Rossi rosy for F1

'Vale' alias 'Rossifumi' alias 'Valentinik' alias 'The Doctor' alias Valentino the great Rossi - utter any of these at a Formula One paddock, and it would cause more buzz than you can ever hear from a couple of hundred bee-hives. Valentino Rossi is a MotoGP racer unlike any other. Rossi has won the championship a record seven times, and with two different companies, Honda and Yamaha. His dominance in the sport can be compared to that of Schumacher's conquests during the better part of the last decade. And to add icing to the cake, Valentino Rossi is just 26. Enough information to make the mouths of many a team boss water at the prospect of Rossi driving their mean-machines. Will Rossi make the switch?

Valentino Rossi, son of Graziano Rossi was born in Urbino, Italy, and like any true racer, started young. Rossi started to kart at the young age of five, winning his first regional karting championship at 11 years of age. Even before the next season had started, Valentino started off with the minimoto. Had Vale's dad had more money, the world would have never witnessed a wheeling Valentino thunder past the chequered flag a record sixty-eight times to claim seven glorious championships. The 100cc Italian Karting championships followed by the European series and the Formula British championships would have put Rossi on the Formula One track. But that was not to be and Rossi started off with a Cagiva Mito, earning his bread by being a motorbike racer. The rest is history and Rossi went on to become,well, Rossi!

Talking about Rossi's exploits in the world of Moto GP, any article would not be complete without a mention of Rossi's move from Honda to Yamaha. This, I believe, can be compared to Schumacher's move to Ferrari, a team that could not be called anything but an also ran. Moves that were baptism by fire, moves so severely critizied that any one lesser than a Rossi or a Schumacher would have scuttled down under pressure. The tense 2004 season started off with Rossi drawing first blood at Welkom, South Africa and then going on to overpower Biaggi and Gibernau, eventually sealing off their title hopes with a victory at Phillip Island. Valentino would then rub salt to Honda's wounds with a brilliant win at Valencia, making Honda aware of what they had let go.

Having conquered everything in MotoGP, the brilliant racer from Italy may now contemplate a change. The change could come in the form of Ducati. Rossi could switch to the Italian team in the same lines of the Honda-Yamaha switch. Or his switch could be more dramatic, with Rossi entering the pinnacle of motor sport. Formula 1. And who else to enter the magical world of F1 with but Ferrari, a team that shares its genesis with Formula One itself?

Rossi has now tested with the Scuderia outfit, and each time the tests are complete, Vale leaves Maranello with a trail of reporters, journalist and glazed engineers wondering about the talent that is Rossi. Rossi has done the impossible already, clocking 57.5 at the Fiorano circuit, within a second of German great Schumacher's all time record. But a spate of incidents, triggered by Ross Brawn's comment that Rossi could be testing for Ferrari almost twelve times next year has triggered the alarm bells, both at Yamaha as well as in Rossi's mind. Rossi has now said that F1 is out of the proposition for 2007, a year when many think Rossi would race alongside Raikkonen, the budding Finnish talent.

Rossi, if he successfully makes the transition from two to four wheels and goes on to win the championship would be only the second person to do so. John Sutrees, the legendary British racer is by far the only person to have conquered this monumental feat. Sutrees won the 500cc
motorbike World Championships in 1956,1958,1959 and 1960. He then switched devotions to Formula One, racing first at the Monaco GP of 1960 in a Lotus. He then moved to the Maranello based Scuderia outfit, winning his first F1 championship with 'Team Ferrari'. Needless to say, he is an International Motorsport Hall of famer.

Now Rossi has his options. He could either continue to race with Yamaha or Ducati or Honda - and be known as a biker extrodinaire. But a switch to four wheels would make him legendary. And what if Rossi wins more than one championship? Rossi would be called GOD and nothing else. And given Rossi's temperament, his fights with Roman Max Biaggi, so intense at a point that Rossi's website printed "XXX XXXXXX" instead of "Max Biaggi", F1 would be a lot more interesting that it has been in a decade. And personally, I wouldn't mind Rossi spitting at any of the team bosses because they ordered him to let the other drivers pass!

So would Rossi race in a Formula 1 car? Well, I think, Yes. Rossi will race in Formula 1. Maybe for Ferrari, but also, maybe for Red Bull. After all "Red Bull" is "Toro Rosso" in Italian, and Italy is the Austrian drink giant's biggest market. All they would have to change is the one letter in "Rossi" before they can market their products with caricatures of Rossi embozzed all over their blue and silver cans. Maybe Red Bull would make the sixty million dollars that Schumacher gets at Ferrari sound like peanuts. After all, money is everything in Formula 1. And money combined with challenge is the best mix to lure Rossi.

And then there is another factor. To be honest, I find MotoGP a lot more exciting, with more characters in the pitlane at one time than Formula 1 has seen in decades. And the racing is a lot better, there is more over taking, and there are accidents, sometimes spectacular accidents. MotoGP, for all you know, is more worth for your money than is Formula 1, the cavalcade of hyped-up cars with even more hyped-up drivers like Button. Drivers like Button who have achieved nothing, but being haggled over and paid a fortune. So, what makes Formula 1 more popular? Why does Formula One have more viewership and more money than does MotoGP? Well, the answer is simple - "Bernie". And I would be surprised if Bernie does not play a role in bringing Rossi to F1.




So would Rossi bolt on a couple of extra wheels and race for Ferrari? Time and Bernie will tell...