The legend of MotoGP, Valentino Rossi, celebrates his 39th birthday right on this day, Friday (16/2/2018). His birthday also coincides with the first day of Thailand 2018 MotoGP preseason test taking place at Chang's International Circuit, Buriram.
Exploring the rider career called by “THE DOCTOR”, Rossi began to jump into motor racing events grand prix world since 17 age years old. At 18 age years old, VR46 won his first title in 125 cc class in 1997. The next two years, his achievements straight up by winning the 250cc class in 1999.
Upgraded to 500 cc in 2000. Rossi's brilliant success earned runner-up with repsol Honda team. In The next year, The Doctor straight world champion, who was still only 22 years old. In 2004, Rossi then switch factory and move to Yamaha. His career was directly uphill that managed to show consistency with five consecutive titles since 2001-2005. Until finally in 2006, successive titles broken by Nicky Hayden in 2006. So even in 2007, where Rossi again failed to win the title after losing to compete with Casey Stoner from Ducati. But eventually Rossi and Yamaha returned to the top position in 2008 and 2009. But a broken leg that happened in 2010, making his position decline. Including 2011 and 2012 which is the worst achievement of VR46 in MotoGP who was then defending Ducati.
In 2013, Rossi returned with Yamaha. In 2014, 2015, and 2016 respectively must be satisfied ending the race in runner-up position. But in 2017, Rossi had to accept his misfortune when the chassis problem arose and had to suffer a broken leg injury. He had to settle for finishing in fifth position, where it was his worst position as a Yamaha rider.
Entering the 2018 season, Rossi is rumored with various issues if he will stop his pace as a MotoGP rider in 2019. Different with his partner Maverick Vinales who signed a new contract, Rossi still has not made a decision. "I say that I want to wait until after all the tests because first I want to understand if I am competitive and if the bike is competitive. So if I have enough strength to do the test, I will re-sign, "said Rossi, at the Sepang test last month, Friday (16/2/2018).
"I have the motivation, I want to try to continue. Experience (with age) is important to know physically. You pay something (often age), but the physical condition is not the most important thing, "