It looks like this might be Valentino Rossi’s last year in MotoGP. Its amazing that Rossi is still competing at his age and in one of the most bone crunching and brutal motor sports on this planet. Yamaha just signed Fabio Quartararo (a VERY promising young rider) for the 2021-2022 season basically taking Rossi’s factory ride. Valentino Rossi and Yamaha agreed that the Italian rider has until midseason to decide what he will do next. Yamaha said that they will provide Rossi with a factory-spec M1 and full factory support if he decides to continue his racing career.

It sounds like Yamaha is willing to let Rossi continue to race for one of their factory backed satellite teams but it won’t have the total backing, focus and probably won’t be quite as good as the two bikes the factory team races. I wonder if there is a chance any other manufacturer might try to pick him up?


Do you think this is Rossi’s last year?


Link to article

He supposedly looked pretty good in an open wheel car exhibition. If I was him I would give it a go. He could get a ride due to the sponsorship he could bring with him. Indy or maybe F1.

He's gonna be done with the physical part of racing, but he'll still be in the pits managing his 2 teams and maybe add a 3rd in the premiere class. Who knows, with JL99 signing as a test rider, they may be setting Rossi up with an additional Yamaha backed team which you know Dorna will make room for. Both of those 2 guys pull in as much merh money as all others combined 2-3 times over probably. Remember, it's a money game and they will make room to make more money.

He's been at it for over 20 years. He'll be done when he wants to be done, but his glory days are behind him.

Maybe it is really time for him to retire. He had a good run.

He's about 40, not the age when people start racing F-1 or Indycar nowadays. In fact, very few that have established careers in those cars are still racing at that age.
More likely he would cash in on his name and reputation rather than continue to ride until he's yesterdays news and devalue his marketing worth.

He’s a great rider, no doubt, but he’s too old to succeed at F1. He should go to sports cars if he wants to drive cars after he retires.