Autobiography of Valentino Rossi

Autobiography of Valentino Rossi

A book that will not give us a complete picture of the athlete's great moments

Valentino Rossi is one of the greatest racers in motorsports. The Italian, known by his nickname "The Doctor" is a 7-time world champion in Moto GP. In his career in the premier class he has 372 starts, 199 podiums and 89 wins. Rossi gave up the hard races in Moto GP until 2021, making his career extremely long. Even before her peak, the first autobiography about him was published. In 2005, a book appeared on the market entitled "What if I had never tried? Autobiography of Valentino Rossi.", or in English "What if I never tried it. Valentino Rossi. The Autobiography.”

Since the publication of this work, many things in Rossi's life have changed. Not the least of which is that he won three more world titles. The lack of some of his successes, as well as his future tribulations and good times, definitely shows through at times.

It's an autobiography that differs from typical sports books about the life of an athlete. It is different from any book written by someone who spends a period of time listening to the stories of the successful athlete to describe them. "What if I had never tried?" was written by Rossi himself, but with the help of Enrigo Borghi, who is a very famous journalist profiled in the Moto GP articles for the Italian magazine Motosprint.

The autobiography starts very well and takes us directly to the battle between Rossi and Max Biaggi during the 2001 Australian Grand Prix. The Doctor's description of this kind of duel is extremely accurate, so perfect that you can easily feel everything that happens in these key moments. It allows you to dive into the mind of the extremely talented pilot and feel the adrenaline.

The promising beginning, however, subsequently leads to quite a few disappointments on the pages, because the expectations are extremely high. The sixteen chapters don't have their own titles and don't have a specific idea of where to stop, they don't meaningfully separate given parts of Valentino's life or career. They simply allow you to stop to do something else or continue with your usual activities. It seems as if each chapter jumps around the scene and skips over facts that prevent us from forming a complete picture of what is happening. This may be how the events unfold in Rossi's head and that is the desired effect, but it would not work for every reader.

In the book, you will not find out what influenced the pilot, what helped him win so many races and titles of the motorcycle world championship. In it, it is not clear what made him break his contract with Honda and switch to Yamaha in 2004. You don't get to read the personal stories you expect to see in a book like this, including the relationship with his father.

Despite the emotional start, the following pages will not allow you to experience the victories together with one of your favorites, because if you are reading this book, then the Doctor cannot help but be among your favorites. She will rather distance you, talk only about what you have had the opportunity to see from the races themselves with slight additions. He will tell you about his successes as a teenager, the days that guided him to his future sports career.

One of the interesting stories in the autobiography relates to Rossi's participation in the 8-hour endurance race at the Suzuka circuit, where the Italian teamed up with Colin Edwards. Despite the good progress of the competition, the Doctor shows his hatred for this type of competition and instead of being proud of his success, he accepts it as a mandatory part of a signed contract.

Some passages, even whole chapters, have been very lightly edited by Borghi. Rossi's language is raw, unpolished, rough, which suggests enough about his character. Perhaps the fact that the pilot himself writes the stories is the reason why there are not some such fantastic moments as his most loyal fans would like to read. It could even be that Valentino is a boring, ordinary, normal person off the track and the celebrations after a given success are an attempt to trick the millions of viewers.

It would be nice to have an autobiography come out in time to describe his entire career, to introduce us to more spicy moments of his life, to tell us about more interesting experiences off the track. It will be wonderful if we learn more about him and not just reminisce about great victories, hard races and keep reading about how great he is. We want to understand what provokes this greatness. We want to know where his talent is projected from.