Seven-time champion Valentino Rossi has announced his long-rumoured retirement from riding in MotoGP after 22 seasons of racing in the premier class.
Rossi revealed he’ll stop competing at the end of the 2021 season during a special press conference on the eve of this weekend’s Styrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring.
“Like I said during the season, I would take my decision for next year and after the summer break, and I have decided to stop at the end of the season,” he said. “So unfortunately this will be my last half-season as a MotoGP rider.
“It’s difficult. It’s a very, very sad moment. It’s difficult to say and to know that next year I will not race a motorcycle. I’ve done this thing for let’s say 30 years. I’ve enjoyed it very much.
“I had a very long career and fortunately I won a lot of races. I had some moments and some victories that are unforgettable and were pure joy – something where I laughed for one week and after 10 days I’d laugh again and say ‘why?’ and then ‘OK, for the race’.
“It’s a difficult decision. But you need to understand that at the end in all sports the results make the difference. At the end I think this is the right way.
“We have another half-season. I think it will be more difficult when we arrive at the last race. Now is just for saying my decision to everyone.
“But it’s OK. I can’t complain about my career.”
The 42-year-old made his top-flight debut in 2000, and then won the first of seven championships in the following year.
Rossi claimed his first three titles with Honda before a switch to Yamaha in 2004 yielded four titles across the next seven years.
In 2013, he returned to Yamaha following an unsuccessful winless two-year stint with Ducati. Rossi added a further 10 race victories but fell short of an elusive record-equalling eighth title.
This year he stepped down from the factory Yamaha squad to the satellite Petronas Yamaha team, where he’s scored just one top 10 finish and sits 19th in the riders’ championship.
Rossi had made clear at the start of the year that he would make a decision about his future during the summer, and accepted that the results were not good enough to justify continuing.
“I really decided in the summer break, because I wanted to continue when I started the championship but – like I’d said – I needed to understand if I was fast enough,” he explained.
“Unfortunately during the season the results were less than what we expected. So race by race, I started to think.”
Having last won a race in 2017, Rossi admitted that his form had been fading for some time but he had wanted to try to utmost to turn things around before accepting that it was time to stop.
“Sincerely, two years ago, and maybe also last year, I was not ready to stop with MotoGP because I had to try everything,” he said.
“But now I am OK, I am quiet. I mean I’m not happy, for sure, but if I’d done another year I’d be not happy in the same moment because I want to race for another 20!
“So I think that this is the right moment. We have another half-season where I will try to be stronger than in the first half and try to give my best.”
Asked to pinpoint the reasons for his decline in form, Rossi said he wasn’t totally clear about it – beyond a suspicion that the new generation was simply raising the bar.
But he also pointed out that while he hadn’t won since 2017, he had still been competitive until relatively recently.
“In 2018 I did a great season, I finished third in the championship,” said Rossi.
“I didn’t win a race but I got a lot of points and in the last two races I could have won, but did some mistakes. But it was a high level.
“In 2019 I started very well but after, something changed. But what, sincerely, I don’t know.
“Also last year I was quite strong at the beginning of the season. I had one podium.
“But at the end of the season I was in more trouble for staying with the top guys.
“The level is very, very high. The new young riders are always stronger. Now all the riders train a lot, they are athletes, they always work harder.
“So some different things, I don’t know precisely why.”
Rossi has consistently been MotoGP’s most popular rider of the last two decades, garnering legions of supporters at races and regularly requiring dedicated Rossi grandstands.
The Italian has also launched his own VR46 MotoGP team and it will take over both of Avintia’s grid slots next season for its full-time debut, while Rossi’s VR46 Academy supports multiple riders on their path towards the premier class and has revitalised Italy’s future prospects in motorcycle racing.
While there were some whispers that he could switch to ride for his own team next season, Rossi will instead likely switch to racing in the World Endurance Championship while managing his MotoGP team.
