Valentino Rossi reveals the ‘dangerous’ crash that accelerated MotoGP retirement

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Valentino Rossi called time on his legendary MotoGP career in 2021 but has revealed a ‘dangerous’ moment that accelerated his decision to retire from motorcycle racing.

The 45-year-old is one of if not the greatest riders to race in the premier class. Rossi enjoyed a storied 21 years in the championship, yielding 89 Grand Prix wins through 372 races plus a remarkable seven riders’ titles. He further stood on the podium 199 times and had 55 poles.

Whilst Giacomo Agostini won more premier class titles with eight through the 500cc era, no rider in premier class history boasts more Grand Prix wins than Rossi. The Italian’s 89 eclipse Agostini’s 68 and Marc Marquez’s 62. But Rossi’s final victory came in 2017 at the Dutch TT.

Franco Morbidelli’s 2020 Austrian Grand Prix crash accelerated Valentino Rossi’s retirement

Despite tasting much more infrequent success over his final years on the grid, Rossi retained his passion for MotoGP – even stepping down from the factory Yamaha team to race for SRT in 2021. But the prospect of retiring was already growing strong ahead of his final campaign.

Rossi has now revealed that coming so close to disaster when Franco Morbidelli and Johann Zarco crashed in the 2020 Austrian Grand Prix accelerated his retirement from MotoGP, plus switch to racing on four wheels. He considers it the ‘most dangerous moment’ of his career.

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Retirement thoughts had also started to surface as early as 2010 after Rossi, who had lifted the title in 2008 and 2009, suffered the worst injury of his MotoGP career. A fall in practice for the 2010 Grand Prix of Italy at Mugello saw Rossi break his right tibia and also his fibula.

“In Austria 2020,” Rossi told Corriere Della Sera. “Morbidelli’s bike flying, passes over my helmet like a huge, mad bullet. It was the most dangerous moment of my career.

“An accident that accelerated the decision to stop with motorcycles because it was out of my control. Then, when I broke my leg at Mugello in 2010. I’ve never felt pain like that, the bone out of the skin [and] the feeling that a part of your body is detached from the rest.”

MotoGP witnessed a miracle with Franco Morbidelli and Johann Zarco’s 2020 Austrian GP crash

Rossi required two operations after breaking his right leg in practice for the 2010 Grand Prix of Italy. But he waited just 30 days to get back on a circuit at Misano and Rossi returned to a MotoGP grid 41 days after the Mugello crash when he took P4 in the Grand Prix of Germany.

But Rossi would never win another MotoGP title after taking the trophy in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008 and 2009. So, also failing to win a Grand Prix since 2017 would give Rossi the fuel to retire from MotoGP after coming so close to disaster at the Red Bull Ring in 2020.

MotoGP was extremely fortunate to avoid disaster at the 2020 Austrian GP when Morbidelli and Zarco tangled on the run to the old Turn 3 right-hander. Their collision shot Zarco’s bike onto the grass and it torpedoed to the apex, before flying over Rossi and Maverick Vinales.

Morbidelli’s bike also miraculously avoided clipping the rear of Vinales’ Yamaha or hit Rossi, who was following his teammate at T3 and came face-to-face with the Italian’s SRT machine. Yet Rossi continued to race in MotoGP for another 15 months before hanging up his helmet.