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No F1 for Val..
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At least for a while anyway..
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At least not until Räikkönen has proven to be either a success or a
failure at Ferrari.
Rossi doesn't really have any of the experience that the current
promising F1 drivers do. He hasn't gone through the European minor
series and competed his way to the top. He can probably squeeze his lap
times within a few seconds of the top, like he did in the test runs at
Ferrari, but that gap is just too much for him to be competitive in F1.
Rossi's marketing value could be more useful in the WRC series, which
has radically declined in the last 10-20 years. Nobody has heard of
Sebastien Loeb's victories in the WRC, but what if Rossi was driving a
brand new Citroen?
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A parallel, sorta, here in the US rallye series. Travis Pastrana
is a featured guy on the Subaru website for his drives in a Sub
rallye car, he was 2006 champ. No pics of him doing a double
backflip on his RM250 though. Nobody follows rally here but
Pastrana has a huge following.
Go fast. Take chances.
Mike S.
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There would be a lot of media coverage boasting the superiority of the
car that looks just like the one you can buy from your nearest retailer.
Improved media coverage might also bring the retired factory teams back
to the series.
You don't have much competition in WRC, but you do get to drive F1-ish
cars disguised in more traditional looking chassises. Rossi finished
pretty well in the Rally of New Zealand, considering that he is pretty
much a novice in the sport. Additionally his age isn't a problem in WRC,
where the top drivers tend to be almost 40 years old.
On the other hand, he might just as well retire after winning that one
last championship in this or the next season:
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*Nothing, or no one is as obnoxious as a Gator with BOTH titles*
*T3*
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