MAY 25, 2006

No Rossi, no surprise

Valentino Rossi has been pondering a switch to Formula 1 in recent months but despite a handful of tests with Ferrari, it never looked very likely that the motorcycle ace would be able to jump from one World Championship to another and the danger was that the Italian, who has an amazing record of success in bikes, would not be able to match the performance in cars. Rossi had everything stacked against a successful move. He has no experience in car racing and although his natural talent may be extraordinary there is still a clear need for practical experience to get even close to the level at which F1 drivers operate. A season or two of GP2 racing may have solved that problem but it seems that Rossi was not sufficiently excited by the idea to go down that path.