Share on Facebook
Valentino Rossi is an Italian professional motorcycle racer and multiple MotoGP World Champion, who is considered to be, one of the most successful motorcycle racers of all time. Here are 47 facts about the racer:
- Rossi has 86 victories in the 500cc/ MotoGp to his name making him first in the all time standings. However with overall race wins he is second with 112 race wins behind Giacomo Agostini’s 122.
- He is known for his rituals before the race. He would stand 2 meters behind his bike and reach for the boot, and then he would reach for his bike’s right side foot ped and bowdown.
- During an interview to MotoGp.com he revealed that he always gets off the bike in the same way he gets on. He would always wear one boot before other and one glove before other.
- He is also the proud owner of “Shy Racing Team by VR46” consisting of riders Romano Fenati and Andrea Migno. The team made its debut in Moto 3 in 2014.
- Rossi is famously known by his nickname as” The Doctor”. It is being speculated that his nickname was due to him earning a degree in his country Italy that enables one to use the title “Doctor”.
- Even though he has been the World Champion many times and is entitled to use No 1 on his motorcycle, he has stuck onto No 46 which his father used during his grand prix wins in 1979. He however uses the no 1 on his shoulder sleeves.
- He is also referred to as “Highlighter Pen” by commentators Toby Moody and Julian Ryder for his favourite fluorescent yellow color on his leather designs.
- He is also known by the nickname “The GOAT” by some TV journalist and former team mate Colin Edwards. “The Goat” stands for “Greatest of All Time”.
- He ventured out to other sports in 2006 test driving for Ferrari in their Formula One car. He was ninth fastest on the second day, just a second behind Michael Schumacher. He was even better than seasoned drivers David Coulthard and Mark Webber.
- Having a strong passion for Rallying he won Monza Rally Show in 2005 driving a Subaru Impreza. He was competing against WRC champion Colin McRae who was Rossi’s childhood hero.
- He drove Ford Focus RS WRC 07 in the Rally of Great Britain in 2008 and finished at #12. He was 13 minutes and 20.04 seconds behind the winner of the rally Sebastian Loeb.
- He was awarded with Winning Italy Award for his representing and portraying his country on an international level by Italian minister Franco Frattini.
- He was born in Urbino, Marche on 16 January 1979 to Graziano Rossi, a former motorcycle racer and Stefania. Like his father he raked for high speed at an early age of 5 and replaced the 60cc engine of his first kart with 100cc engine.
- He won many kart championships and would have ventured into Formula One later if not for the rising cost of kart racing. He won his first kart racing championship in 1990. He started concentrating on minimoto during 1922 and 1993 learning the ins and outs of it.
- He owns a villa in Ibiza near Spain and left it for family home in Italy only during his tax evasion case. He had moved from Milan to settle in London during his time with Honda.
- For printing the name of oil company Repsol on his bike and suit he was threatened by Italian-Spanish anarchist movement. They were known to send parcel bombs to important persons between two countries.
- In 2007, Sports Illustrated estimated Rossi’s earnings at around $34 million making him one of the highest earners among sports personalities around the world. He was ranked at 9 by Forbes in 2009 amongst the list of highest paid athletes in the world.
- He was being investigated in 2007 for tax evasion by the Italian tax authorities. Rossi who was residing in London since 2000 comes under Non-Domicile tax status and paid only a meager amount, leaving out his main earnings from Yamaha and other sponsorship deals.
- However, he paid around 35 million euros to tax authorities to reach a settlement and close the tax case in February 2008.
- It was announced in November 2015 that “Valentino Rossi The Game” to be developed by Milestone S.r.I would be tentatively released in June 2016. It is being developed for PlayStation 4 and XBoxOne.
- Rossi won the Argentine Grand Prix in 2015 and in a tribute to Diego Maradona, wore his football jersey on the podium. In response to this gratitude Maradona congratulated him via Facebook.
- He is a big fan of Italian football club Internazionale. They congratulated him on his victories in the 2008 and 2009 MotoGp titles via their website.
- He has gone through numerous helmet designs in his career. The Sun and the Moon design pattern are the most used by him as he describes them as representation of two sides of his personalities.
- He has a very good relationship with leather suit sponsor Dainese since the start of his Grand Prix career. He has not changed his sponsor even though he has worked with Yamaha and Ducati Team, both having their own sponsors.
