Valentino Rossi: New revelations about his legal troubles

Valentino Rossi continues to train and compete on four wheels at the age of 47. In an interview with the Tintoria podcast, the nine-time world champion talks about his current life and reveals some behind-the-scenes stories from his past. The owner of the VR46 team competing in the MotoGP class returns to a very delicate topic: his issues with the tax authorities.

The Doctor spends much of his time at his villa in Tavullia, where he has set up a room for training with the simulator. The level of realism is extremely high, and he practices against people from every corner of the world connected online. "I train with the simulator, which is actually a video game but a very high-level one, iRacing," reveals Valentino Rossi. "You play it on PC; the steering wheel is the same as the one in my car, with all the buttons. You can play online but also alone and do testing... There are many levels up to the professional one; sometimes I win, but most of the time I lose."

A form of play and training that becomes essential for the MotoGP Legend, engaged in the GT World Challenge Europe at the wheel of a BMW M4 GT3 EVO for Team WRT. "Car games are beautiful; motorcycle ones are not. There’s the MotoGP game; the 2004 version was very good, I rode the Yamaha. With bikes, the simulator doesn’t exist; you have to play with a controller, and it’s different," the champion from Tavullia emphasizes. "All F1 drivers play; Verstappen is also a big fan of simulators. In his view, training is more important than going on track with karts."

In the conversation, Valentino Rossi also touched on a very delicate topic in his life: the battle with the Italian tax authority at the beginning of the new millennium. The Revenue Agency asked him for an astronomical sum after determining that his London residence was fictitious and that, consequently, he should have paid taxes in Italy. According to the authorities, he had evaded taxes amounting to 60 million euros. Adding fines and interest, the amount he would have had to pay the state treasury was truly substantial.

Moreover, the news of the evasion was a heavy blow to his image, just as he was at the peak of his career. "It was shocking, from the very beginning, for how it happened, from zero to one hundred. I went from being an honest person to a criminal," recounts Valentino Rossi. "I remember the Gazzetta headline that said 'Valentino owes us 100 million.' It was a moment from which I learned a lot, and I’m happy with how I resolved it. I wanted to return to Italy, but I was trapped in a difficult situation. For many, it would have been better if I had stayed in England; it would have been more convenient for them."

In the end, the rider managed to settle for a 35-million-euro penalty, putting an end to the dispute and returning to his Tavullia. "It was difficult to close that situation; it would have been better to do it earlier, but I couldn’t, and it turned into a big mess. But I used this problem to change many things in my organization and to return to Tavullia, which was what I wanted. I came back, I paid, and people forgave me."

It wasn’t all sunshine and roses for the former MotoGP rider. Rossi also had direct run-ins with the authorities when he was very young. "I managed to get two vehicles confiscated in a single day." First it was the scooter’s turn: "They took it because I wasn’t wearing a helmet. I tried to run, they called my house and said: ‘Bring us the scooter on Monday.’ I had a green Zip; they immediately figured out it was me."

The story didn’t end there. That same day, after we went to Rimini to play bocce, it happened again: "We were skipping school when the carabinieri arrived. They chased us, stopped us at a gas station with a small bar, and said: ‘What the hell are you doing?’" The result? "They took both our Ape scooters and left us on foot." The reaction at home was predictable: "When my father found out they had taken both the scooter and the Ape on the same day, he was furious. On top of that, I was left with nothing."