These pics show champion rider and one of Italy’s greatest sports stars, Valentino Rossi, on board Ducati as he tests the bike before moving from Yamaha to the Italian MotoGP team next year.
The bike isn’t its usual red as Valentino is still contracted to Yamaha so we haven’t seen any new livery yet, but it’s only the beginning of what will be a massive marketing machine in Italy next year and the crowning of a dream held by so many Italian sports fans.
Strange, really, because they got an Italian-on-a-bike win this year when Max Biaggi took out the SBK title with Aprilia.
But as if to confirm that Biaggi would always play second fiddle to Rossi, the hype surrounding the latter has no precedent.
More than one website has crashed today under the weight of Rossi–Ducati fever and we’re only in the testing stage at the moment.
You can imagine what will happen when the number 46 actually gets on a red bike….
As an aside, but given we often talk about Italian fashion and designers on Blogdolcevita, we’re wondering if the 46 will still be in yellow when Rossi officially moves to Ducati.
It’s a question that many colour-conscious people are asking as yellow is so going to clash with ‘rosso’ (these pics show Rossi riding in black for contractual reasons as noted before).
Valentino Rossi tests Ducati