EditJump to:Overview (3) Mini Bio (1) Trivia (20) Personal Quotes (33)
Overview (3)
| Born | in Urbino, Marche, Italy |
| Nicknames | The doctor
Greatest Of All Time
Highlighter Pen
Living Legend |
| Height | 5' 10' (1.78 m) |
Mini Bio (1)
Valentino Rossi is an Italian professional motorcycle racer and multiple MotoGP World Champion. He is considered to be the greatest and one of the most successful motorcycle racers of all time, with nine Grand Prix World Championships to his name - seven of which are in the premier class.
Following his father, Graziano Rossi, Valentino started racing in Grand Prix in 1996 for Aprilia in the 125cc category and won his first World Championship the following year. From there, he moved up to the 250cc category with Aprilia and won the 250cc World Championship in 1999. After graduating to the premier class in 2000, he won the 500cc World Championship with Honda in 2001, the MotoGP World Championships (also with Honda) in 2002 and 2003, and continued his streak of back-to-back championships by winning the 2004 and 2005 titles after leaving Honda to join Yamaha, before regaining the title in 2008 and retaining it in 2009. He left Yamaha to join Ducati for the 2011 season, but it was confirmed in 2012 that he would rejoin Yamaha for the 2013 and 2014 seasons. He suffered two winless seasons while at Ducati.
- IMDb Mini Biography By: Dibyayan Chakravorty
Trivia (20)
As of the end of the 2005 Moto GP Season has won 79 GP victories and 7 World Championships in just nine years.
He always runs with number 46 in honor of his father Graziano, who ran with the same number.
Four consecutive times (2001-2004) world motorcycling champion in GP class, world champion in 125 class in 1997 and world champion in 250 class in 1999, considered by many the greatest motorbiker of all time.
Biography 'Valentino Rossi: The Flying Doctor' was written by Mat Oxley
Crew Chief was Jeremy Burgess, split at the end of 2013. His Crew Chief now is Italiano, Silvano Galbusera.
The first rider in the 55-year history of Moto GP to take back-to-back victories riding machines from two different manufacturers, The 2003 Repsol Honda RC211V and the 2004 Gauloises Yamaha YZR M1
One of only two riders to win back-to-back titles on different machinery who did it in 2003 with the Repsol Honda RC211V then again in 2004 with the Gauloises Yamaha YZR M1 the other being Eddie Lawson, who won the title riding a Yamaha in 1988 and again on a Honda in 1989.
Was a team-mate of the youngest AMA Superbike Champion Nicky Hayden in 2003
The youngest rider ever to have won World Championships in all three classes 125GP, 250GP, and the 500GP/Moto GP
Ranked 63rd in the 2005 Forbes Most Powerful Celebrity 100 List
The youngest rider ever to win the 125cc World Championship
Considered by many fans to be 'The greatest motorcycle road racer of all time'.
Ranked 64rd in the 2006 Forbes Most Powerful Celebrity 100 List
Sports Illustrated ranked 2nd highest paid non US citizen athlete in their 2006 'International 20'
In 2007, Forbes Magazine estimated his earnings for the year at $30 million.
Currently dominating the Moto GP on his Gauloises Yamaha YZR M1 [2005]
Currently competing in Moto GP on a Camel Yamaha YZR M1 [2006]
The first MotoGP rider ever to achieved 4000 championship points after Indianapolis 2014 Race. (Finished 3rd). [2014]
Personal Quotes (33)
I never race for records. The motivation to try to beat the record is not enough to continue. You have to enjoy it.
The great fights with your strongest rivals are always the biggest motivation. When you win easily it's not the same taste.
I have a lot of energy after 2 A.M. I like to sleep in the morning. I have some problems at the start of the day.
Also, when I started racing he knew a lot of people and it was more easy for me to find the first bike, so I have a good chance for sure.
To be a great motorbike racer, the most important thing is passion for the bike.
Maybe the bike is more dangerous, but the passion for the car for me is second to the bike.
I race to win. If I am on the bike or in a car it will always be the same.
Riding a race bike is an art - a thing that you do because you feel something inside.
The most important thing is to have a good relationship with the bike.. you have to understand what she wants. I think of a motorcycle as a woman, and I know that sounds silly, but it's true.
In my opinion we are at the limit now, and 17 races is really too much. With all the testing that we do now, it means we're always on the bike and it's quite difficult.
I was lucky. My father raced bikes. He gave me the passion very early. I had my first bike when I was three or four years old.
To win the Championship in the first year will be hard. We need time to become competitive and win races.
Fortunately during my career I have won more or less everything, so I need to enjoy it to have the right motivation.
How do Ferrari know what I'm doing next year when I don't know what I'm doing next week?
I'm Valentino Rossi. And I want to be a person, not an icon.
I would have probably stolen cars - it would have given me the same adrenaline rush as racing.
