The third week of January 2010 found Valentino Rossi out testing a 2008 Ferrari Formula 1 race machine at the Catalunya circuit in Spain. Ferrari let him do the test as a reward for winning another MotoGP championship in 2009 – his seventh premier class titles.
They only gave him a few days, but that is much more than anyone else has been invited by Ferrari to do, no matter who they are. Rossi is special and the powers-that-be at the Italian exotic car concern know this very well. The reason the Italian is respected so highly by the company has to do with the times he can turn on a track with their vehicles.
Even Ferrari’s chief track engineer, Luca Baldisserri, had this to say: “We tried different set ups and he (Rossi) improved a lot. This means that the driver learns quickly and has room for improvement.”
The first time he was selected to test the Ferrari F1 car, back in 2006 at Spain’s Valencia circuit, he was only 0.5 second off of Formula 1 star Michael Schumacher’s lap times at the track – good enough to qualify for the most recent race at that venue. Not many people have that level of talent. As would be expected, the rumors are already building that Rossi will retire from MotoGP and begin a Formula 1 career.
Rossi started in World Championship Grand Prix racing in 1996. The very next year he won the 125GP Championship, so he graduated up to the 250GP machines. In that series, he followed a familiar pattern; he started in the class in 1998 and won the title in 1999. When he moved to the Blue Riband class, now known as MotoGP, it was still being run on 500c.c. two-stroke motorcycles. In the year 2000, Rossi started in the class on board a Honda. Again, same pattern, he won the 2001 500GP Championship. It was the next year that the new four-stroke 990c.c. machines were allowed, and Honda had the best at the time. Thus, Rossi took another title in 2002, and again in 2003.
In 2004, Rossi switched to Yamaha’s MotoGP team, and won the championship that year as well. He became the first rider to ever win two consecutive Grands Prix on two different marques. He followed this up with titles in 2005, 2008 and 2009 – only missing two years where two different riders, Nicky Hayden and Casey Stoner, won the championship in his class. In total, he has participated in 227 races, made the podium in 164 of those and won 103 victories – a 46-percent win record which matches the number he wears, oddly enough. Given this tally, and the accomplishments of winning on two different motorcycle brands in consecutive years, and his unbelievably smooth style of riding, many have labeled him GOAT. That stands for Greatest Of All Time, and he just might be.
He has not only tasted the Ferrari, he has also had a long history of actually racing rally cars, predominantly cars used in the World Rally Championship. His first drive in one of these came back in 2002 when he entered the Rally of Great Britain; he crashed out in the second stage. He came by the sport very early in his life, so it does have some special meaning to him. One of his childhood heroes growing up was WRC Champion Colin McRae, and it was that driver who taught Rossi how to drive a rally car. They finally competed against each other at Monza in 2005 – Rossi won! He has joined in many WRC races and other rally events in Italy, Mexico, New Zealand and more. Rossi has a very strong passion for rally racing, and it is hard to miss that fact.
The rumor of Rossi moving into Formula 1 after MotoGP is only one of the many. Several people have been talking about Rossi switching from Yamaha to Ducati for the 2011 season as his contract with the Japanese marque is up after 2010. This is a rumor with little substance; evidence is very thin. Rossi has flatly stated that he is not in talks with Ducati for a MotoGP ride and would rather retire from Yamaha, as Giacomo Agostini did before him. There is even a rumor of him returning to Honda for the last year of his racing career…and they go on.
The best way to sum up where Rossi will be after he leaves the two-wheeled racing world behind and takes up four-wheeled competition is to hear it from the man himself. Rossi has said, “I would consider shifting to cars, probably rallying, after that before I finally decide to take it easy … I know F1 would've been easier but by the time I finish MotoGP, I will be too old for F1." Though people’s minds do change in the course of their lives, Rossi has been rather good at following up on his word. And, Rossi is a man full of passion, fun, and a good deal of wildness. Rallying is a place where he can express that part of him and, after everything else, it is a life-long dream.
