Rossi with the Knife Between the Teeth

I remember something that Valentino Rossi said to me some years ago when he had got himself into yet another tight spot and a championship was falling away. I can’t remember when it was, at what circuit, or who he was battling. I’ve ransacked the memory chips of my MacBook to try and retrieve the quote, but it’s lost - careless, the editorial equivalent of a rider missing an apex by two metres.

No matter: the circumstances are unimportant, but the line applies equally to this weekend at Valencia. What is your strategy for recovering from this situation, I asked him.

Rossi looked at me. “Now we fight with the knife between the teeth,” he said.

What a vivid phrase! It conjures images of a street-fighting man in the teeming back alleys of Naples, or a bandido illicitly swimming across a river in Mexico.

This weekend we will see the great master of track-craft fighting with the knife between the teeth. Metaphorically, of course. Rossi and Marc Marquez have had their fingers rapped by Dorna chief Carmelo Ezpeleta and, no doubt, by their respective paymasters. Rossi will fight cleanly - but with the blade glittering between the teeth.

There’s Life Beyond The Doctor

A waitress at Gatwick airport asks a customer: “And where are you going, sir?” “To Valencia to see Rossi and MotoGP,” he replies, as if everyone in the world would know who Valentino was and what MotoGP is.

But that’s how Rossimania has gripped motorcycle racing: you would think that Jorge Lorenzo and Marc Marquez were only bit-players in the drama. And that nothing else mattered in the five days of action - the MotoGP round and the two days of testing that follow - at the Ricardo Tormo circuit this weekend. It does.

I’m interviewing Danny Kent on Friday morning. But the one question that I’m not going to fire at him, out of respect for the feelings of this 21-year-old youngster, is: “Can you win the Moto3 title?” He must have been asked that ten zillion times during the last four rounds when he was in a position to win it. He’s hardly going to say (even if it’s rumbling through his subconscious mind): “Not sure. I’m really scared that something could go wrong and I make a prat of myself.”

No, I’m going to ask him about the challenges of handling a nervous Moto3 bike, and about his return to Moto2 in 2016. I’m seeing Herve Poncharal, Bradley Smith’s boss at Tech 3 Yamaha, the best among satellite and private teams this year. Can the 24-year-old Brit get among the factory bikes next season? How can Bradley, a majestic sixth in points at the moment, improve still further as a rider?

It seems as though Scott Redding has been in the MotoGP paddock for half a lifetime since he became the youngest ever winner of a grand prix, at the age of 15, in 2008. But that makes him still only 22, with so much potential ahead. He’s switching from an under-performing Honda customer bike, to a Pramac satellite Ducati in 2016. Athough the Bologna bikes have disappointed the Ducatisti by not winning a race this year, their satellite offerings have well-outperformed the equivalent Hondas. How will Redding get on with his new steed in the tests?

What Will Michelin Bring?

It’s not only the MotoGP and Moto3 races that could be volatile at Valencia. MotoGP switches from Bridgestone to Michelin tyres for 2016, and on Tuesday and Wednesday teams get the chance to assess the French rubber.

Preliminary tests this year have produced unexpected results, with riders losing the front end and crashing - not a confidence-inspiring start. Riders’ mouths were sealed by an agreement banning talk to the media, but the Controversial One - that’s Rossi - ignored that by declaring: “We crash more with the Michelin in two tests than with Bridgestone in 14 races.”

You get the impression that Valentino is anti-Michelin. He did, of course, abandon the company a few seasons ago and take his Yamaha to Bridgestone. It seemed a risky move at the time, but Rossi thrives on making a success of leaps into the unknown.

Surely Michelin will bring a more predictable front end to Valencia? Whatever they pull from the Bibendum trucks, the tests could produce some real shocks on the time sheets, depending on which teams adapt fastest to the new offerings.