- During the mid 1990’s Rossi has been growing a rivalry with Max Biaggi, even though they have not met in a race until the year 2000. After he won consecutive World Championships the rivalry faded out.
- He developed a rivalry with Sete Gibernau of Movistar Honda during 2004 season in Qatar, when the latter’s team complained successfully against Rossi for cleaning their grid position for more traction. Rossi was asked to start from the end of the grid.
- After the Qatar incident the Italian and Spanish media call it the Qatar Curse as Gibernau never won any race after that and he retired from professional racing with a very injury prone 2006 season.
- Young Australian Casey Stoner with Ducati team was considered Rossi’s main rival in 2007 when he won the first race of the year and subsequently the championship too.
- “I have lost respect for one of the greatest riders in history” was what Stoner commented after the race in Laguna Seca Raceway in 2008. He was involved with Rossi in a very close overtakes in some corners resulting in Stoner going into gravel and finishing second and Rossi winning the race.
- Jorge Lorenzo, his new teammate for Yamaha racing in 2008 started a new rivalry for 2008 and 2009 season with Rossi winning the championship. Lorenzo finally won in 2010 when Rossi broke his shin bone and missed 4 races.
- He won his first World Championship Grand Prix on an AGV Aprilia RS125R in Czech Republic in August 1996. He finished the season at #9.
- In 1998 riding Aprilia RS250 eh finished second behind Loris Capirossi with a difference of 23 points. However it was a different story in 1999 when he won the title with nine wins and 5 pole positions.
- He won his first World Championship in 500cc category in 2001 with 11 race wins and 325 points. The second best was Biaggi with a difference of 106 points.
- His first season in the 500cc wasn’t smooth as he won his first race after 8 failed attempts with Honda. He won only two races that season: Great Britain and Brazil.
- Rossi won the inaugural MotoGp championship in the year 2002 with 990cc bike. He won first 8 consecutive races and won 11 in total starting with Suzuka in wet conditions against local drivers who entered as wild cards.
- Rossi was given a 10 second penalty due to overtaking during a yellow flag in the Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island in 2003. He pulled away from the rest and proceeded to finish the race with a difference of 15 seconds, eventually cancelling out the penalty and winning with just 0.042 seconds ahead of Gibernau.
- In 2004 he became the first driver to win consecutive races with different manufacturers. Riding the Yamaha YZR-M1 bike, Rossi won the inaugural race in Welkom, South Africa after winning the last race in 2003 with Honda’s RC211V bike.
- He had a streak of 23 race podium finish up until Spanish Motorcycle Grand Prix in 2004 where he finished at 4. He had switched over from Honda and was successful in the first race before missing the podium in two more races.
- He achieved his fifth straight MotoGP Championship in 2005 by winning 11 races and finishing with 367 points ahead of Marco Melandri and Nicky Hayden. It was his seventh World Championship overall.
- 2007 saw him finish at his lowest ever championship position from his first season in 1996 until then in his career. It was the first championship title victory for Stoner followed by Dani Pedrosa, who beat Rossi by one point.
- His first MotoGp title victory with 800cc bike in 2008 was his sixth superbike title and eighth overall. In this process he became the first Yamaha rider to win at Honda Owned circuit at Motegi.
- With the victory in 2009 Dutch Grand Prix he became the second rider in history to win #100 grand prix after Giacomo Agostini.
- In the famous Snaefell mountain course in Isle of Man TT, Rossi rode a Yamaha alongside Agostini in an exhibition lap on 8 June 2009. The event which was delayed by 48 hours due to bad weather was dubbed as “The Lap of The Gods”.
- After a lot of speculations and hype he finally joined the Italian manufacturer Ducati in 2011 with a two year contract. For the first time in his career he finished winless in the season and finished at #7 in the championship standings.
- He ended his 46 race winless streak on 29 June 2013 after joined Yamaha again and he won the Dutch TT at Assen. It was his first MotoGP race win since Malaysia 2010. However he finished fourth in the championship standings.
- He was the first and the only rider to achieve 5000 career points in 2014. He also appeared in his 300 Grand Prix race on 1 June 2014.
- He achieved his 200 Grand Prix career podium finish in 2015 with a third place finish in Spain. His 109 Grand Prix Victory came in that same season opener when he won the Qatar race.
