Who is MotoGP’s next superstar on Valentino Rossi’s level? Dorna CEO explains…

The iconic Italian leaves a long shadow across the sport that he dominated on track, and off track, for so long.

Marc Marquez, Rossi’s old enemy, can match his tally of seven premier class championships if he wins this season but the search for a true star who infiltrates mainstream culture is ongoing.

Carmelo Ezpeleta, the CEO of Dorna, admitted to AS that reigning champion Francesco Bagnaia is not yet famous: “I think not yet, but I hope you know him.”

How can Bagnaia and his fellow riders of his generation turn success into stardom?

“You need peace of mind. Tranquillity. You have to settle down,” Ezpeleta said. 

“We come from a time when the one who dominated was Valentino, who was an extraordinary rider and a magnificent personality. 

“If you review the history of the championship, when I started it was said that the Americans were going to end and that there would be nothing left, but a certain Mick Doohan appeared. 

“Then it was said that when Doohan was finished there would be nothing to do, and there were two years in which Alex Crivillé and Kenny Roberts Jr. won, who were not super [well-known]. 

“But then Rossi appeared, who raced against guys like Dani Pedrosa, Casey Stoner and Jorge Lorenzo, who strangely have retired before Valentino [despite] being younger than him. 

“And then Marc arrives, who is a great hero, but lately he has been injured and we are at an impasse.”

The loss of Rossi, MotoGP’s most famous son, at the end of 2021 was likened to Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo no longer being at the top of the football world.

“The loss of Messi and Ronaldo has nothing to do with what has happened to us,” Ezpeleta said. 

“For me, Messi is a genius and the best in history, and Ronaldo is a fantastic scorer, but something different from Messi. 

“We have many very good guys, who have raced for a very short time and fight a lot, and they will come out. 

“We have to give them the [support] and everything else they need, and that's up to us, so that this new generation becomes more popular again. 

“Fabio Quartararo is a very [well-known] guy in France, which is a big country, he is very prominent, with four covers of [national newspaper] L'Equipe.”

Do the likes of Bagnaia and Quartararo need to beat Marquez in a proper title battle to explode into mainstream culture?

“Obviously, it gives an added value to the victory to who wins,” Ezpeleta  said. “If, as I hope, Marquez gets good and the bike goes well, he will be causing trouble for sure this year.”