Valentino Rossi will lose his factory team place at Yamaha

Not exactly a shock to me, but quite a surprise too many I imagine.

The global icon will race for them this season per his contract but wanted to see just how he goes in the first six races of the new season. Yamaha wanted to keep their new hot-shot rider Fabio Quartaro from going to a rival team, so incredibly early they signed him up to the full factory squad for the 2021/22 seasons. Yamaha were also keen not to lose Maverick Vinales either with rumours he was planning a move to Ducati; so this leaves one Yamaha vacancy at the SIC Petronas satellite team if Rossi wants to continue in 2021.

Yamaha have just signed Jorge Lorenzo as official test rider now he’s retired and have also managed to secure another vital electronics guy from Ducati are clearly looking for a strong future.

The option for Valentino Rossi is still a really good one, as last season showed for Fabio. So if he decides to continue racing in 2021 he has essentially got the full factory bike and full support. Rossi is 41 this year and racing a bunch of guys in their early 20s. He showed this winter he still has the speed by winning the 100km event at the Ranch, he demonstrated impressive speed in Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes F1 car in Valencia and also won the class and finished 3rd overall in the Ferrari GT at Dubai race, so he still has the raw speed.

He still appears motivated and committed to the training, the fitness, the lifestyle and the travel but he’s been doing this at World Championship level since 1996. Yes he is a 9 time world champion but he has not won a title for 10 seasons and his win rate has dropped dramatically since the arrival of Marc Marquez in the sport. As a fan I hope he decides to keep racing providing he enjoys it, stays near the front and injury free.

As well as being a factory racer he is also the guy who owns, runs and employs people to run his mega-successful merchandise company VR46 in his home town which produces top quality merchandise for many of the riders. He has a restaurant, a fan club shop, a rider training Academy, his own museum….and not forgetting owning and managing two teams in the Moto3 & Moto2 classes. So a lot has changed since he started racing and I wonder if these ventures will soon replace his appetite for racing.

Seeing Venus Williams playing nowadays reminds me of Rossi, she still loves the sport, playing the game and the travel. She is not winning like she used to and I’m sure there are times she doesn’t like being beaten by a 16 year old. But she was at Wimbledon this year playing mixed doubles at 8.30pm on Court 12 and still loving been able to…maybe Rossi is the same.