Valentino might not be quite the box-office draw he was back in his pomp, but he’s still the most showbiz of all the big cheeses in MotoGP. And a big part is his long-running helmet paint job saga. Where guys like Mick Doohan or Freddie Spencer stuck to one basic design through their career, Rossi has had dozens of variations on a theme – fluorescent yellow, his number 46, and Aldo Drudi’s madcap genius. He’s turned up for winter testing at Sepang with a Christmas jumper theme to his lid: cable knit reindeers, xmas trees and snowdrops. Not that there’ll be much snow in 30-degree Celsius Malaysia…
Rossi winter test lid, Sepang 2015
Here’s a selection of his other wild lids from years gone by.
Golden chicken Rossi lid
Rossi boxer lid
Rossi always has a fresh design for his home race at Mugello. This was the 2006 design
AGV Pista – classy and understated in carbon