Do we like Valentino Rossi?
Our score: 7 out of 10. Nothing harmful turned up in his words or acts, but a tax settlement, a Saudi sponsorship stoush and an ugly feud keep him off the top shelf.
Rossi is a nine-time world champion who now runs a MotoGP team and races cars. His 2026 plan is a return to GT World Challenge Europe with the Belgian WRT team and BMW, after leaving the endurance championship. He says the choice was his, and that he signed a three-year BMW renewal.
The big off-track stoush was tax. Italian authorities alleged about 60 million euros in undeclared revenue, tied to his move to Britain, and he ended up settling. Reports in 2008 had a deal in the offing, and he told a podcast this April that the settlement was 35 million euros and let him return to Tavullia.
His own telling is pretty human: he says he went from honest person to criminal in the public eye, then paid up and was forgiven by fans. Settling is not a conviction, and no court judgment against him turned up. It is still a real stain for a bloke who was a national hero.
On the track, the Sepang clash with Marc Marquez in 2015 is the one that sticks. Race Direction penalised him, he took it to the Court of Arbitration for Sport and lost. Separately, a fan at Cheste complained that he kicked her in 2016. A Spanish court provisionally closed that case because the complaint did not spell out what happened.
On the harm test, we found no comments from him against LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or the climate. He was a FIM environmental ambassador back in 2013. The ugly bit is the 2021 Saudi sponsorship row, when he ducked questions about an Aramco deal and said he was the boss who did not deal with sponsors. The deal never went ahead.
The good stuff is modest but real. First-set Soleluna Vale46 leathers worn by Rossi and an AGV helmet raised 38,200 euros for UNICEF Italy's road safety programme in December 2025. He also keeps showing up for his Academy riders. Beyond that, the record on charity is thin, and that is honestly the lot.