Driving a Formula 1 car and becoming a Formula 1 driver needs two things Money and Talent. If a person has these two in common then they can easily become a F1 driver. But do you know a there was a time when a top talent who was a multiple-time world champion in MotoGP was identified by a Formula 1 team and was given a chance to become a Formula 1 driver for them alongside another Multiple world champion?
Valentino Rossi was one of the rare talents who was seen as a potential driver in Formula 1 by the oldest Formula 1 team Ferrari. Rossi was an Italian and his driving for an Italian racing team would have been a match made in heaven. He was given a seat to become a teammate alongside another champion Michael Schumacher.
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Rossi driving for Ferrari with Schumi
In 2004 Rossi was enjoying his fourth MotoGP world title and that time an unexpected thing happened in his life. He was called by Stefano Domenicali the Formula One Ferrari team principal to have a test drive of their Ferrari F2004 car.
🎙️ “At a certain point, I was close!” 👀
— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) April 29, 2022
MotorGP legend Valentino Rossi reveals how he became very close to racing in Formula One in this exclusive sit down interview with Lewis Hamilton 🏎️ 🤝 🏍️ pic.twitter.com/ijYgXqjLpb
The MotoGP Legend impressed everyone with his pace even the Formula 1 world champion Michael Schumacher was also very impressed seeing Rossi in the Formula 1 car. He is only half a second behind the German driver.
It was the right moment for him to switch from MotoGP to a Formula 1 career. Rossi himself told about the incident, he said “It was true in the sense that, in 2004 when I won with Yamaha, Stefano Domenicali called me and he said ‘I have to let you test the car’ and we went to Fiorano to test the car. I was pretty fast and I lapped under the minute- 59’1.”
In the 2004 Ferrari gave MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi a F1 test at Fiorano that made them realize that biking’s biggest star had the potential to be an icon in the world of Formula One!
— 🇯🇲1ntern🇯🇲 (@Unpaid1ntern) July 12, 2024
Here’s the story of Valentino Rossi’s near career switch to Formula One! pic.twitter.com/jFbzQnNmx2
Nobody believed Rossi could pull off that kind of speed against Multiple world champion Schumacher and he was really fast. The Ferrari Mechanics even had bet with each other about whether Rossi would complete below or above one minute time.
The MotoGP champion completed below one minute which left them in awe. After that Rossi went to Mugello for a real test and then to Valencia. He was offered a seat in the Ferrari team not in the A team but in the B team Minardi. Ferrari thought he could soon make some progress and move to Ferrari from Minardi which is now become the VCARB racing team.
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The decision was in Rossi’s hands as Ferrari was willing to throw everything to get him. But For Rossi Motorbike was the best in the world and apart from that he couldn't think of anything else at that time. He rejected the Ferrari offer and the world failed to witness one of the greatest ever moves in Motorsport history.
7x Formula 1 WDC Lewis Hamilton ve MotoGP efsanesi Valentino Rossi.
— Buğra⁴⁴ #F1 (@larbaleister) July 17, 2023
Mercedes-AMG W08 EQ Performance ve Yamaha YZR-M1 koltuklarını Valencia’da yapılan sponsor “Monster Energy” etkinliğinde takas etmişlerdi.
Valencia, Aralık 2019. 🇬🇧🇮🇹 pic.twitter.com/ySVbUW6i5O
But Valentino Rossi always had some touch with Formula 1 as he often visited races and even tested some cars. In 2017 Rossi swapped his bike with the then world champion Lewis Hamilton in Valencia and took the Mercedes F1 car around the track for a spin. He now does car racing and driving at the 12-hour championship for the BMW WRT team after retirement from MotoGP.
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