Valentino Rossi is best known as one of MotoGP’s biggest legends, but he also had a stint as a test driver for Ferrari’s Formula 1 team.
Rossi is the most successful motorcycle racer of the modern era with seven premier-class world championships and 89 wins. Impressively, his role at Ferrari coincided with his 2004 and 2005 titles.
‘The Doctor’ faced one of the most formidable benchmarks possible in Michael Schumacher. Schumacher’s run of five straight titles with Ferrari between 2000 and ’04 remains the longest in F1 history.
Rossi primarily tested in private at Ferrari’s Fiorano circuit, but he was involved in an official F1 session in Valencia in 2006.
Valentino Rossi was just seven-tenths slower than Michael Schumacher
Rossi was one of the only drivers in the field to use a V10 engine, but the RPM was limited to align his F2004 with the V8s used by his competitors.
He set a lap time of a 1:12.315 on his final day of running at the Ricardo Tormo circuit, which is a staple of the MotoGP calendar.
Rossi placed 12th out of 16 runners, beating the McLaren duo of Pedro de la Rosa and Juan Pablo Montoya, as well as Toyota’s Jarno Trulli and BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica.
He was just seven-tenths slower than the best time set by Schumacher, who was already a seven-time world champion at this stage. Felipe Massa was the quickest Ferrari, a further four-tenths up the time sheets.
What happened after Valentino Rossi’s rapid Valencia test?
Schumacher retired at the end of 2006, but Rossi did not compete for the seat. He felt his journey in MotoGP was not yet finished.
The Italian had further outings in the Ferrari in 2008 and 2010, where his lap times were also impressive. That was his last dalliance with F1 until 2019, when he swapped seats with fellow Monster athlete Lewis Hamilton.
Rossi drove Hamilton’s Mercedes F1 car, while Hamilton climbed on board the Yamaha MotoGP bike.
The former continued to compete in MotoGP until the end of 2021 and then turned to four-wheel racing, albeit in sportscars rather than F1.
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