Valentino Rossi realized he was approaching the end of his MotoGP career in 2019, but he had ‘no regrets’ about continuing to race until 2021 because ‘if I’m still at the top, I’d want to continue.’
Valentino Rossi considered retiring during the 2019 MotoGP season, when his podium finishes as a Yamaha rider dried up for the first time.
But he was encouraged to keep racing, and after returning to the rostrum for the 199th and final time in his grand prix career at the start of the covid-disrupted 2020 season, he ultimately opted to participate again in 2021, after losing his factory Yamaha seat, by switching to Petronas Yamaha.
“I started to think of retirement in 2019,” said Rossi, speaking in a series of You Tube interviews with Graham Bensinger. “Because 2019 was the first time that I had a problem with the results. I expected to be stronger.
“I started 2019 in a very good way because I did two podiums in Argentina and Austin, in Austin very close to winning, and after something happened when we came back to Europe and I was not fast.
“So that moment was the first time that I thought we are close to finishing. After we had 2020, but that decision was very strange because of the pandemic.
“At the beginning of the season, I thought I would stop and not race in 2021. But after my parents and my friends [persuaded me to stay], we’d changed my chief mechanic in the team, so they all pushed me and said ‘don’t give up! We have to do another season.’ So we raced also in 2021.”
Rossi won the last of his nine world championships in 2009, but he has finished second in 2014, 2015, and 2016. After winning his final race at Assen in 2017, the Italian finished a challenging third in the standings in 2018.
His championship ranking then dropped dramatically, with him finishing 7th in 2019, 15th in 2020 (after missing two rounds due to Covid), and eventually 18th in 2021.
Rossi insists he has no regrets about his final years in the sport since he knows he hasn’t left any more victories or podiums on the table.
“I see a lot of other riders or drivers, or champions in sport, that want to stop when they are at the top. But for me it’s different. I don’t want to stop. If I’m still at the top I want to continue, because I like, I enjoy,” Rossi said.
“So I always said I will give the maximum until the end, give everything, so after I don’t have any regrets and can’t say ‘I could race for another two or three seasons’.”
The 42-year-old added: “It’s the right decision because I was able to give the maximum and I enjoyed [my career]. But it will be difficult in January-February-March when [MotoGP] restarts and I don’t.”
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