You may have been watching reports on Valentino Rossi’s recent test of a Ferrari F1 race car (the 2008 model). Rossi has tested F1 Ferrari’s in the past, and also raced rally cars. He is not just very fast in a car, he is incredibly fast.
This recent test occurred at Catalunya, where Rossi reportedly lapped within two-tenths of a second of the lap record set by former Ferrari driver, and former F1 World champion, Kimi Raikkonen, and just one-tenth of a second shy of Raikkonen’s 2008 F1 pole position at the same track. With virtually no practice.
Now, Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo is quoted as saying Rossi is a potential F1 champion.
Rossi has one year left on his Yamaha contract. Ferrari could seriously tempt Rossi away from two wheels, even though Rossi has recently stated it is not a possibility.
MD Readers Respond:
- Just a heads up for comparative purposes re Rossi’s F1 car set up.
To be as fast as possible on his quick laps they used extremely low fuel levels and he used F2 slicks vs the grooved F1 tires of 2008. Not sure how much difference the tires would make but Raikonnen would have had a lot of fuel in the car as he would have had to start the race with that amount. So I’m guessing he was probably 1-2 seconds off.
That being said, the guy is pretty amazing. Adrian - To see Rossi in an F1 would indeed get me to finally watch an F1 race, but what a loss for motorcycle racing. A champion like Rossi only comes once in a lifetime (ok, we said this of previous champions but this is Rossi) and I much prefer to see him stay in Motogp. Now Rossi is 30 and just regained his title. I think the coming years will be very exciting as Rossi battles youngsters like Stoner and Pedrosa as a clash of generations has already started to unfold. To see Rossi leave Motogp now would deprive moto enthusiasts of the planet from seeing how possibly the greatest of road racer of all time can age gracefully and fight to maintain his supremacy by using all of his tools and not just twisting the throttle recklessly like Biaggi did. Obviously Ferrari wants Rossi, it’s an Italian match made in heaven….for car racing fans! Rossi is the Schumacher of moto racing, and Schumacher is coming back at 41. If Rossi leaves motogp, he will regret leaving too soon and then try to come back later but moto racing is much tougher than car racing, I believe! So a big Yay for Rossi in Motogp, there will be plenty of time for car racing later… Pierre
- Rossi has flirted with Ferrari and F1 before, but decided against the
move. Maybe he will do it now that an end to his Yamaha career may
be in sight. Or he may just hang on in MotoGP until he breaks ALL of
Agostini’s records or until injury or decreasing performance forces
him out. Lew - Yes I too would watch more F1. But I suppose nobody would then watch motoGP! And that’s the last thing the motorcycle industry needs. Last year’s F1 with the Brawn team was very exciting without Vale, I think they could live without him. Andy
- Interesting fact. Thanks for posting that. I for one would watch F1 if Rossi were in the cockpit. I don’t follow it at all now. TD
