2007 motogp class

The 2007 MotoGP season was significant as it marked the introduction of the 800cc motorbikes. Previously in 2006 riders and teams were using 990cc bikes and many experts predicted that these smaller 800cc bikes would favour riders like Dani Pedrosa racing for Honda. The reality was very different and it was Ducati, with their new signing Casey Stoner that dominated the season from pretty much start to finish, eventually seeing Casey Stoner take the world championship. Ducati’s dominance was so total at the beginnning of the season it took months for the other teams to fully catch up and match their pace.

Valentino Rossi had another frustrating season, but managed to have some nail-biting battles with Stoner and Pedrosa and ended up finishing the season in 3rd place.

Valentino Rossi knows how to get a message across. In his Jerez testing sessions whilst preparing for the 2007 season (after he lost his world championship to Nicky Hayden), Rossi came out on track with a sword graphic embedded into his helmet and one that plunged into the front of his Yamaha. The sword was a reference to Excalibur, a sword that legend states was encased in stone, and could only be removed by the true king (Arthur, in the tale). It is said that Rossi was stating that he would come fighting strong for the 2007 season and that the true king will return to his throne; an imposter (Nicky Hayden) stands in his place.

Rossi said about the sword designs: “They’re a reference to the legend of King Arthur and “Excalibur! I want to show everyone that we’re ready to fight back and that we’re ready to do our very best throughout these winter tests. This is an important test, we could only do a few laps this morning before it rained, but hopefully we’ll get better weather on Wednesday and Thursday so we can get some important work done,”



One of Valentino Rossi’s most used helmet designs during the 2006 and 2007 seasons of MotoGP was the Aldo Drudi designed AGV Gothic helmet. The Gothic design is a simple, bold, and striking paint job that heavily features Rossi’s two most popular recurring themes - the Sun, and the Moon.

The Gothic design been used previously and had been seen in different colour schemes in 2006 (see Gothic Black, and Gothic White), but it was the Gothic Yellow that was was seen the most in 2007. The Gothic Yellow featured a yellow sun on a black background on the right hand side of the helmet, and a black crescent moon on a yellow background on the left hand side of the helmet. Like previous Gothic designs used, the rear of the helmet featured ‘VR’ – Rossi’s initials in an embossed looking, gold lettering.

Rossi opened his 2007 MotoGP campaign wearing the yellow Gothic helmet design, and continued racing in it for most races throughout the season…except for the last few where he switched to the more detailed Dreamtime design.

Some of Rossi’s more superstitious fans have suggested that the Gothic design represents bad luck for Rossi due to the helmet’s coincidence with Nicky Hayden’s championship win in 2006, and Casey Stoner’s in 2007.




Location: Grand Prix of Holland – A-Style Dutch TT, Assen

Date: Sunday, June 30th, 2007

Race position: 1st

Rossi claimed his third win of the MotoGP season at Assen in 2007 after starting 11th on the grid. Rossi soon cut through the field battling with Hopkins, Perdosa, and Hayden on the way before closing down Casey Stoner (who took a seemingly unassilable lead from the start). Rossi was consistently putting in fastest lap after fastest lap and closed down Stoner with 3 laps to go, and outbraked him on the chicane to storm off and take the victory and his 61st career win.

The livery and helmet designs that Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards wore at the Assen MotoGP in 2007 was inspired by Fiat’s famous ‘500′ and celebrated the forthcoming re-launch of the iconic car on 4th July (a few days after the Assen MotoGP), exactly 50 years after it was first launched in 1957. Aldo Drudi stepped in to design the helmets, which were the final part of the whole design that was unveiled on race day (during qualifying and practice sessions only the bike design was made visible). The design of Rossi’s helmet was a tribute to the art and the icons of he time – namely Elvis Presely and Rits Pavone. Rossi’s helmet and Aldo Drudi made sure to paint a vinyl record on the top of Rossi’s helmet, and a graphic on the back that pictured Valentino with a guitar and a 1950′s haircut and had text that read: “Valentino and the Chihuahua’s, Live at Assen” (see the image gallery for a close up shot of this). The bike designed also included the Italian national colours across the front of Rossi’s Yamaha M1.

