking place the following week."
I am afraid that Oxley's approach, while perhaps popular with some, does not excuse the blatant disregard of one set cultural standards because they are not the same as yours. Unfortunately, most cultures have had that approach for centuries. I don't think 10 yrs will make a difference, ethnocentrism is what it is. While Oxley's approach may be amusing to the beer drinking, hang out in the pub with your mates crowd, it is still wrong.
Oxley is as screwed up in the head as Vinales is. They are both adults acting and talking like two year olds. Vinales is an employee of Yamaha just like any other employee and he has no more right to destroy their property than any other Yamaha employee. It seems both Oxley and Vinales need to grow up.
the one line that made some sense is that he lost his childhood because of his parents map of his future. Vinales is basically the equivalent of a grown childhood actor gone child.
Strangely enough, I actually do expect him to win at Aprilia. I think he's going to completely thrive there. Mav is a pretty emotional guy, I think the insanely inconsistent results on the Yamaha along with the culture just exacerbated those tendencies. Those 3 back to back wins he got when he first got on the M1 were probably the worst thing that ever happened to him, because his expectations grew to match and he could never replicate that success consistently. I think he'll actually be much happier getting 5th-7th every weekend and slowly moving closer to the pointy end then his dead fucking last one weekend to pole position and 2nd the next. I think Mav will become Mr. Aprilia and still be racing there successfully 5 years from now. Will he get a championship on the thing? That's unlikely, but I expect he and Aprilia will make it into a winning machine. I expect he'll get at least 2 podiums next year and that he'll be much more consistent than at Yamaha. I like Mav, he's off his rocker and doesn't give any fucks. Enough with the polished media robots.
And by race one of 2023, Mav might be racing WSBK. If his issues stem from feeling like he was living in the shadows of Rossi and Fabio, then he's going to have a rough time on the Aprilia. I think we collectively agree that Aleix is extremely underrated, and he's knows the ins and outs of that bike after riding every iteration of it for the last five years. I don't really think anyone would get on that bike and immediately outshine Aleix. Only time will tell, but I think this is the beginning of the end for Mav.
I really hope you’re right. The kid is talented, I was very disappointed in the Lindsey Lohan caliber bitch fit. I find it hard to say the platform is inconsistent though, given Fabios results on it this year. Perhaps it’s just not a good fit with equipment/team/atmosphere/whatever
Haha.. I was going to ask if you were new here or what, but yeah... member less than a year. The collective beeb knows what gear the 18th place rider was in on the last lap of the 1978 Spanish GP... yes, we're all familiar with the rise of most riders careers on the global stage.
Aprilia has a history of keeping "difficult riders" together in order to win races and championships. Biaggi is the first that comes to mind. But that was Aprilia with GiGi. . . Really, I hope he Vindaloo does awesome, the series needs a redemption story. They also need a Villain (think Rossi vs Biaggi, Rossi vs Gibernau, Rossi vs Rossi) to race against Marquez.
agreed It's funny, MM was the villain for some. But now that he's been hurt and has struggled, he could become the hero for a lot of those people. Honestly, GP is less entertaining now without someone even close to the villain role. Fabio will never be the villain against MM and who knows about the other young guys. But Mav definitely has a shot at filling that role, and soon. We can only hope he'll continue to act poorly at Ape, while also getting results