Kevin Schwantz announces Rossi's possible departure at the end of the year...

500cc world champion Kevin Schwantz has announced that Valentino Rossi could retire at the end of the season if Maverick Vinales “kicked ass” during each weekend.

To support his assertion, the American driver of course based himself on the winter tests and on certain past statements from the Doctor, such as the one mentioning a possible participation in the Dakar or the 24 Hours of Le Mans, to which he added his own convictions for the express on Motorsport.com.

Kevin Schwantz: « Rossi says he wants to drive at Le Mans [24 hours], and do all the other things he hasn't been able to do yet. It's like he's preparing himself for this. Do I think he'll retire at the end of the year if Maverick kicks his ass every weekend? He could do it. He has other things to keep him busy, like his Moto3 team and his Ranch. So he could walk away from this sport quite easily. I would like to see him do another year or two, but it's hard to sleep at night in these circumstances, thinking that his teammate is putting two or three tenths on him every lap. This makes the weekends long to get through and, with the competitive spirit that Valentino possesses, he wants to be in the mix every weekend. If he's not there regularly during the first half of the season, I think we could see him change careers."

Remember that Rossi signed a MotoGP driver contract with Yamaha until the end of 2018, and that Kevin Schwantz also predicted the non-return of Casey Stoner during his lactose allergy.
We know the rest…

Of course, nothing is absolutely impossible, but isn't it a little early to put forward such a hypothesis, even before the first race of the season? Time will tell…