#cs27

Jorge and [his assistant] Cheni spent hours and hours together in cars. When Jorge was in his third year of ESO, Martínez used to pick him up outside the Monlau school and take him to the gym. He'd sit in the front seat, rucksack on his lap, and not utter a word. 'One day I cracked and said to him "Hey, Jorge! Hello! Weren't you ever told to greet people when you met them?" And he answered, "What for?" ' (Jorge Lorenzo: My Story So Far, p.42)

Cheni once asked Jorge about his mechanics at Derbi and Lorenzo admitted that he didn't even know their names! It goes back to the same thing: he wasn't particularly bad mannered, it's just that nobody had ever told him that other people were just as important as he was. He'd spent his whole life being told that he was number one. He'd not been taught any social skills and he was also very shy. He needed working on constantly, 24 hours a day, even in the car. Team members from those early days tell countless anecdotes of Jorge being shy, of him not speaking, not even looking them in the face. You had to ask him everything twice to get an answer. One day it fell to the boss, Giampiero Sacchi [Sporting Director of the Piaggio Group] to set a few things straight. 'Hey, son. Here at Derbi we start the day with a "Good morning". Are you with me?' (p.43)

this obviously explains the feud with dani. dani did not vibe with this. vale has also said that as teammates jorge never greeted him, he had to make the first move always but i don't think he ever really understood why. casey is one of few people who got to the bottom of this and said all this 'talking to people' doesn't come naturally to jorge. and casey relates to that

[Jorge and I] had similar issues as teenagers, and though we are very different we can relate to each other in lots of ways. I've realised we just deal with things differently; for example Jorge's defence mechanism is to be cocky, whereas I become more introverted and shut down, but we both can be misinterpreted because of how we appear. (Pushing the Limits, p.194)

casey stoner and nico rosberg at goodwood festival of speed (2006)