Valentino Rossi Biography

Valentino was born on February 16, 1979. He is the son of Graziano Rossi, who was also a motorcycle racer. As a child, he was given a kart instead of a bike, because his mother was worried about her son’s safety.

When he was 5, his kart’s 60cc motor was replaced with a 100cc motor for more speed, and in 1990, he won the local kart championship.

By the end of 1991, he had become an expert in minibike riding and had also won many awards.

He participated in the national kart championships held at Parma and came fifth in the race. In 1993, his father took the help of his former racing friends, one of whom was Claudio Lusuardi, who operated the Cagiva Sport Production team, to provide his son with a Cagiva Mito 125cc motorcycle.

He crashed his first bike, despite which he was allowed to take part in the Italian Sport Production Championship, where he performed reasonably in the beginning, but later won the title in 1994.

After winning the championship, he was trained to ride 125cc racing motorbikes and in 1995, he won the Italian 125cc Championship. He also raced in the 125cc European Championship where he claimed the third position.

His next move was big and ambitious i.e. he participated in the World Championship in 1996, in the Malaysian Grand Prix, where he finished 9th.

However, he won the 1997 125cc World Championship held in Aprilia, to become the youngest rider ever to claim the championship.

In 1998, he took up 250cc racing and came second in the World Championship which was won by Loris Capirossi.

He won the 250cc World Championship held in 1999, in Aprilia, where he won his first world championship title.

In 2000, he signed up with Honda to race in the 500cc class and was mentored by Michael Doohan, a former 500 cc World Champion. He raced that year and finished second to Kenny Roberts, Jr.

The 500 cc World Championship conducted its final race in 2001, and Rossi who had come second the previous year, finished first and claimed the championship.

In 2004, he signed up with Yamaha and raced in the opening season of the Grand Prix in South Africa. He won the championship to become the first-ever rider to win premier class championships in a sequence, representing two different manufacturers.

Out of the 16 races held that season he won nine, securing the World Championship title for himself.

The year 2005 was extremely good because he won eleven races in total to become the World Champion that year too.

In 2006, however, he finished second to Nicky Hayden, from Honda, by five points. It was only the second time in his premier-class racing career that he came second.

The year 2007 was a little rough for him as he could only win four races owing to several technical problems. He was also injured in one of the races and finished third in the World Championship that year, his lowest achievement since his first championship win.

In 2008, he regained his reputation by winning the MotoGP title by winning nine races.

The following year was also very fruitful, but in 2010, he suffered another injury in which he broke his leg while practicing at Mugello. He finished third in the championship and missed four races that season.

In 2011, he left long-time sponsor Yamaha to sign a two-year contract with Ducati.

However, in the middle of 2012, he announced that he would go back to Yamaha at the end of the season. He joined Yamaha at a post-season test but the rain made it difficult to record an accurate time. He later tested the bike in 2013 where his recorded time was 2:00.542.

In the 2013 Qatar Motorcycle Grand Prix, he started in seventh place on the race day. While he had a good opening, Rossi couldn’t perform well in the new qualifying format. Nevertheless, he performed amazingly during the race and even surpassed Marc Márquez in the final lap. However, in the French Grand Prix, he finished twelfth.

While he stayed out of the Italy race, he went on to finish fourth in the Catalunya round. He won the Dutch round which became his first win since the 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix. He performed well in the next rounds and secured the fourth place in the season.

In the 2014 season, he finished second in the Qatar Grand Prix and went on to secure the eighth and fourth position in the Motorcycle Grand Prix of the Americas and the Argentine Republic motorcycle Grand Prix. He again scored the second position in the Spain and France rounds and finished third in the Italian Grand Prix.

He did impressive during the championship and finished second with 295 points.

In the 2015 season, he finished first in the Qatar round. He finished third in the Motorcycle Grand Prix of the Americas and again won the Argentina round. He also did well in the Catalunya, France, and Italy rounds. In the 2016 and 2017 seasons, he finished second and fifth respectively.

In 2018, Rossi extended his contract with the Factory Yamaha team until 2020. The season opened with him securing the third spot in the Qatar race. However, in the Argentina round, he collided with Márquez which led him to finish in the nineteenth spot. Nevertheless, his performance in the French, Italian, and Catalan rounds more than made up for this small loss. He scored a total of 198 points in the season, earning him third place.

The 2019 season was not a good one for Rossi with the latter finishing seventh in the championship with a total of 174 points.

Before the 2020 season, Rossi replaced Silvano Galbusera with David Muñoz as his new crew chief. Due to the COVID pandemic, the Qatar round was canceled and the season was delayed by 3 months. In the Spanish motorcycle Grand Prix, Rossi had to retire due to technical issues. Next, in the Andalucia round, the racer captured the third position. Later that year, he tested COVID positive twice, costing him the Aragon and Teruel GPs.

In September 2020, Rossi announced that he would be joining the Petronas Yamaha SRT. However, their partnership was short-lived as in August 2021, Rossi announced his retirement following the end of the season.

A racer at heart, Rossi decided to make a career in car racing after bidding farewell to MotoGP. In January 2022, it was announced that he would be joining Team WRT for the coming season. In his first race in the Imola circuit, he finished 17th. In the Brands Hatch round, he secured 13th place in race 1 and 8th position in race 2.

He is currently an active racer for Team WRT and races alongside Sean Gelael, Maxime Martin, Max Hesse, and Tom Whale.

In the 2005 Grand Prix motorcycle racing season, he won his 7th World Championship and fifth consecutive MotoGP Championship. That year, he earned a place among the only five riders in the history of motorcycle racing to win the premier-class title five times.

By 2013, he had won a grand total of 106 races, 80 of which were 500cc/MotoGP championships.

In 2007, he was suspected of tax evasion for which he paid 35 million euros to the Italian tax authorities to arrive at a settlement.

He is a fan of the Italian football club Internazionale, who congratulated him in October 2009, on his ninth World Championship win, through their website.

In 2008, he was romantically linked to Mandala Tayde. He later started dating Francesca Novello. In March 2022, they welcomed their child Giulietta Rossi.

Rossi is a talented musician and plays the drums in his spare time.

Rossi is a big fan of cooking and often shares his favorite recipes on social media.

Rossi is a skilled painter and has created several pieces of artwork in his own unique style.