Valentino Rossi on the Assen Livery:

“I really like my new livery, it’s fun and different and the colours especially are something you don’t usually see on the racetrack! The Fiat 500 is a famous Italian icon so it’s good to be able to celebrate the new version of the car in this way.”

Colin Edwards on the Assen Livery:

“The livery’s pretty cool, it’s fun to have something different and I’ve had some good comments from the rest of the riders. I’m not sure I could handle the pink every week but as a one-off special it’s great!”



Location: Grand Prix of Italy (Gran Premio d’Italia Alice ), Mugello

Date: Sunday, June 3, 2007

Race position: 1st



Valentino Rossi racing at Mugello is always a special occasion, one that is usually marked by a special helmet design, and the 2007 MotoGP round was no different. Designed by Aldo Drudi, this simple AGV helmet design featured a big red heart positioned in top centre of the helmet, so when Rossi’s head was down, the crowd would have the heart design facing them. This heart was significant on a number of levels – Rossi had been getting a hard time from the Italian press after losing his title to Nicky Hayden in 2006, and was also being criticised for not winning enough races in 2007 to mount a serious challenge and the heart was intended as a thank-you gesture to his passionate fans for not doubting him, and as a riposte to the journalists in the press who had questioned whether his heart was still in the competition and the sport (there had been press speculation that Rossi still wanted a move to F1) .

Rossi had a suspect start to the race and initially dropped to 8th place, before beginning one of his trademark fightbacks that saw him take first position and become the first rider to take 6 consecutive wins at his home grand prix. The race was significant at the time as it saw Rossi close the points gap to Casey Stoner, who was seemingly dominant in almost every race he started in.

During the presentations at the end of the race, Rossi threw this specially designed one off Mugello race helmet into the Italian crowd from the top step of the podium in acknowledgement of the tremendous support he receives at his home race.

Originally, only 3 examples of this helmet were made, and shortly after the race one of the AGV Mugello Heart helmets was put up for auction by Dainese to raise money for the non-profit “Un sogno per il Gaslini Onlus” association (“A dream for Gaslini Children’s Hospital”). Valentino Rossi presented the helmet to the winning bidder in person, which saw the helmet go for almost 13,500 euros.



Valentino Rossi first started using the AGV GP-Tech Dreamtime helmet during the Winter Test session in Australia in 2007, but it was also used in his 2008 MotoGP campaign, although nowhere near as much as the AGV GP-Tech 5 Continents design.

The helmet design takes its inspiration from ancient Aboriginal art, and it takes the best features rom the previous race helmets (Ti-Tech, GP-Pro) and from the AGV racetrack experience and matches lightness, ventilation and comfort with an extremely innovative and aggressive design.

The Dreamtime is the Aboriginal understanding of the world, of it’s creation, and it’s great stories. According to their belief it is the beginning of knowledge, from which came the laws of existence. All forms of life – Human, Animal, Bird and Fish are part of one vast unchanging network of relationships which can be traced to the great spirit ancestors of the Dreamtime. The term ‘Dreamtime’ also ‘Dream Time’ is described as the ‘time before time’ or ‘time of creation’ according to the Indigenous Australia Aboriginal people. It is a mythological period of time during which the natural world and universe was shaped by the action of mythical beings. Some of the beings took the form of ‘totemic’ animals or human forms, changing and forming the world around us. It is these mythic beings that are credited with having established social order and its ‘laws’. These ancestral beings often lacked strict morals, having all the habits that are good and bad in humans.

The helmet design is split into two distinct halves, with one side depicting the sun and the other side depicting the moon (permanent themes on Rossi’s helmet designs), with both consistently designed in the style of traditional aboriginal art. The centre of the helmet features a trail of bare footprints that travel from the back to the front. The number 46 features at the front under the visor and the back of the helmet features a picture of a turtle, also designed in the style of Aboriginal Dreamtime art. See the galley for more images.