Valentino Rossi 46

Valentino Rossi (born February 16, 1979) is an Italian former professional motorcycle road racer and nine-time Grand Prix motorcycle racing world champion. Nicknamed The Doctor for his dedication to his craft, he is widely considered to be one of the greatest motorcycle racers of all time. He has nine Grand Prix World Championships to his name: seven in the premier 500cc/MotoGP class. He holds the record for most premier class victories with 89 victories; this includes both Honda and Yamaha racing teams during his career. He was also the only rider to compete in 400 or more Grands Prix during his career; he rode under number 46 throughout his entire career.

After graduating to the premier class in 2000, Rossi won the final 500cc World Championship (becoming the last satellite rider to win the top-class title to date) and the 8 Hours of Suzuka with Honda in 2001. He also won the MotoGP World Championships with the factory Honda Team in 2002 and 2003 and continued his run of back-to-back championships by winning the 2004 and 2005 titles after leaving Honda to join Yamaha. He lost his 2006 title after a crash in Valencia. In 2007, Rossi eventually finished third overall before regaining his title in 2008 and retaining it in 2009. After a 2010 season marred by a broken leg and no title defense, he left Yamaha to join Ducati replacing Casey Stoner for the 2011 and 2012 seasons; these two were two losing seasons with Ducati as well.

In 2013, Valentino Rossi returned to Yamaha and finished fourth in the standings. He then won three successive runner-up positions from 2014 to 2016. His best chance at winning a tenth title came in 2015, when he led the championship for most of the season, losing out five points behind teammate Jorge Lorenzo who won his first championship. 2017 was Rossi's final season with over 200 points in the championship and he took his final win at the Dutch TT at age 38. After three winless seasons with the factory Yamaha team, he moved to Petronas SRT for 2021, retiring after only one season with the satellite Yamaha team and failing to achieve a podium for the first time in a career spanning 26 seasons in Grands Prix. The dominant force in MotoGP in the 2000s all of Rossi's seven premier class titles came during this decade including 77 race wins and 48 pole positions. In the ensuing 12 seasons, he managed 12 race wins and seven pole positions. During this period, Rossi was the 6th most successful rider in terms of total race victories.

Rossi was inducted into the MotoGP Hall of Fame as an official Legend by the FIM at the awards ceremony after the conclusion of the 2021 season. His legendary #46 bike number was retired at the 2022 Italian Grand Prix. Rossi owns the Racing Team VR46, which competes in both Moto2 and MotoGP as of 2022. He also plans to be involved in and administer his motorcycle racing team VR46. In addition to his team management role, Rossi competes full-time in GT World Challenge Europe, driving an Audi R8 LMS for Team WRT.