All posts tagged valentino rossi
Valentino Rossi's retirement? It's a big lie says Sportmediaset
It took very little time for Sportmediaset.com who is very close to Valentino Rossi, to shoot down The Telegraph’s article regarding Rossi’s retirement, calling it a ‘balla colossale’ (a big lie).
The Italian website immediately contacted members of Rossi’s entourage who naturally denied the entire story and laughed off the entire thing confirming that the MotoGP rider still wants to make his Ducati work.
So after last week’s retirement rumors on Casey Stoner, this week it’s Rossi’s turn and next week we’ll probably hear something regarding some other rider, silly season is certainly taking off with a bang.
Rossi has yet to personally comment the story on his Twitter account, but you can bet it’ll will be very soon, probably when he gets up and turns on his phone.
Updated:
Rumor denied by the man himself: @TobyMoody @MOTOCI_Maroto ciao guys, the rumors about my retirement at the end of the year are not true!see you in Le Mans. but don’t expect that this already over and done with, the La Mans pre-race interviews will include more of the same.
Valentino Rossi to retire at the end of the season?
While rumors regarding Casey Stoner retiring at the end of the season came from the Spanish and Italian press - and was shot down by the 2011 World Champion, this new rumor regarding Valentino Rossi comes from the English media.
According to the The Telegraph’s inside sources Rossi is going to retire at the end of the 2012 season before his legendary status is even further tainted.
Apparently the rumors are based Rossi hasn’t gotten over his 2010 injuries (more likely his shoulder, than his leg) and that Jeremy Burgess will be leaving for personal reasons.
This speculation however clashes with the damage control interview that Rossi did with father Graziano on Le Iene following his post-race outburst at Qatar, where Rossi Sr. said his son would continue for two, three or more years in MotoGP before switching to World Superbikes.
Rossi is at crossroads in his career, he can’t ride the Ducati to its fullest potential, sponsors are getting impatient and he is getting older in a young man’s game and neither Yamaha or Honda top brass seem willing to have him back in their line-up.
Expect to hear a firm denial to these rumors in the next few hours - just as soon as an out scooped Italian media catches up on the Telegraph’s story and contacts Rossi.
MotoGP post race test cancelled - Ducati to test at Mugello
Due to the atrocious weather at Estoril the programmed MotoGP post race test that was to take place today has been cancelled.
Following this decision, Ducati has decided to programme a three-day test at Mugello with both factory riders, Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden that will take place after the Le Mans GP (May 18-20), from May 22-24 and another two before July.
Ducati had planned to have Hayden and Rossi test different parts, including a smoother engine and then have them switch at Mugello to have a better feedback, but now everything will be carried out at Mugello and the developments will probably be implemented at Silverstone and another at Laguna Seca following engine rotation.
Valentino Rossi has 'some fun' as off track signals confuse Nicky Hayden's Ducati
Today’s MotoGP Estoril race wasn’t some sort of breakthrough for Valentino Rossi who finished in 7th (BFF Uccio was betting on 6th) but this what Rossi admits this is what his GP12 is capable of at the present.
In tomorrow’s test he’ll receive some new parts and some engine modifications with hopes that they will give him some smoother acceleration, but reported that due to the engine rule, an eventual new engine will only be available at the Silverstone round.
“It went a bit better this time, in the sense that we started from a better base on Friday and we managed to prepare for today over the course of the weekend,” said Rossi. “I was able to approach the race knowing what to expect from the bike, and I therefore managed to push harder and get a little closer to the limit. The first laps were decent. I moved up a couple of positions and then I maintained a consistent pace, doing times that we expected to do. We must improve on corner exits and on acceleration because right now we’re not able to be as effective as the others due to the fact that we can’t get all of the power to the ground. We have a test tomorrow, and we’ll start working. Anyway, today I even managed to have some fun.”
If you hate all the electronic aids in MotoGP, you’ll not find a better excuse to continue hating them when you’ll find out what caused Nicky Hayden to fade to 11th and more than a minute behind Stoner and you’ll think some alien force was out to ruin his race.
Apparently an external radio signal interfered with his Ducati’s ECU’s transponder, forcing him to ride with the electronic calibration out of phase and ride without engine braking and then he would also lose power on the straight. Kudos to the American who toughed it out and didn’t pit as others might have.
“Starting from the first lap, there was an electrical problem and the bike didn’t know where it was on the track. I tried my best to ride around the problem and not make mistakes. We’ll focus on tomorrow’s test now and look forward to the next race at Le Mans,” said Hayden.
MotoGP, Jerez: massive gallery from the paddock
Here is a massive collection of shots coming from the pit-lane and paddock of Jerez, where the Spain Gran Prix of the MotoGP class took place last weekend. The gallery features many nice pictures of the riders relaxing in the pit, talking to their crews and even some shots from the podium: check it out.
