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A Motorcycle Racer Retires, and the Sports World Takes Notice

MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi is retiring, but only from bikes. If you're paying attention, this might get interesting.

By Sam Smith May 9, 2012 2:25AM
Valentino Rossi. Image courtesy Motorcycles.About.com.(Editor's note: turns out Rossi Tweeted that the retirement rumors, originally based on reports in the Daily Telegraph, are untrue. Which actually doesn't really diminish the larger points in Sam's piece, below. So enjoy the read.)

I've said this before, but MotoGP is amazing. It is the peak of international motorcycle racing, a series that lives up to every bit of its "Formula 1 on two wheels" hype. Its stars are men of obvious and staggering talent, the kind of people whom you watch in stupefied awe, even if you don't know the slightest bit about what they're doing.

And now one of MotoGP's legends is retiring. Italian Valentino Rossi, a man known as "the Doctor" for his clinical approach to racing, recently said he will retire from the sport by year's end. 
 
This wouldn't normally be "Exhaust Notes" fodder, but Rossi is a mountain of a man (figuratively, not literally; like most pro riders, Rossi is pretty thin). In addition to being a nine-time world champion, he's one of the most loved men to have ridden a bike professionally. He has legions of international fans and a resume so thick with wins that many have called him the greatest rider the sport has ever seen. 
 
Rossi is 33 -- up there for a 2-wheel racer but still young by normal standards. The only question is, what does he do next? Did we mention he once tested a Formula 1 car? 
 
Yes, that. A lot of people will likely mention this fact in the coming months, but a few years ago, Rossi tested a Ferrari Formula 1 car. This sort of thing is not uncommon; everyone from Tom Cruise to Jeff Gordon has tested in top-level open-wheelers. Most people do a few fast-but-off-pace laps and come out grinning, and someone makes a nice comment about how the driver in question was remarkably quick given his experience. Much of it is politeness for the sake of publicity. 
Valentino Rossi and Ducati. Image courtesy Ducati.Above: Valentino Rossi with a Ducati Desmosedici MotoGP bike.

Rossi's test was different. First off, it was a present from Ferrari's then-CEO for winning the 2009 MotoGP championship. Second, it was not his first time in a modern F1 car; before that outing, he had several other opportunities to get used to the cars. And finally, he was -- wait for it -- fast. 
 
You can read more about it here, but the gist is this: Rossi was remarkably competitive in a car in which he should not have been able to go fast. (Context: These are not easy cars to get a handle on. See here for more on the subject.) The amazing thing is, few people were surprised.
 
So what does this mean for our future retiree? At the moment, not much. Some are speaking of Rossi's possible entry into 4-wheel racing, but at the moment, there's no telling how things might end. Thirty-three is staggeringly old for Formula 1, regardless of your previous experience. And while Rossi has expressed an interest in driving professionally, there's a big difference between wanting to do that and getting the massive sponsor backing needed to make things happen. 
 
I'm as interested in the outcome of all this as the next speed junkie. But the more important point here is how nonchalantly the possibilities are being discussed; most people don't see a MotoGP retirement as an end to Rossi's career. In the past, people laughed when stars from one discipline retired and chased their dreams in another -- Michael Schumacher moving to motorcycles, for example, or Michael Jordan getting his feet wet in baseball. It was once thought that a specialty was a specialty, and that was it. Guys like John Surtees and Bernd Rosemeyer -- old-school bike-racing heroes that found wild success in Grand Prix racing -- were the exception, not the rule. 
Above: Valentino Rossi in a Ferrari Formula 1 car.Above: Valentino Rossi in a Ferrari Formula 1 car.
No more. The rise of men such as Travis Pastrana (former motocross racer, now chasing dreams of rally racing and NASCAR) and a host of other multidisciplinary extreme-sports stars shows that talent is all that matters. (Talent behind the wheel of a machine, partly; talent for self-promotion and making sponsors happen, more so.) And everyone's aware of the Formula 1 and IRL stars that have moved to NASCAR. 

 

Interesting stuff, at least to me. The common-man relevance here is the possible new world rising -- the idea of athletes being seen as all-round athletes, not specialists, and a sports scene, no matter the discipline, where exposure potential is almost as important as talent. Rossi's retirement has made a lot of people outside the motorcycle world take notice. What comes next? Does he have the potential to effect real change in the way people view sports stars, or is this just a blip, an anomaly?

 

To close things out, I give you footage of Rossi testing an F1 car at Mugello in Italy. Food for thought, to say nothing of a wicked noise.


[Source: Motorcycles.About.Co​m]

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3Comments
andrew cheetham
May 9, 2012 9:37AM
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Valentino is NOT retiring! He tweeted it was all bulls**t folks.

Take no notice of british tabloids!!

Real Rider
May 9, 2012 6:44AM
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Wow.  This is a big surprise.  While he has struggled since moving to Ducati last year, it seemed like they were making good progress with the bike this year to being more competitive with the factory Hondas and Yamahas.  And the change to 1000cc was expected to help Ducati close the performance gap as well.

 

Maybe the death of his good friend Marco Simoncelli affected him more than expected....

 

Rossi really enjoys rally car racing.  I wonder if he'll persue that route instead.  More money to be made in F1 though....

barny
May 9, 2012 10:59PM
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It`s better than getting your head run over like Semolina !

Get out before he dies.

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