When we talk about legends in motorsport – and some of the most iconic figures in Ferrari’s history – John Surtees is a name that is often mentioned. He remains the only person in history to win an F1 world title – achieved with the Scuderia in 1964 – and an elite-level motorcycling world championship; all told, Surtees won seven big titles on two wheels.
Will anybody ever match such an extraordinary feat again? That remains to be seen, although there are rumors that Valentino Rossi at least had a chance to join Ferrari as an F1 driver in the early 2000s. But how true are they?
The Flying Doctor
Of the current band of leading motorcycle racers in British Superbikes, as one example, none of the favorites to win the title in the BSB odds 2023 – namely Tommy Bridewell (11/4), Josh Brookes (3/1) and Glenn Irwin (10/3) – have experience of competing on four wheels. But then again neither did Rossi, who was so famed for his speed and control in Grand Prix motorcycle races that he earned the nickname ‘The Doctor’. Even so, that didn’t prevent the Italian from being invited to race a few test laps by Ferrari back in 2004 and 2006 – and, by all accounts, Rossi was almost as good in an F1 car as he was on a motorbike.
The Italian did later compete in some endurance races on four wheels – for Ferrari, ironically, in the Gulf 12 Hours race, but that is nothing like the challenges faced in the cockpit of an F1 car. However, reports suggest that Rossi took to the track with aplomb, and after three days of testing, he had recorded a lap just half a second slower than Michael Schumacher – as well as outperforming veterans like David Coulthard and Mark Webber at Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia. Schuey, who lent Rossi one of his spare helmets for the day, described Rossi’s first run-out as ‘very impressive’.
Unfinished Business
So how close was Rossi to joining the Scuderia? That depends on who you listen to, although the consensus was that – at the age of 27 – the Italian still felt that he had business to attend to in MotoGP before switching codes. He would go on to win two more world titles with Yamaha.
It has also been suggested that Ferrari would have handed Rossi a third car to race in on the grid had the rules allowed it – F1 bosses have resisted the urge to expand the number of cars each constructor is allowed to field on a number of occasions.
Nevertheless, Rossi did enjoy two more rounds of testing in a Ferrari car in 2008 and 2010. His time at Barcelona, albeit on GP2 tires, was so fast that he lapped at just 0.1 seconds slower than Kimi Raikkonen’s pole position time in the Spanish Grand Prix of ’08.
A flirtation with rally and endurance racing since his retirement from competitive motorcycle action has kept Rossi behind the wheel, but you wonder if he ever looks back and wonders what might have been. Maybe Ferrari’s loss was MotoGP’s gain…
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