He is the F1 race winner who hailed Valentino Rossi as his ‘hero’ but was forced to abandon his MotoGP dreams

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Valentino Rossi has been an inspiration for so many generations of MotoGP fans and is the reason why many still attend races today.

For the majority of the 21st century before his retirement, the Italian rider was box office entertainment, as he racked up seven MotoGP titles.

After he stepped away from the sport, attendance and interest dipped, but his spirit lives on through his VR46 Racing team.

Rossi himself couldn’t have an empty schedule, and now competes on four wheels instead of two, and to the surprise of no one, is very quick there too.

Rossi has turned down a major Ducati proposal that could have seen his team have two factory bikes for 2026, instead of one.

After a tricky season in parts, Rossi has refused to make one rider decision that could backfire as well, with Franco Morbidelli yet to be confirmed with them for 2026.

READ MORE: MotoGP fans are all in agreement about Valentino Rossi’s ‘chilling’ Austrian Grand Prix crash five years on

Lando Norris hailed Valentino Rossi as his ‘hero’ before abandoning MotoGP dreams

While Marc Marquez ‘completely overshadowed’ Rossi’s retirement, his final season was a bit frustrating with the Yamaha SRT team.

Riding around towards the back of the grid wasn’t how his fanbase wanted to remember him, and among those who admired him was current McLaren Formula 1 driver Lando Norris.

The Briton, who is second in the championship currently, has revealed how his love for two wheels came before four wheels.

“You know, I’d love to do motorcycling,” he said, according to the Italian edition of Motorsport.com. “That’s exactly where I started. I did horseback riding, but I hated it. My dad sold the quad bike, saying it had been stolen, because it was too dangerous for me. Then I switched to motocross.

“So I love dirt bikes, motorcycles, motocross, quads, I was into all that before I watched Formula 1, before I watched road racing or anything.

“For me, buggies and desert racing were the best thing in the world. So that’s what I wanted to do first and foremost. Motorcycles were my starting point; my hero was Valentino Rossi.”

READ MORE: Valentino Rossi once crashed out of three straight MotoGP races in the worst run of his career

When Valentino Rossi conducted a Formula 1 test with Ferrari

Just as much as Norris’ love for MotoGP went one way, Rossi’s love for Formula 1 has always gone the other way.

He tested multiple times for Ferrari between 2004 and 2010, insisting that it was something he had done out of enjoyment.

The most serious his exploits ever got was at the 2006 pre-season test alongside Michael Schumacher and Felipe Massa, albeit with different machines.

There’s no direct comparison, but he was strong and might have had the pace to be able to compete in Formula 1.

Sadly, he never felt it was necessary to make the jump to a race seat, which might have broken the motorsport landscape anyway, in all honesty.