Valentino Rossi gave his fans a very special Christmas present by joining them in a live stream session on the Dainese.com website and answering their questions. It was a friendly, amusing session, which included everything from his racing, his future, his personal life and his religious beliefs. His first wish for 2012 was naturally to have a more competitive Ducati: “It has been a very tough year. We didn’t have much fun either. I hope to be competitive again in MotoGP next year and that the new Desmosedici performs well – he stated – We have been working very hard. There are a lot of ideas we want to try out and we are all very curious to see what actually happens starting with the first test in Sepang at the end of January. We will have a different bike there and we will find out whether we are competitive or not”.

GETTING FIT — Valentino spoke about his fitness programme: “I will be on holiday until January, but I will go to the gym and do a bit of weight training and aerobic activity. Then I shall start running and doing a lot of sport, above all with motorbikes and go-karts and things. It will be a fun way of getting fit”.

SAFETY — The issue of safety was one of the most common questions: “The level of safety has increased massively, both on and off the track. There have been big improvements from crash helmets to other types of protective gear, even airbags, but the main point is that people who ride motorbikes must always be very careful because it is dangerous. The dangers are everywhere and tend to be caused by others”.

LIFE AFTER RACING — Vale does not want to hang up his helmet quite yet: “There’s a while to go before I become a calm 40-year-old. I would like to race cars a bit. I still like to wear a racing suit. I have always loved rally driving ever since I was a child, as my dad Graziano used to take me to watch it all the time, and so I might have a few races there”.

HIS LIMITS — “I think that I have often gone beyond my limits. Sometimes during races it worked out well and on other occasions it didn’t and I fell. You have to be very careful”.

HIS DREAM — Then he spoke about a special wish: “My dream in MotoGP is to win a 10th world title”.

HIS HELMETS — “Of all the helmets I’ve used during my career, the one I like most is the latest one, the one I’m still wearing, or also the one with the face from Mugello in 2008. I will continue using the helmet dedicated to Sic for the winter tests. After that I’ll go back to wearing my usual helmet again and I’ll put something on it to remember him, perhaps a ’58′ somewhere. The idea of the sun and moon came from Aldo Drudi: I started with the sun and then decided to divide it into two parts and then I put the moon too”.

CRT — “We would like to continue racing in MotoGP with today’s bikes, the hitech bikes, but we will have to start racing with less expensive, lower-performance bikes, bikes that are maybe a bit more fun to ride and that could lead to more exciting battles. The hope is that in MotoGP we can start seeing more races like those from a few years ago. I think that the CRT could be the future of motor-bike racing: they are fast and they will get better. At the moment they are not very competitive, but they could be a good idea for the future”.

HIGHS AND LOWS — The worst moment was probably when I broke my leg at Mugello last year. It was definitely the most painful. The best moment was my first win with the Yamaha at Welkom in South Africa (in 2004), but the battle with Stoner at Laguna Seca (in 2008, with his famous overtaking at the Corkscrew) and the battle with Lorenzo in Barcelona (in 2009) were also great moments”.

TT — With regard to the chance of him imitating Agostini, Dunlop and other greats for the past and winning a TT race on the Isle of Man, Vale was rather sceptical: “No, I don’t think I’ll be trying that out. I find it really exciting, but it is too dangerous for me”.

SUPERBIKE — “I don’t think that I’ll have my own team in Superbike. I don’t really like the idea and I could only perhaps change my mind if my brother, who it seems would like to race, joined me. However it would be fun to race for a couple of seasons in Superbike, but let’s see how competitive I can still be in MotoGP. We’ll see in a few years”.