I wish I could take credit for having such a deep understanding of Italian culture that the meaning behind Rossi’s Mugello helmet was self-evident, but the credit belongs to Ducati Corse’s PR man, Chris Jonnum. After seeing Alex Brigg’s tweet that featured Rossi’s new helmet design, CJ was kind enough to connect the dots for us on the meaning behind the special Mugello helmet. And let me tell you, as non-Italian, the trail would not have been easy to follow without his help. Get the inside scoop on Rossi’s lid after the jump.

Featured on the top of the helmet is Italian singer, actor, and television host Gianni Morandi. Morandi is something of big deal in the country shaped like a boot, having sold 49 million records worldwide and generally putting light Italian music on the map, so to speak. Circumscribing the photo of Morandi is a ring of flowers, which hail from the city of Sanremo, which CJ tells us is also known as the City of Flowers, since it has been in the business of selling flower year-round since the late 9th century.

Known for the Sanremo Festival, the city hosts one of Italy’s major musical events, and is unsurprisingly characterized by the flowers, which as we have said, the city is also famous for growing. During the 2012 Sanremo Festival, Gianni Morandi was ordering around his work crew and serendipitously coined the now famous motto “restiamo uniti” (also seen on the helmet), which literally translates into “let’s stick together” in Italian. While this is where CJ leaves us to conclude the meaning of the helmet as it relates to Valentino Rossi, we think it speaks pretty loudly for itself.

With Rossi talking very favorably this week about his meeting with Audi’s executives, it seems increasingly likely that the nine-time World Champion will stay on with Ducati Corse for at least another season, despite all the trouble he and his team have had with the GP11 & GP12 race bikes. The bigger question now is whom will be his teammate, Cal or Nicky. For that, only time will tell.

Location: Mugello, Italy

Date: Saturday/Sunday June 05/06, 2010

Race position: DNF

Valentino Rossi unveiled his latest helmet design at Mugello on Saturday the 5th June. Unfortunately fans were unable to enjoy the design as Rossi was violently flung off his bike in the MotoGP morning warm-up and broke his leg. Cold tyres were blamed for the crash and Valentino Rossi was forced to miss the next four races, effectively ending any hopes Rossi had of challenging a dominant Jorge Lorenzo for the Championship.

The Jolly Joker Helmet:
The helmet is another Aldo Drudi design and features Rossi’s face as the Joker in the center of a playing card. Rossi is also seen to be wearing a jesters hat with the Yamaha logo positioned at front and center. The sun and moon feature on the sides of the design and Rossi’s bulldogs once again can be seen at the back.

Due to the crash, Rossi did not get the chance offer any full explanations as to the reason behind the design.

Valentino Rossi is famously superstitious, so it is fair to assume that fans won’t be seeing Rossi racing in this helmet design in the future – and it is certain that AGV won’t be producing any replicas.

Location: Mugello, Italy

Date: Sunday May 31, 2009

Race position: 3rd

AGV Rossi Mugello (‘Hands’) Helmet 2009

After finishing in last place in the previous race (Le Mans), Rossi came to Mugello under a great deal of pressure - his home crowd wanted to see him take his 8th consecutive win at Mugello, but Rossi also had to contend with Jorge Lorenzo being in an astonishing run of form, as well as a resurgent Casey Stoner. This would arguably be Rossi’s toughest challenge in quite a while.

The Helmet:

As is tradition, Rossi revealed a new helmet design for the Mugello race. Designed by Aldo Drudi, it featured Rossi’s gloved hands painted on either side of the helmet giving the impression that Rossi was holding his head in his hands. The helmet had a dark blue backgrouund, and the rear of the helmet had a cartoon of Rossi’s two Bulldogs, called Cesare and Cecilia, who also had their paws covering their heads. The design was finished off with a yellow number ‘46′ at the top and rear of the helmet, and the colours of the Italian flag at the base.

Rossi said he had the design created to signify the unique pressure and stress of the Mugello round – the track is a tough physical test for the riders with lots of fast turns, and Rossi has the added expectation of a huge home crowd all there expecting to see him win and maintain his unbeaten record.

