As Valentino Rossi prepares for his final MotoGP race, the Valencia paddock shared their own reactions to racing with and saying goodbye to their hero.
Friend, teammate, rival, icon. There are numerous ways that Rossi can and has been described within the MotoGP paddock, with the current grid unanimous in their feelings of pride at having raced alongside him and sadness that time has come for the nine-time world champion to hang up his competitive leathers - on two wheels at least.
“When I started watching MotoGP was the Valentino era,” former teammate and now Aprilia rider Maverick Viñales began. “So I grew up seeing him as an idol. So I honestly felt very good to share a team with him, to fight against him, at the end he was my first opponent and this is pretty nice. To see your idol right next to you and especially that you have to beat him because he’s your first rival. So was very nice. Honestly, I enjoyed a lot, I learned a lot. We pass good memories.
“It’s pretty difficult and tough to say that is the end of an era,” he continued. “It will be very strange, honestly, not only for me, I think for everyone. Will be very strange to don’t see Valentino on the track and it’s difficult to accept. Because at the end is your idol, is someone that push you a little bit more and this is nice. I hope at the end, for sure to see him a lot in the paddock, is always good and nice to talk to him and to spend some time. It’s always nice to spend time with your idol and also with a good person. The calm he has is important. I was very explosive and he was very calm, so I learnt to be quiet. This is the important thing, I learnt to be quiet and to talk a little bit more on the track.”
“To be honest, is tough to see because many people say with the result he’s having he must retire but I think all that kind of people, now that he’s leaving, want him to stay,” Monster Energy Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo reflected. “To be honest is sad, because he’s the legend of this sport. He really brings something special and he’s the one that really inspired me when I was a child. Watching him, watching the celebrations of how he win, the personality he have, so for me Vale is the idol of many of us. I think everyone needs to congratulate him for the big career that he achieved.”
One of Rossi’s legacy achievements will be his VR46 Academy, with Ducati Lenovo’s Pecco Bagnaia leading the way in the squad’s successes.
“I had the luck to be in MotoGP when he was still racing,” Bagnaia said proudly. ‘I’m happy to have won my first race with him on track. To say thanks also to him for his hard work, for the hard work of the Academy. And I am also lucky to be part of his life, for all the days we spend together and we train together. I had this luck and is a tough day today for sure. I’m sure that all the people will never forget what Vale has done for the championship.”
“Yes, like everybody said, I remember that I was growing up watching that yellow bike winning everywhere and the way that he celebrate the victories,” Suzuki’s 2020 Champion Joan Mir continued. “I remember that I watch him winning all this and I said this guy is my idol. So it’s been a pleasure to be able to ride this three years with him. Being able to win the title with him on track and just wishing him the best of luck. I think that he has everything in life to enjoy.”
“Looking at the bikes down there. I think I’ve got a picture of myself at like 14 sat on the 2009 Championship bike in Phillip Island, at my first Grand Prix,” Jack Miller admitted. “Growing up watching it, you never really think that it would be possible to race him or be alongside him. To just be fortunate enough to at one point in my career stand on the podium with him, in Texas, I think it was, it’s just something you don’t think would ever happen and it did and it was super special. I remember looking back at that thinking, ‘that’s pretty cool’.
“Just to see all the fans messages and stuff, I think it says what he’s done for the sport. He’s shown that you can be super outgoing, have a lot of fun with it, but also be super aggressive and be a really dominant rider. I think that really opened up to what is the new generation. I don’t think any of us would be like we are if it wasn’t for him. So we thank him.”
Rossi isn’t the only rider saying goodbye to their MotoGP career at Valencia this weekend. Fellow Italian Danilo Petrucci is swapping the World Championship for the Dakar rally in 2022 but is equally sad to see his friend retire.
“It’s been really, really nice,” Petrucci said of spending the past decade alongside ‘the Doctor’. “I fought with him for his last victory in Assen, in 2017. We fought all the race, and the fact is that we raced together for 10 years. We fight for the victory, for podiums, for 16th place! For a lot of times. I remember, my father was a truck driver and when Valentino bought his first motorhome in ’97, he came to my house to pick up this motorhome so I knew him since a long time, before he was ‘Valentino’. For sure, having the chance to stay on track with him and share the podiums and so many good memories has been really a pride.”
For the second half of his final season, Rossi was joined in the Petronas SRT box by another Italian legend, Andrea Dovizioso.
“I always follow him,” Dovizioso reflected. “He was my idol. Valentino, for everybody, especially Italian riders. I was doing the first of my pocket bike championship, he was doing the last, so I meet him that year. Everybody follow him because when you’re doing pocket bike and a special rider start to win the title and make crazy things, everybody loved that. I didn’t really have a lot of time with him because he is a superstar. He had to live in a different way for many reasons, because everybody wants him. So I think he created a really special situation around him in Tavullia and with the Academy.
“Every time he is doing some racing or 100 kilometres or something like that, he liked to spend time with everybody so he is a really special person. It’s nice to see him winning a lot of titles. I always study a lot from Valentino, that sometimes make me lost because when you follow such a talented person, if you try to copy doesn’t work like him, you have to find your way but in any case, has been wonderful to see all his career.
“I’m lucky to live this moment of the World Championship and I think he brings a lot of fans in this sport and we can be just lucky about that,” he concluded.
