MotoGP’s GOAT, the only Valentino Rossi, sets the time for a brilliant two-wheeler career at the Valencia Grand Prix this weekend.
This story will appear in Oct./Nov. RACER magazine’s 2021 Great Cars Issue among other great features including a look back at the brief but memorable exploits of cars like the Brabham BT46B “Fan Car” and the whispering turbines of the Indy 500, as well as an interview with the NTT IndyCar Series champion 2021, Alex Palou.
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On the eve of the 2021 San Marino Grand Prix on the Italian circuit of Misano, Valentino Rossi, nine-time motorcycle Grand Prix world champion with 115 race wins, 65 poles and the legitimate claim to be the greatest two-wheeler racer of all time, spoke to Italian television . The nation had been shocked and stunned by the idea that their MotoGP mega-star was indeed claiming time for his career, and now, about six weeks after making his bombshell announcement, Vale, VR46, was ready to explain his case.
“It was the 2019 Grand Prix at Mugello and I thought I was going to quit,” said Rossi of his first thoughts on retirement. “I don’t mean to retire right away, but I thought the moment would come soon. Then COVID changed things and, for once, I took a step back. I got out of the bubble I lived in and realized that life is more than general practitioners. I thought of a future, detached from the rhythms of the races, the pressure, my constant hunger for performance and victories.
“It’s like waking up from a dream – or maybe a nightmare. Trying to win was so important that I found myself in a parallel universe. It was always pressure – that feeling that you don’t feel good about, but miss it when you don’t feel it. It’s beautiful and ugly at the same time, sweet and bitter, but it brings out the best in you that you don’t know you have.
“I would have liked to have continued,” he added, “but I’m not competitive enough. I wish I could have been faster last year. “
The first announcement was made on August 5th, the prelude to the usual Thursday press conference for the Styrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring in Austria. The curtain would fall after 26 years of this beautiful and ugly print at the 2021 Grand Prix in Valencia, Spain on November 14th, but before that Rossi would take his Petronas Yamaha SRT YZR-M1 to the very last lap.
Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, home of the San Marino Grand Prix, is a 10-mile drive from Valentino Rossi’s Tavullia base and crosses Strada Panoramica Adriatica, where he first learned to ride a motorcycle. It’s ground zero for the 42-year-old’s huge fan base – the yellow-clad hordes with their billowing smoke torches. They had seen his recent fights and heard his reasons for quitting, but they could be sad later. At the moment they still had their husband Vale to cheer on, and who cares that he qualifies in 23rd and 17th place.
Valentino Rossi has …
Gold and Goose / Motorsport Pictures
“I’ve always said that I keep going as long as I enjoy it because if it’s fun to fight for important positions, you can bear the sacrifices,” he said. “I gave everything; I never gave up, not a single day. But for me, having fun means fighting for the top five and on good days for the podium or victory. I have to be in combat to do good overtaking maneuvers. Those were the demands I always made, and when they weren’t, I knew it was time to quit.
“I didn’t want to stop doubting that I could do another season or two. I wanted to stop when I was sure. And I did. I won’t leave the MotoGP world even if I don’t go to every race. Yes, I stop being a MotoGP rider but not being a racing driver. I feel like a driver and I want to stay a driver forever. “
In 1993 Kevin Schwantz won the 500cc motorcycle world championship on a Suzuki RGV500 after chasing the award for six seasons. But after a tumultuous year in 1994 and a lackluster start to 1995, the Texan knew it was time to hang up his helmet. Decided on the flight home from the Japanese GP, he resigned immediately. And while Rossi’s exit is a moderate one, Schwantz understands what the Italian is going through.