The race began on a wet track and it was Casey Stoner and Chris Vermeulen that took the early lead. Fot the first few laps Rossi was content to sit back and watch Stoner, Vermeulen, Dovizioso trade position at the front. Rossi took the lead on lap 9, but then came in to change tyres to slicks on lap 10 as the track had sufficiently dried. Rossi came back out on a hard compound tyre that took a number of laps to get up to temperature which cost him dearly. Lorenzo made a stunning surge back up to take second place, whilst Casey Stoner comfortably led the race. Rossi had to battle hard and managed to take 3rd place.

Valentino Rossi:

“Of course I am disappointed not to win again in Mugello but seven times in a row is not so bad and the important thing is that I made it onto the podium. It’s a very special moment in Mugello, with all the fans below, and I would have been very sad to have missed that!

It was a very hard race today and once again the weather was a problem for us, we’re very unlucky in these half-and-half races and I think this is my first podium in one.

In the wet we were very fast because we had found a great setting, but then when we changed bikes we made a mistake and chose a front tyre that was too hard, so it took me a long time to be able to put enough temperature on it and I lost a lot of time. At the end I was able to ride better and I knew that I had to make it onto the podium, so I am happy for this. Of course after Le Mans this is a big improvement and these points are important because it’s very close between the three of us.”  

Location: Mugello, Italy

Date: Sunday May 31, 2008

Race position: 1st

AGV GP-Tech Rossi Double Take helmet (My Face) Mugello 2008

This is the now infamous helmet that Valentino Rossi wore for the Mugello round of the 2008 MotoGP season. Until Misano became a MotoGP circuit in 2007, Mugello was the ‘home race’ for Valentino Rossi and it always attracts thousands of rabid MotoGP fans and pulses with an electric atmosphere. Every year Rossi has a special helmet designed for the Mugello race (past helmets have included the ‘heart’ design in 2007, and the ‘homage’ design in 2006), but for 2008 he pulled out all the stops and wore arguably his most famous Aldo Drudi designed helmet to date – the AGV GP-Tech ‘Double Take’ or ‘My Face’ helmet.

Rossi´s Aldo Drudi-designed AGV helmet features a picture of his own face, displaying a highly excited or shocked expression, which Rossi believes will give fans a sense of how it feels to ride the Yamaha M1 around the undulating Mugello circuit at speeds in excess of 320 kh/h. Rossi’s face is on the top, so when he puts his head down, the face comes into full view. Rossi said: “It’s not a drawing, it’s a real picture of my face at the braking at the end of the straight here and I think it’s very funny!”

Rossi won the race at Mugello making it a record of 7 consecutive wins. Talking after the race, Rossi said:

“After winning the championship, winning at Mugello is the next best thing for me and once again today it was like a dream. There is no way to describe the feeling I have standing on the podium in front of all of my fans here and I am so happy that I could win once again today. To win for the seventh time running at my home track is amazing but I felt quite a lot of pressure about this, so it’s a relief as well because I didn’t want to disappoint everyone! It’s been a hard weekend for everyone because of the bad weather and the lack of dry track time, but my crew have done a fantastic job with the bike and my M1 was wonderful today. Once I got to the front I was able to make a gap from the others but towards the end it was unbelievably hot and it became quite hard to ride. I wanted to ease off a bit but Casey was pushing hard behind so I had to keep going. Thanks to all of my team, to the engineers and of course to Bridgestone! I’m really glad that I’ve been the one to give them their first win at this track and they did a great job today because my tire worked virtually the same from start to finish. It’s been a fantastic day, it’s always one of the best moments of the year for me and now we’ve made a bit more of the gap at the top of the championship so things couldn’t be better. Honestly after this weekend I think I would like to go to bed for five days but now we have to go straight to Barcelona! My face now is a bit more tired than the one on the helmet.”

http://rossihelmets.com/rossis-helmets/2007-motogp-rossi-helmets/agv-rossi-heart-helmet-mugello-2007/

Rossi AGV Heart Helmet - Mugello 2007

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

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

Date: Sunday, June 4, 2006

Race position: 1st

AGV Rossi Mugello 2006 Helmet by Milo Manara

Mugello was round 6 of the 2006 MotoGP season and turned out to be one of the most exciting races in years as Rossi eventually took the win, but not after a huge battle with Loris Capirossi, Marco Melandri, and both the Repsol Hondas of Nicky Hayden and Dani Pedrosa. The race was also Valentino Rossi’s 5th consecutive win at his home Grand Prix.

