10 Portraits of Valentino Rossi's Career Journey in MotoGP, Becoming a 9-Time Champion - Now Decides to Retire

1993 was the first year Rossi entered the MotoGP track riding Paolo Pileri's 125cc motorcycle. And in 1996, Rossi finally made his debut by joining the AGV Aprilia team. 

One year later, precisely in 1997, Rossi moved from AGV Aprilia to Nastro Azzuro Aprilia. And from here, the legend of the owner of number 46 began by becoming the champion at the end of the season.

Moving up to the 250cc class and joining Aprilia RS250 for 2 years, Rossi finally managed to enter the highest class of MotoGP 500cc with Honda Repsol and mentored directly by Mick Doohan.

Successful with Honda, Rossi finally decided to leave. Rumors suggest that Rossi did not like his dominance while with Honda, and he wanted a new challenge.

Joining Yamaha in 2003, Rossi finally created miracles. Yamaha, which was struggling at the time, finally began to return to the path of champions with Rossi.

Proven, Rossi managed to win the MotoGP world championship 5 times with Yamaha. With a total of 9 World Championship titles, namely 1 in the 125cc class, 1 in the 250cc class, 2 times with Honda Repsol in the 500cc class, and the rest with the Yamaha Team.

Since his debut in the MotoGP class, Rossi has been nicknamed The Doctor because of his genius in overtaking opponents in corners.

Not only with Yamaha, Rossi also briefly moved to Ducati. However, he only lasted 2 years and then returned to Yamaha. Unfortunately, his career with Yamaha after Ducati was not as successful as when he first joined.

And in 2021, Valentino Rossi announced that he will retire. Immediately, MotoGP fans feel a great loss with the departure of a racer who is also an entertainer on the track.

Career for 26 years, Rossi has competed in 423 races, won 115 times, reached the podium 235 times, and became world champion 9 times. Good luck, legend.

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