Valentino Rossi ( born 16 February 1979) is an Italian professional motorcycle road racer and multiple time MotoGP World Champion. Rossi is widely considered to be one of the greatest motorcycle racers of all time, with nine Grand Prix World Championships to his name – seven of which are in the premier class. Rossi is also the only road racer to have competed in 400 or more Grands Prix. He has ridden with number 46 his entire career. He also owns the Sky Racing Team VR46 which currently participates in the Moto2 class and historically in the Moto3 class.
After graduating to the premier class in 2000, Rossi won the 500cc World Championship and 8 Hours of Suzuka with Honda in 2001, the MotoGP World Championships (also with Honda) in 2002 and 2003 and continued his streak of back-to-back championships by winning the 2004 and 2005 titles after leaving Honda to join Yamaha. He lost the 2006 title with a crash in the final round at Valencia. In 2007 Rossi ultimately finished third overall, before regaining the title in 2008 and retaining it in 2009.[ After a 2010 season marred by a broken leg and no title defence, Rossi left Yamaha to join Ducati for the 2011 season.[3][4] Rossi replaced Stoner at Ducati and endured two losing seasons with the Italian marque.
It was confirmed in 2012 that he would rejoin Yamaha for the 2013 and 2014 seasons.[5] On his return to Yamaha, he finished fourth in the standings in 2013, followed by three successive runner-up positions in 2014, 2015 and 2016. After Rossi won the 2017 Dutch TT, a multiple-year winless streak followed, although he managed to finish third in the 2018 championship even during this period. Rossi was contracted to race until the end of the 2020 season with Factory Yamaha, when he would be 41 years old.
It was confirmed that Rossi would leave the Factory Yamaha team at the end of 2020, and he confirmed on 26 September 2020 that he would ride for the Petronas Yamaha Racing Team in the 2021 season.
During the 2021 Styrian motorcycle Grand Prix, Rossi announced his intended retirement at the end of the MotoGP season after a career spanning 26 seasons in Grands Prix. After retiring, he plans to be involved in car racing and also administer his motorcycle racing team, VR46.
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