Ferrari ‘eyed Rossi move from MotoGP via Sauber’
Date published:
January 31 2021
Ferrari’s former president, Luca di Montezemolo, has revealed a plan was once hatched to give Valentino Rossi an F1 race seat with Sauber.
And if the MotoGP legend had shone on four wheels, the ultimate aim would have been to put him in the Ferrari!
Rossi’s father, Graziano, himself a three-time 500cc World Championship race winner in 1979, has previously stated that his son had been “very close” to a Formula 1 drive.
The nine-time MotoGP champion has sampled F1 cars several times and there was even a suggestion he would replace Felipe Massa at Ferrari following the Brazilian’s crash in qualifying for the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix, which led to him missing the rest of the year.
Ranking every Ferrari driver from the 21st century
Date published:
January 24 2021
Every Formula 1 driver dreams of one day racing for Ferrari, and nine have had the chance to do since the turn of the century.
With Carlos Sainz set to become number 10, we’ve gone ahead and ranked them all.
9. Luca Badoer
Coming in at last place is Badoer and no offence Luca, but it was not a particularly difficult choice. In his defence, stepping up to replace Felipe Massa in 2009 at such short notice after not driving in an F1 race for a decade was a tall order but given he had been the Ferrari test driver for a good while, more was expected of him.