Every February 16, the world of MotoGP rejoices to celebrate the birth of one of life legends. He is Valentino Rossi, who is now 40 years old!
Rossi was born in Urbino in 1979, from pair Graziano Rossi and Stefani. Since childhood, Rossi has been fond of motorsport which began with karting to finally fall in love with a motorcycle.
Rossi’s debut at the motorbike race began in 1996 in the 125cc class and a year later he became a world champion, then went up to 250cc in 1998 and became a champion a year later. Rossi was able to set foot in MotoGP (first 500cc) in 2000 when recruited by Honda.
The rest is a history because Rossi ordained himself as the best rider in this sport with a score of seven world titles. Three titles with Honda from 2001 to 2003 which continued at Yamaha in 2004, 2005, 2008 and 2009.
Now entering the 19th season in MotoGP, Rossi has not lost the spirit of racing even at the age of 40 years on Saturday (02/16/2019). The holder of a record of 89 wins in the primary class doesn’t want to stop and wants to continue racing. But, the physical cannot lie because he has been difficult to be consistent in the front row during the race.
Last season was the worst in Rossi’s career with Yamaha, without a win and only five podium finishes. His last victory was in the Dutch MotoGP 2017 and Rossi is now like repeating a two-year dark story with Ducati which was also completed without the first podium at all.
Throughout his career Rossi has won 115 wins, 232 podium positions and 65 pole positions. However, the former Honda and Ducati rider has never won the world title since 2009.
Many people think Rossi is too old to be able to compete for the MotoGP world title. But, Rossi still believes he can compete with young riders because he still have the motivation to become world champions.
“Unfortunately I will be 40 years old, yes, I am quite old. But, this is a challenge for me to continue to be competitive at this age. It will be difficult to continue to be on top, but I will try,” Rossi was quoted from Crash.net.
Seeing the appearance in the last few seasons, Rossi clearly can not be underestimated in 2019 MotoGP. Although it has been 40 years, Rossi is still considered a candidate for world championship this season. At least that is believed by Jorge Lorenzo, one of Rossi’s rivals in MotoGP.
“I am not one of the favorites of the world champions, because there are other riders like Marc Marquez, Andrea Dovizioso, Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales, who already know each other’s motorbikes. The four riders are favorites to be world champions,” Lorenzo said.
Now at the age of 40 years, the question of how competitive Rossi is in the 2019 season remains. Now, only Rossi can answer it and maybe with a new, fresher motorbike, he can do it.
But, before the season starts, it’s good to say Happy Birthday, Rossi. Buon Compleanno, Vale!
