Though future one-off MotoGP outings for Valentino Rossi have been mooted, they do not seem particularly likely, which means on November 14 in Valencia he is due to compete in what will probably be his final MotoGP race.
A month later, on December 12, Kimi Raikkonen will be bowing out of Formula 1 in Abu Dhabi.
When it comes to matters of public persona, you can hardly find two more contrasting characters in the world of motorsport. Expect this to be reflected in how they say farewell – Rossi will probably get, and revel in, some sort of huge ceremony, his exit bound to loom over the whole weekend, whereas Raikkonen is likely to make a more subdued exit.
Yet there’s something narratively satisfying about the fact they will be retiring a month apart, not just because their paths have been somewhat parallel to each other but also because of what the two retirements represent.
The two racers, born eight months apart, will both retire as their championships’ most experienced ever competitors, with well over 300 starts. Of course Raikkonen is likely to be usurped by Fernando Alonso in that regard, whereas Rossi’s mark for longevity will stay for a while yet.
Their levels of success have, of course, been different. Their overall impact, too – there has been a lingering genuine concern over MotoGP post-Rossi, which is not something even the most ardent Raikkonen fans are likely to say about F1 post-Kimi. But the trajectory has been similar.
The big successes for both, and the bulk of the legacy, came in the first decade of the century. For Raikkonen, that transitioned into the two-year hiatus from F1, while for Rossi it ended with the Ducati stint that you could call a ‘two-year hiatus’ if you were feeling particularly uncharitable.
After that, both did bolster their CVs with moments of magic. But soon both became to stagnate, at teams that had largely defined their careers – Raikkonen at Ferrari, Rossi at Yamaha. And both would eventually get moved aside for the respective teams’ ‘next big thing’, with the move in both cases being proved spectacularly right basically right away.
But though both Raikkonen and Rossi could’ve easily used those ‘demotions’ as opportunities to walk away, neither did, electing to continue racing despite ever-dwindling chances to add to their respective tallies of even podiums, much less victories or titles.
Admittedly, it is easy to draw parallels when you have the freedom to cherry-pick the aspects that align and ignore the ones that don’t. It’s clear, for example, that Raikkonen’s move to Alfa Romeo was never going to yield wins and podiums, such is the competitive balance of F1, whereas Rossi electing to join Petronas Yamaha did put him in a team that was winning a whole lot of races as recently as 2020.
And because of that, it’s probably fair to suppose Rossi’s competitive decline has been sharper than Raikkonen’s. The bike Rossi’s on is still a works-spec Yamaha, similar to the one Fabio Quartararo is increasingly likely to take to the 2021 title, while Rossi himself is struggling to crack the top 10. Raikkonen, for his part, is only directly comparable to Antonio Giovinazzi, and though Giovinazzi finally seems to have got the better of him on one-lap pace, Raikkonen still has something extra when it comes to races.
But it’s not about making a perfect one-to-one comparison. It’s more about the fact that neither Rossi, nor Raikkonen needed these farewell tours, that neither stood much of a chance to add to their trophy cabinets, and yet that both kept on racing anyway. And it must be for the love of the game – what else?
Rossi has never shied away from talking about how much he enjoyed MotoGP. Though ultimately the poor form of 2021 took its toll and influenced the retirement decision (as he really could’ve raced on, given he now has his own team on the grid in VR46 Ducati), he indicated he would’ve been happy to race for another 20 years if he just remained competitive.
Raikkonen has never really been this evocative about anything, and he probably didn’t really have any options to stay on the grid in 2022, but he too stayed as long as he did because he enjoyed it, despite obvious frustrations with the car’s performance.
Neither needed a steady supply of titles to keep on going. Both could’ve walked away years ago. And both faced gripes about keeping talent pathways to F1/MotoGP blocked, and didn’t much care about that, because they felt they had every right to continue as long as they could find a team that would employ them, and as long as they continued to have fun.
Amid the youth revolution going on in both categories, and new heroes emerging every year, there is something almost romantic about two veterans hanging on for as long as was sensible just because they could. Not really for trophies, not really for records, but just for the buzz it gave them.
Rossi’s racing career definitely doesn’t end here – he’s widely expected to focus on four-wheeled endurance racing from next year onwards.
Perhaps Raikkonen could yet join him on the grid of one of those races. Or, having both dipped their toes in that discipline, maybe they should go rallying together. Wouldn’t that be something?
