MOTORSPORT
As Rossi decides to hang up his boots after 26 seasons, we take a look back at his journey through MotoGP
Valentino Rossi announces his retirement from MotoGP, while Mahindra Racing racks up its first win in Formula E this season and Jehan Daruvala has a disappointing outing at Silverstone
ALL GOOD THINGS MUST COME TO an end. After 26 seasons and nine world titles in premiere class racing, the thought of watching a MotoGP race without The Doctor in it is an uncomfortable one. But at the end of this season, that is exactly what is going to happen. Valentino Rossi has announced that he will be retiring from MotoGP at the end of the season. Rossi is nothing short of a god, a charismatic hero that brought attention to the world of motorcycle racing like no one before him. But where did the legend of Rossi start? Valentino Rossi started with karting as a child when his mother voted against motorcycles, seeing it as a dangerous sport. But that couldn’t hold back his urge to sit on a motorcycle. He started on minimotos in 1992 and got his first break to compete on a 125cc motorcycle the year after. Rossi progressed quite rapidly through the junior categories and found himself sitting on a Honda 500cc premiere class motorcycle by early 2000s. It took him nine races to take a victory in the 500cc class and he ended second on the championship table. In the following year, Rossi dominated the championship by scoring 11 wins in the season.
In 2002, we saw the introduction of the 990cc four-stroke MotoGP class and many riders were facing problems with the transition. But Rossi ploughed through the challenges and secured the 2002 title as well as his third in the following year. However, his entire career took a leap forward when
he joined Yamaha in 2004. It was a leap of faith for him considering the Yamaha M1 was not the best performing motorcycle on the grid. But his talent on two wheels and the progress made by Yamaha, earned him four world championships by the end of 2010. But then, a dream of winning a world championship with his fellow Italian team nearly ended his career. In 2011, Rossi chose to switch to Ducati but the pairing was not made in heaven. He struggled with the Italian team for two winless years and finally made the switch back to Yamaha and started winning races again. Even though he could not win titles after the switch, despite coming incredibly close in the 2015 season before Lorenzo took it from him. Finally in 2021, he said goodbye to the factory Yamaha team and joined their satellite team Petronas Yamaha SRT, before announcing his retirement.
Rossi isn’t just about winning, though. He’s made incredible contributions to the sport at large. In 2014, the Italian maestro founded the Sky Racing Team VR46 which became an institution for young riders to be coached and prepped by him. Due to his efforts, there are many riders such as Francesco Bagnaia, Franco Morbidelli and Luca Marini in all the classes of MotoGP currently, who have been trained in the VR46 academy.
It isn’t the end of the road yet, though. After declaring retirement, Rossi said that he would be looking forward to racing cars. Where? Only the Doctor knows. Magnetic personalities such as Rossi come around once in a generation and he will certainly be missed on the grid. Grazie, Vale. Thank you for the memories. ⌧
ROSSI PLOUGHED THROUGH THE CHALLENGES AND SECURED THE 2002 TITLE AS WELL