As has become tradition, Rossi had a specially designed helmet created for the event. The helmet for 2006 was designed by Milo Manara, an Italian artist and writer best known for his graphic novels, comic books, and distinctive erotic art. Manara has a reputation for writing and illustrating comics that feature elegantly drawn, beautiful, and semi-dressed women exploring erotic and fantasy storylines.

The helmet design was not dominated by the sun and the moon, as past Rossi helmets have been, but instead featured significant symbols from Rossi’s life in a comic storyboard format. The righthand side of the helmet featured Enzo Ferrari, and the lefthand side featured Steve McQueen – two men that Rossi counts as his heros. The top of the helmet is plit into 4 storyboard panels and features Manara’s drawings of Rossi, his dog Guido, Osvaldo the chicken (an early sponsor of Rossi that featured notably in one of Rossi’s on-track celebrations), and one of the topless girls that Manara is famous for in his artwork. The back of the helmet featured the number 74 in tribute to the late Daijiro Kato (Kato died in 2003 after a crash, 74 was his racing number) and the word “Quarantasei” – the Italian for ’46′.

Rossi said:

“My new helmet design is by a famous Italian cartoonist called Milo Manara. He has drawn a kind of mythical story of my life, with some of my heroes like Steve McQueen, Enzo Ferrari and Jim Morrison, with other characters like my dog Guido, Osvaldo the chicken and lots of beautiful women! I really like it and Milo is somebody I have admired for a long time.”

Milo Manara also worked with Rossi on an actual comic book called Quarantasei in July 2006 that was created by Manara as a fantasy work on the life of Rossi. It doesn’t seem to be readily available online at the outlets that you would expect (Amazon etc..) but we managed to find a link to it here:http://www.leopoldobloom.it/dett.asp?id=1

http://rossihelmets.com/rossis-helmets/2005-motogp-rossi-helmets/agv-the-doctor-or-il-laureato-helmet-2005-mugello/

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

Date: Sunday, June 5, 2005

Race position: 1st

The Mugello MotoGP of 2005 was full of drama, in a race that saw Rossi take his 4th consecutive win at the Mugello circuit. It was by no means an easy win, and Rossi was forced to battle with bitter rival Max Biaggi until the very end. Rossi started the race in pole position but swiftly slipped down to 4th place - he quickly forght his way back up the field and engaged in a thrilling battle with Marco Melandri and Biaggi, until Rossi, with two laps to go, managed to grab the lead for good.

Aside from the thrilling racing, Rossi also made the news by wearing a special helmet for the race to celebrate him becoming a genuine, real Doctor. Earlier in the same week, Rossi was awarded the “láurea ad honorem” in communications and publicity by his hometown University in Urbino. University Rector Carlo Bo, Giovanni Bogliolo made the presentation to Rossi citing it was a special award for the positive influence that he had set as a role model, and also in recognition of his achievements as a rider.

The helmet design was in a cartoon style and featured Rossi on the top of the helmet holding his doctorate, with the caption ‘Valentino dottore per davvero’ (translated as: “Valentino, truly doctor”). The colours of the Italian flag are wrapped around the helmet, with the sun and moon featured just under the visor. The rear of the helmet featured the words “Il Laureato”, with a small gold coloured number ’1′ above it.

http://rossihelmets.com/rossis-helmets/2004-motogp-rossi-helmets/agv-%e2%80%98wooden%e2%80%99-helmet-mugello-2004/

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

Date: Sunday, June 6, 2004

Race position: 1st

Rossi started his first season aftre his controversial switch to Yamaha with a win at Welkom in South Africa, becoming the first rider to win back to back races on two different bikes. Following this initial win, Rossi suffered a slump in results and finished in 4th place at the next two races, Jerez and Le Mans. Expectation was high when he arrived at Mugello, and his critics pointed to his switch to Yamaha as the cause for his recent results – many speculated he should have never made the move.

