Valentino Rossi participated as a guest in a famous Italian TV show called ‘Che tempo che fa’, where his career was celebrated through an interview. “I’m almost 40, but I feel younger. I’m lucky, because it usually feels hard when you turn 40“, said the Italian, who’s enjoying his last few days off before going back to business. “December and January are the most relaxing months in a rider’s life. Me, I went to the seaside and did some snowboarding, then I had some relaxing days at home. On Saturday, I’ll fly to Indonesia for 2019 Yamaha team launch and then I’ll go to Sepang for the first test of the year. About the livery of 2019 M1, I can only say that it will look like an F.C. Inter jersey, as it’ll be blue and black“.
A STUDENT GONE TEACHER – The champion from Tavullia told about his first rides on a scooter, his high school times and the clash he had with his History of Art teacher: “I clearly said to her that I wasn’t interested in that subject, that it wouldn’t have changed my life, and she replied that I would have never become rich by riding motorcycles“. Well, we know who was right back then, as today Rossi is one of the greatest riders ever and even has his own group of students: “Despite being older than them, the passion we share has led to the great relationship I have with VR46 riders. It’s great to raise them. Two of them, Franco Morbidelli and Francesco Bagnaia, will race against me in MotoGP World Championship and I hope they won’t go faster than me. If it happened, I would really dislike it (laughs). I think it will be fun to race in the same class as them. Training with VR46 riders is a great way to feel young. We enjoy training together and we all push each other to improve”.
HISTORY AND N. 46 – Rossi is set to face his 19th season in MotoGP top class and his 23rd one in World Championship. So far, Rossi has won titles in four different classes and lived a lot of changes, that forced his to constantly modify his riding style: “The way you ride changes according to technology, tyres, brakes and electronics. What changes the most is the riding position, because now motorcycles lean more than before, the grip has increased and the riding position is much different from the one we used to see 20 years ago“. During the interview, there was also some room for the history of n. 46: “In 1979, when I was born, my dad Graziano scored his first World Championship win and his race number was 46. I like this number, also because the sum of its figures is 10… Moreover, 4 and 6 are even and I really like the way ‘quarantasei’ sounds when you speak it“.
Translated by Alessandro Palma