Yamaha not keeping the door shut on a Valentino Rossi comeback?
Jorge Lorenzo launched the first and very tenuous lifeline to solve Valentino Rossi’s predicament of where he’ll be ending up in 2013, by saying he wasn’t against a return to Yamaha of his former team mate, “I wouldn’t mind at all. I work for Yamaha, and if there was another fast rider on the machine (what the hell is Ben Spies then, ground meat?) , we could improve our overall chances of success.”
Lorenzo knows exactly what the media wants to hear these days with a very important silly season just starting to gather steam, however Yamaha’s Lin Jarvis in an interview with Mela Chércoles on AS.es seems to be slightly softening his former position that Rossi is not an option.
Jarvis had Rossi in Yamaha for seven years and talking about Rossi’s disastrous results so far said, “It’s hard for me to say what is happening, but I’ve got the feeling that he has lost confidence in the bike. Valentino is an extraordinary rider and knows how to improve and develop a motorcycle and is a perfectionist up to the smallest detail, but if you are unhappy with something you can not perform at your best.”
During the Qatar weekend there was a wild rumor that Rossi would be leaving Ducati to rejoin Yamaha, in his own satellite team with Coca Cola footing the bill (who seems to be in interested in buying Monster Energy).
To continue like this is not good for him or for Ducati, or for the sport. I haven’t thought about him for next season. We have two riders on factory equipment and two satellites bike. Tech3 has a two bikes for next year, so you can see it is a difficult situation,” said Jarvis. “A return would be an interesting possibility? Especially for the press, I’m not closing the door, but it isn’t a very realistic situation. What matters is that Valentino fulfills his contract with Ducati. The season is very long and there is still time to make an informed decision. ”
Yamaha has struggled to find a title sponsor these last two years and Rossi despite being way off his game is still a sponsor and crowd magnet, so if you were Jarvis, would you want the attention grabbing Italian with his tail between his legs, a deflated ego and with a lot less demands back in your line-up?
Nicky Hayden has fun for a couple of laps at Jerez, while Valentino Rossi follows 'Ducati style'
Nicky Hayden once again ended up being the best Ducati rider at Jerez and put in several hard fought and entertaining passes until you noticed that after a few laps that he was running and the slowly began to fade and ended up in 8th, behind MotoGP rookie Stefan Bradl who was suffering from arm issues, so even if the GP12 has “potential” Ducati still has several issues to work out.
“It was fun for a couple of laps. We know our bike is great at generating heat in the tyres, and for the first few laps, I was able do what I wanted. Then about the time it looked like the other guys’ tyres came up to temperature, mine had already started losing grip, especially in the front. I was pushing wide in places and guys started coming past me. We knew it would be tough in the dry. My setup was okay, but to really try to go with those guys wasn’t possible. I was able to close back down on Bradl at the end and have a bit of a race the last couple of laps, but he beat me. Eighth place is certainly not what our goal is. The bike’s got a lot of potential, but at the moment, the gap to the rest is still too far. Hopefully we can get a dry weekend in Estoril and try to be closer to the front on Sunday,” said Hayden.
Unfortunately Hayden has to play second fiddle when it comes to his team mate Valentino Rossi who still garners a massive amount of attention with the European media.
Rossi admitted that he finally used Nicky Hayden’s set-up data with some adjustments calling it more ‘Ducati style’ which gave him some positive signs, including harder braking and better corner entry, but he’ll have to modify his riding style a little more (we’ve heard that one before) and will start trying it at Estoril next Friday.
Valentino Rossi interviews Graziano Rossi on Valentino's difficulties
Valentino Rossi difficulties on the Ducati has everyone in Italy wondering what he’ll do next and naturally when someone of the calibre of the former 9-time World Champion isn’t keeping up the MotoGP TV audience ratings, someone decides to help his sliding popularity with a cute little interview.
Italian TV show Le Iene (you’ve probably seen several of their funny videos on our blog) and interviewer, Rosario Rosanova decided to put Rossi on the spot and have him take over the role of the interviewer and ask dad Graziano’s opinion about his son’s problems.
The video is available on Sportmediaset.com here and for those of you who can’t access it, it shows footage of Rossi’s home town and house at Tavullia, his mom Stefania Palma, his two famous bulldogs Cesare and Cecilia, the Rossi Fan Club and Pizzeria, Valentino changing from his jeans and sweatshirt (there’s footage of him half naked in which he laughingly says after this maybe he can get laid) to a black suit and then finding Graziano at the Bar da Rossi to interview him. The translation after the jump:
Continue reading: Valentino Rossi interviews Graziano Rossi on Valentino's difficulties
Fausto Gresini denies any contact with Valentino Rossi
Following Valentino Rossi’s now infamous post Qatar race interview, and the very wild rumors of a Coca Cola sponsored private Yamaha team, which is highly improbable due to the new rules changes that are currently being discussed to limit prototype teams to only four riders, many delusioned fans would like to see the former World Champion back on a competitive machine, even if it is in a privateer team.
