After an enduro crash whilst training, Valentino Rossi’s (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) bid for a tenth title now looks to be in jeopardy – for this season at least. But before the incident, the nine-time World Champion sat down with motogp.com to talk about the challenges of racing at the highest level in 2017 – and whether age is more a number than a headline.
Leading most of the British GP before eventually crossing the line in third shows that Rossi is in no danger of slowing down, and the ‘Doctor’ has some good perspective on age – inside and outside the sport:
"I’m not old, I’m young. I’m old for being here in MotoGP. Or maybe the other ones are too young!"
The fact he’s the oldest rider on 23-deep the grid is a statistic that can’t be changed, but how much does that affect the 38-year-old in real terms? It is, he says, more difficult – but also has some advantages:
VR46: "For sure I’m different than 20 years ago. First of all, my body, because now it’s more difficult, I need to train more. It’s more difficult to recover. And the second thing is also your head, your mind. It’s easier when you are younger. The next generation is always stronger, faster.
"It’s also a great challenge because you can learn a lot. I was learning also from the older riders when I was young and now it’s the opposite. Because before it was more…you had to be clever, you had to be more strategic in a race. Now you have to be just full throttle from the beginning to the end - so physically it’s more demanding."
In the interview – which can be viewed free with a VideoPass trial – the ‘Doctor’ also talks about his teammate Maverick Viñales, the challenge of trying to extract the maximum from the YZR-M1 and the future – with how competitive he is, as ever, the deciding factor when he looks ahead.