“The funny thing is that I met Valentino in 1989,” says Schwantz. “We watched him race pocket bike on this little go-kart track near Misano. So we arrive and Valentino is wearing a Kevin Schwantz helmet. It was an endurance race on this tight little track and Valentino was clearly faster than any other little kid out there. It was an exaggeration. He was only light years faster than anyone else out there. I said something like, ‘Wow, seeing someone so much better than the average Joe out there – I think he’ll be good one day.’ Yes, maybe “good” wasn’t the right word …
“You know, he’s someone who will be missed very much, but watching him spin around and end where he ends now is just not Valentino Rossi. He has to pull the plug. I’m glad he made that decision because when you’re up front and racing, it’s different. You have something that you are really motivated to do. When you walk around in the back it’s much easier for stupid little things to happen that can really hurt you. “
With a satellite Honda NSR 500, Rossi won the last 500c title in 2001. When he switched to four-stroke MotoGP, he won two titles for Honda, then four for Yamaha (above), the last one in 2009.
For Rossi, the only rider in history to have won MotoGP, 500cc, 250cc and 125cc World Championships, but whose last Grand Prix win was in the Dutch TT in Assen in 2017, the ultimate level of motorcycle racing is one completely different world than the one he came to in 2000, the year before last in his gnarled 500cc garment.
“I grew up dreaming of 500,” said Rossi. “The first race I remember on TV was Assen ’86. The 500s were the motorcycles of the great riders. Schwantz, [Mick] Doohan, [Freddie] Spencer, [Wayne] Rainey, you were the top.
“Today’s MotoGP is almost a different sport. Not only has it completely changed the way you drive and manage the tires, but also the way you prepare for them. It really is a different world in which one cannot do without extreme technology. “
How will history, and MotoGP history in particular, remember Valentino Rossi?
“This sport will of course miss him very much,” says Schwantz. “I mean, where do you get the next Rossi? And amazingly, I think the sport hasn’t changed him a bit. All day, every day, he has time for everyone and everyone. In these MotoGP races, he signs autographs for five minutes every time he enters and leaves the garage. He always gives himself five additional minutes for this. Valentino never forgot his fans. He comes out of the garage and smiles and signs autographs and just gets on with his life like it’s as normal as anyone out there.
“I think that’s it. It has never changed. Not even a little. I remember walking through the paddock at COTA two years ago and Valentino leaving his garage on a scooter and spotting me. I was with my family and he stopped and there must have been 1,500 people around us when we stopped talking. But that’s just him. A really good man. An incredible driver, yes, but also just a great person. Yes, where can you even find the next Valentino? “
FOUR ON THE FLOOR
After a decade-long 500 cc Grand Prix career from 1986 to 1995, in which he won 25 GPs and the 93er World Championship with Suzuki, Kevin Schwantz took off his battered leather and turned to car racing. His four-wheeler sojourn included 18 NASCAR Xfinity Series starts from 1997 to ’99, with two top 10 finishes being the highlights.
Rossi tested a Ferrari Formula 1 car in 2004 and ’06 (above). He will continue the GT path in 2022. Sutton / Motorsport Images
“You know, when you stop riding, you have to do something,” Schwantz muses. “You can’t just stay at home. You are used to a lifestyle that occupies you 365 days a year. You can try to escape the race, but you can’t. I chose cars because I felt safer in them. I knew they would distract me from motorcycles. That’s why I stopped! I had to distract myself with something and that’s what racing brought me. And whatever Valentino [Rossi] get in, I’m sure he will be competitive. “
Rossi has driven in GT sports cars and rally cars and even tested with the Ferrari F1 team in 2004 and ’06. In the future, he will delve deeper into sports car racing.
“So I’ll go from rider to rider,” said Rossi when he announced his retirement in MotoGP. “I will drive cars. I love rallies a lot, but I feel like I have a better feel for the tarmac, so I’ll be racing on the track.
“The truth is, I’m almost as passionate about cars as I’m about motorcycles. In fact, as a child, I dreamed of becoming a Formula 1 driver. When I was 10 I drove both karts and minibikes and when I was 13 I got the idea of driving cars. I’ll do that now. “
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