Marco Bezzecchi
It has been four years since Valentino Rossi announced his retirement from MotoGP and the Italian rider’s presence is still felt today.
His VR46 team means that part of his spirit lives on. It is led by friend and right-hand man, Uccio Salucci, who is well respected within the paddock.
They’re a satellite Ducati team, so competing for the MotoGP title without having a superstar talent is tough. They’ve flirted with the possibility of signing KTM’s Pedro Acosta.
However, Rossi’s team is a constant reminder of his success and hunger for it at the highest level of motorsport. Even now, at the age of 46, he continues to race on four wheels.
Fabio Di Giannantonio criticised VR46 target Acosta, but it may have been because he sees the young Spaniard as a threat to his own position.
Rossi won’t be happy amid rumours that Dorna potentially want him to replace current rider Franco Morbidelli for 2026.
Valentino Rossi is just like Cristiano Ronaldo and Michael Jordan who ‘know their own thing’
Rossi’s relationship with Jorge Lorenzo was ‘total tension’ and the same could be said of many of his MotoGP rivalries.
It was as if he thrived on the drama side of things, but still always knew how to extract the most performance from his bikes.
It’s this skill of his which Salucci compares to the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Michael Jordan, in an interview with Motosprint.it.
“I hope the kids take it as a reference because there were people like that. If a person becomes a pilot of that level, it means that he is also a great man.
“I don’t know so many athletes of that level that when I met them they are c—-. And thanks to Vale I met many, from Michael Jordan to Ronaldo and Roger Federer to name.
“They are all like Vale from a personal point of view. You see them who know their own thing. They always have a word for everyone, they are smart. They would need more.”
READ MORE: Ducati director highlights the biggest difference between signing Marc Marquez and Valentino Rossi
In how many categories is Valentino Rossi competing in 2025?
Rossi’s talents have spread as far as competing in LMGT3 cars nowadays, and he has enjoyed some solid success, too.
This year, with Team WRT, he’s actually competing in four championships, with the most notable being the World Endurance Championship.
He has taken a victory in the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup, and also managed to finish second in the 6 Hours of Imola.
When he does get some free time, he attends the odd MotoGP race, but the tough nature of his schedule means that attending any race is difficult for him.
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