Valentino Rossi strikes back at Marc Marquez: “He was trying to make me lose”

As a guest on Fabio Fazio’s show *Che Tempo Che Fa*, Valentino Rossi moved many viewers when he spoke about life as a dad: “Now that I’ve become a dad, my schedule has changed—I go to bed before midnight, and every morning my alarm goes off at 7:46 a.m. My daughter Giulietta isn’t named after the Alfa Romeo, but because a dear couple of friends of ours named their son Romeo, and when Franci and I were discussing names and she mentioned Romeo, I thought Giulietta would be a good match.”

“I play and have fun with my daughters, especially with my oldest, Giulietta, who’s four and a half. I like to take her with me in the car or on my motorcycle. I took her on a motorcycle with me for the first time when she was 18 months old. She likes watching me drive or ride the motorcycle, and I’m happy to do these things with her.”

Valentino Rossi’s mood then shifted completely when Fazio pressed him on his 2015 rivalry with Marc Marquez: “Everyone has their limit—some have a lower one and some a higher one—but unfortunately that whole story is absurd, and it still makes me angry because, in reality, Marquez wasn’t fighting for the championship; it was Lorenzo and I who were fighting for it.”

“Marquez was only fighting to make me lose, and in the end, he succeeded. That’s something I really can’t get over—it still stings even though more than 10 years have passed. The feeling and my state of mind when I think about it are the same as they were on that night in Valencia, and that worries me a little. So many times I look in the mirror and tell myself not to focus on what I’ve lost but on what I’ve won… but that’s just how sports are.”

The Doctor retired on November 14, 2021, at the end of the Valencia Grand Prix, bringing to a close an extraordinary 26-season career that included nine world titles: “Maybe I should have done it a little sooner, but I’ve always loved racing—it’s always given me great pleasure. I’ve talked to other riders—I’ve spoken with Schumacher and Troy Bayliss—and I remember that they’d quit for one reason or another, but I could tell they regretted their decision a little.”