I am able to ride the bike and think clearly about strategy and tyres. I also have positive thinking. I am very constructively critical.
My father raced bikes. He gave me the passion very early. I had my first bike when I was three or four years old.
Maybe if Graziano make another work or another sport I wouldn't have had this passion to be a rider.
I don't like being famous - it is like a prison. And driving for Ferrari would make it far worse.
Once the races begin it's more difficult and there is never that much time for testing.
I have won on Honda and Yamaha so maybe it is interesting to win with a third team, Ducati, who are Italian.
If I test the car for a year I can be quite competitive the next season.
It's a big, big advantage because understanding what changes we might make takes time and it takes time to work out settings and to understand everything about the new machine.
In 2002 the Yamaha was at more or less the same level as the Honda, better in some ways, worse in others. But in the winter of last year between 2002 and 2003, Honda made a big step forward and it seemed as if Yamaha couldn't quite match that improvement.
We have the 2004 M1 here for reference, which is useful. It worked well here last year; we won the race and always did fast lap times so it will be interesting to compare it to the new bike and it will help us to understand which parts have improved.
You look at Moto3, the races are very exciting. Moto2 is fantastic, and then MotoGP is boring.
But I could also start F1 or rallying. I love rallying much more.
As for the level of spectacle of the two disciplines, I leave it to the people who watch the races to comment.
The work that we do during the winter is very important; we have a new bike and it's important to develop it during this time, and we start with this test.
It is a big problem and so I don't know for sure if I say yes or no to Ferrari.
Valentino Rossi has reignited his rivalry with reigning MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez by claiming that the Honda rider has “destroyed” the sport, following their latest clash at the Argentine Grand Prix.
Nine-time world champion Rossi was taken out of Sunday’s Grand Prix when a recovering Marquez rode into the side of his Yamaha and forced him onto the wet grass, leaving him little option than to fall off late in the race.
The move saw Marquez hit with a 30-second penalty that dropped him from fifth to 18th and out of the points, having already served a ride-through penalty for riding the wrong way around the track after stalling his bike on the grid. The Spaniard was penalised for “irresponsible riding”, having already been told to give Aleix Espargaro back a place for squeezing the KTM rider off the track, but Rossi refused to let Marquez off the hook lightly and issued a strong response to his on-track antics after the race.
We’ll tell you what’s true. You can form your own view.
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'This is a very bad situation, because he destroyed our sport, because he [doesn't] have any respect for his rivals, never,' Rossi said.
'When you go 300kmh on the track, you have to have a respect for your rival, you have to be strong, you have to make the maximum, but [doing it] like this is over.
'If you take what's happened this weekend - one by one, can happen to everybody. You can make a mistake in braking, you can touch the other guy - [this] happens - this is racing.
Ssdt data comparison. 'But from Friday morning, he [did] this with [Maverick] Vinales, [Andrea] Dovizioso. He [did] this with me on Saturday morning - and today in the race he [went] straight to four riders, because he [does this] purposely.
'It is not a mistake, because he points the leg - between the leg and the bike - because he knows he [doesn't] crash but you crash - he hopes that you crash. So if you start to play like this, you raise the level to a very dangerous point, because if all the riders race like this, without any respect for rivals, this is a very dangerous sport and [it will] finish in a bad way.'
Rossi, a veteran of 17 full seasons in the premier class and currently riding his 22nd season of Grand Prix racing, went one step further by admitting that the prospect of racing directly against Marquez is one that makes him fear for his safety.
'I'm scared - I'm scared on the track when I am with Marquez,” he added. “I'm scared today when I see his name on the board, because I know that he comes to me [and] I know already. You have to think, to hope that you don't crash.'
Marquez attempted to enter Rossi’s garage after the race to apologise for causing the accident at Turn 13, only for Yamaha team members to deny him entry, and he defended his action by insisting he “didn’t make anything crazy” and that any contact during the race was not deliberate.
'Today what happened to Valentino was a mistake, [a] consequence of the track conditions because I locked the front,' Marquez said, with the Grand Prix taking place in changeable conditions on a drying Autodromo Termas de Rio Hondo track.
'You needed to understand how the track condition was - of course in that line [it] was dry but I [took the] wet patch, locked the front, released the brakes.
'Okay, I had the contact - I tried to turn and then when I see that he crashed I just try to say sorry.
'If you check - [Johann] Zarco with Dani [Pedrosa], [Danilo] Petrucci with Aleix [Espargaro]. Today was quite difficult but it doesn't matter - I did my 100 per cent and of course [it was a] tricky Sunday.'
The dispute between the pair is the complete opposite of their clash at the end of the 2015 MotoGP season when Rossi was adjudged to have deliberately forced Marquez wide during the penultimate race in Malaysia, resulting in his rival crashing out and landing himself with a grid penalty for the final Grand Prix that sent him to the back of the grid after qualifying, allowing then-teammate Jorge Lorenzo to claim the title.