Valentino Rossi Quotes & Trivia

Quotes

Also, when I started racing he knew a lot of people and it was more easy for me to find the first bike, so I have a good chance for sure.

Although I am an Internazionale fan, I would say Diego Maradona, who played for Napoli for seven years. He was the world's No 1 footballer and had spectacular skills.

As for the level of spectacle of the two disciplines, I leave it to the people who watch the races to comment.

Before that everyone thinks you must ride Honda to become world champion. Yamaha had not won the championship for a very long time.

But I could also start F1 or rallying. I love rallying much more.

But Italy is the hardest. I go home to see my family but I cannot stay more than three days. There is too much pressure.

How do Ferrari know what I'm doing next year when I don't know what I'm doing next week?

However I am looking forward to the two new Grands Prixs; both Shanghai and Laguna Seca are fantastic tracks and it will be good to race at them.

I always enjoyed myself a lot in pre-school.

I do crazy things - like moving from Honda to Yamaha.

I don't like being famous - it is like a prison. And driving for Ferrari would make it far worse.

I have won on Honda and Yamaha so maybe it is interesting to win with a third team, Ducati, who are Italian.

I race to win. If I am on the bike or in a car it will always be the same.

I talk in the past about Formula One because four-wheels are another of my great passions, I start in go-kart and my dream was to become a Formula One driver.

I would have probably stolen cars - it would have given me the same adrenaline rush as racing.

I'm Valentino Rossi. And I want to be a person, not an icon.

If I test the car for a year I can be quite competitive the next season.

In 2002 the Yamaha was at more or less the same level as the Honda, better in some ways, worse in others. But in the winter of last year between 2002 and 2003, Honda made a big step forward and it seemed as if Yamaha couldn't quite match that improvement.

In my opinion we are at the limit now, and 17 races is really too much. With all the testing that we do now, it means we're always on the bike and it's quite difficult.

It is a big problem and so I don't know for sure if I say yes or no to Ferrari.

It's a big, big advantage because understanding what changes we might make takes time and it takes time to work out settings and to understand everything about the new machine.

Maybe if Graziano make another work or another sport I wouldn't have had this passion to be a rider.

Once the races begin it's more difficult and there is never that much time for testing.

Rally car I race a lot - I make always one or two rallies at the end of the season and I will continue to do that.

Riding a race bike is an art - a thing that you do because you feel something inside.

The crew knows me very well because we've been together four years, and now we have the best team in the world.

The work that we do during the winter is very important; we have a new bike and it's important to develop it during this time, and we start with this test.

They say if you lap their track at Fiorano in 60 seconds it means you drive the Ferrari quite fast. If you are slower you are not an F1 racer.

To relax, maybe start a family and live a normal life. This would be impossible to achieve in Italy, where I am asked constantly for my autograph.

To win the Championship in the first year will be hard. We need time to become competitive and win races.

We have the 2004 M1 here for reference, which is useful. It worked well here last year; we won the race and always did fast lap times so it will be interesting to compare it to the new bike and it will help us to understand which parts have improved.

When I got ready to drive a Formula 1 car for the first time in my life I hear the Ferrari engineers having bets about me.

Winning the 500cc world championship at Phillip Island, Australia, in 2001 was a turning point. I became only the third man to win world titles in three different classes.