It probably doesn’t need saying, but teammates in motorcycle racing and in football play very different roles. Footballers try to work in harmony with their teammates, whereas every bike racer knows there’s no one more important to beat than your teammate.

There’s a good reason for this. You and your teammate ride identical motorcycles (in theory, at least), so any difference in results will be attributed to riding ability. If your teammate kicks your butt every weekend, you’ll soon be without a ride.

It has always been thus. In 1991 King Kenny Roberts had two great riders in his Marlboro Yamaha 500 team: reigning 500cc world champ Wayne Rainey and up-and-coming 250cc champ John Kocinski, who was aiming to steal the 500cc crown. Rainey knew he had to crush the youngster or lose his job.

“When John came to 500s, he was a threat and he was a brash guy,” Rainey recalls. “John was thinking he was going to kick everybody’s ass.

“I started working on him at the very first test. I always made sure at the end of the day I was quicker than him. I didn’t care what it took for that to happen. I knew if I could do that enough to John, it would be enough for him to stop thinking about me and start blaming everything else.”

Rainey’s plan worked. Kocinski’s tantrums eventually got him sacked.

Valentino Rossi knows even more about teammates than Rainey. During his 22 full seasons of GP racing he’s had every kind: old foxes, cocky upstarts and no-hopers.

At the end of 2016 he had a new teammate in Maverick Viñales and ever since he has used all his age and guile to repel this latest intruder.

Last season the young Spaniard was exactly where Jorge Lorenzo was in 2008: he was MotoGP’s brightest new star, bubbling over with youthful exuberance, talent and speed. Rossi therefore knew what was coming his way.

“Sincerely, I’m worried,” Rossi said towards the end of 2016. “The moment Viñales signed for Yamaha I knew I cannot relax.”

However, the Rossi-Viñales pairing is different to the Rossi-Lorenzo one. When Lorenzo swaggered into the Yamaha garage, Rossi took an instant dislike to the Spaniard because he reminded him of his oldest foe, Max Biaggi.

Not only that, Rossi knew why Yamaha had hired Lorenzo – they were making plans for their old warrior’s retirement. No wonder he went into a sulk that compelled him into making the biggest mistake of his career – signing for Ducati.

Words Mat Oxley  Photography Gold&Goose

Read the full story in the current issue of AMCN (Vol 67 No 20) on sale now