Rossi unveiled a special one off Drudi designed helmet, which was designed to poke fun at his recent results which saw Rossi miss the podium on consecutive occasions for the first time since his first premier class win for Honda in 2000. The helmet was a variation on his regular helmet design from 2003-2004, but was made to look like it was made of wood. The design also featured a medal with the number four in Roman numerals (IV), made to look like it had been carved into the top of the helmet. Rossi said that the story behind the design was steeped in Italian tradition, where the saying goes that if you take 4th place – then you get the wooden medal.

Rossi ended up breaking his recent poor run of form at Mugello in 2004 and won the race, ahead of Sete Gibernau and Max Biaggi.

Location: Mugello, Italy

Date: 8th June, 2003

Position: 1st

Rossi came to Mugello in 2003 needing to take the battle to Sete Gibernau, who had been the strongest rider in the previous few rounds. Rossi rose to the challenge and put his Honda on pole position for the race. When the race got underway it was Loris Capirossi on his Ducati that powered into the lead and a thrilling battle followed for the bulk of the race involving Gibernau, Biaggi, Capirossi, and Rossi. Rossi eventually got the better of the challengers and took the victory.

As is tradition, Rossi had a new helmet design for the race. He took to the track with a blue helmet that featured the colours of the Italian flag at the front, and featured the word ‘ROSSI’ in bold white tpe across the top, underlined with 5 stars. The shade of blue that was used is also that of the Italian football team and the Savoia Royal Family. The back of the helmet simply featured a huge white number ’46′. This helmet is fairly rare in the fact that the usual imagery of the Sun and the Moon are relegated to being minor features under either side of the visor.

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

Date: Sunday, 2nd June, 2002

Race position: 1st

Valentino Rossi started the Mugello MotoGP 2002 round in pole position and from the moment the lights went out Rossi dominated the race to take victory, despite crashing in the early morning practice session. Max Biaggi and Rossi’s Honda team-mate Ukawa completed the podium.

Rossi said:
´It was a very good race for me, and I´m happy to have won in front of the Italian fans. It was a victory that I´d hoped for as I hadn´t been able to achieve it for the last two years. The fall in the warm-up actually helped, because it made me more cautious as I had to race on my second bike. I used softer tyres than my rivals and when I began to push hard I was able to get away from Biaggi. Everything went well.´

Rossi’s helmet for Mugello was a trbute to Italy, and his father Graziano, who also raced motorbikes in his youth. The helmet was modelled on Graziano’s helmet design when he was racing and featured a paint job based on his design. It was composed of a white background with the colours of the Italian flag that wrapped around the helmet. The number ’46′ is featured on both sides of the helmet (’46′ was also the racing number that Graziano Rossi used when he competed in the world championship). The base of the helmet featured 22 icons each representing apects of Rossi’s life and personality, such as pizza, a football, a plate of spaghetti etc…

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

Date: Sunday, 3rd June, 2001

Race position: DNF

Valentino Rossi’s 2001 trip to Mugello did not end well and despite the rain and the storm clouds, Rossi was decked out in a bright Hawaiian style livery with a helmet to match.

The race itself was red flagged and then restarted. In the first race Rossi managed to fight with the front runners but the wet track conditions saw Rossi crash his Nastro Azzuro sponsored NSR Honda on the way to the grid and Rossi was sent flying down the track. He was unhurt and managed to start the second race (which was now being judged on aggregate timing to decide the outcome) on a new bike. Again, after some strong fighting towards the front Rossi crashed again whilst overtaking Capirossi on the esses. Rossi’s bike seemed to lowside on the apex of he corner and it was race over for Valentino.

Alex Barros led on aggregate, Caprirossi came second, and Max Biaggi came third allowing him to close the points gap on the previously dominant Rossi.

AGV 2001 Mugello Helmet:

The helmet Valentino wore for the Mugello race was a Hawaiian design designed by Aldo Drudi. The helmet had a blue background that featured numerous lighter blue hibiscus flowers. The sun design was placed at the front of the helmet with the valentino face logo in the centre - in each of the suns rays that zig zag back across the helemt are more flowers. The moon is featured on the rear of the helmet.