A factory bike in 2013 seems out of the question with the three aliens, Jorge Lorenzo, Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner seemingly set to stay in their respective teams, with much younger and hungrier riders riding satellite bikes ready to jump on that seat in Yamaha that could become available if Ben Spies should fail to meet the goals that Lin Jarvis has set out for him this season.
Based solely on sentimental values, Italian Rossi fans are proposing that he ride for Fausto Gresini’s San Carlo Team (Marco Melandri first launched and then denied that Rossi would be riding for Gresini rumor already in 2011) so he can also pay tribute to his late friend Marco Simoncelli.
What does Gresini have to say regarding this idea? In an long an exclusive interview with MotoGrandPrix.com the Italian team manager was also asked what he thought of this and he said, “No comment! It’s pure fantasy because Valentino and I have never talked about this. Obviously this makes me happy and I’m flattered that people can even imagine this remote hypothesis because that means that there is a very high regard for my team, but at the moment this is pure utopia.”
AGV K-3 and K-4 Evo: not really 'entry level' helmets
Italian manufacturer AGV introduces two brand new helmets that are going to broaden its Street Road line-up: the K-3 and the K-4 Evo. If the K-3 can be considered the ‘entry-level’ product of the range, there is no doubt it raises the bar quite a bit as it bears quite a few resemblances with the GP-Tech (the model that sits at the top of that range) as well as boasting flashy Valentino Rossi-replica graphics. Its shell is made of HIR-TH (High Resistant Thermoplastic Resin), while the coating of its Street 8 visor is anti-scratch and anti-fog.
The air inlets on forehead and chin allow for a constant flow of fresh air inside the helmet while the two outlets on the sides and the one at the back - framed into a little spoiler - use EPS channeling to get rid of the hot and humid air from within the helmet. The inner lining is removable and washable (nape pad aside) and is made of Dri-Lex, which has been hygienically treated to avoid bacteria and allergies.
The K-4 Evo is arguably the most balanced and versatile model of the whole AGV range. The overall design of the model is pretty similar to the K-3, but its shell is made of fibreglass-based ACF (Advanced Composite Fiber). These two new models from AGV come with a slew of different and fancy graphics (as you can see in our massive photo gallery); which one do you like the most?
View the full AGV - K-3 and K-4 Evo photo gallery
Continue reading: AGV K-3 and K-4 Evo: not really 'entry level' helmets
Valentino Rossi: "Racing was the best medicine"
Valentino Rossi and ‘Uccio’ Salucci may have finished only 18th in the Blancpain Endurance Series race at Monza on Sunday, but taking part in the event seems to have recharged the batteries of the former World Champion after his controversial GP race in Qatar.
After Salucci’s accident during the second hour that dropped their team back to 29th, Rossi was able to wrestle back eleven positions positions that galvanized him.
“Taking part in this race was the best medicine,” said Rossi to the Gazzetta dello Sport. “I’m very glad I came. After a race like in Qatar we wanted a nice weekend on track. I drove strongly and made some good times, it was important.”
Despite the treacherous weather conditions and mishaps, Rossi said that he wouldn’t mind taking part in another endurance race, “We paid the price of it being our debut. I forgot to plug in the headset, so I did three laps and then spinned at the Ascari and the traction control turned off. To reset the system I had to shut down the car while going down the straight. We’ll check the calendar but I’d like to do some other races.”
Team manager Vittoriano Guareschi was present on Sunday following his rider from the garage, which put to bed any lingering rumors of a Rossi-Ducati divorce, “No, no, I’m not stupid. In those moments it’s easy to say certain things, but there was never any doubt,” commented Rossi.
Valentino Rossi and Uccio finish 18th overall in Monza car endurance race
Valentino Rossi and Alessio ‘Uccio’ Salucci finished 18th overall in the opening round of the three-hour Blancpain Endurance Series that took place at the historic circuit of Monza on Sunday afternoon.
The race was conducted in treacherous and monsonic weather conditions due to mini-cyclone Lucy that hit Italy during the weekend with the safety car entering the race numerous times.
In the first hour of the race Rossi was at the wheel and was 9th after qualifying in 10th, but when it was Uccio’s turn to take the wheel he dropped back to 29th after an incident with the #31 Lamborghini also running off track, he managed to return to the race with steering wheel issues. The final hour saw Rossi bring the Ferrari 458 Italia into 18th (ninth in the Pro-Am class) and finish the race one lap and 1.57.8s from Marc VDS Racing team (Bas Leinders, Markus Palttala and Maxime Martin) who took the victory.
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