Since Mugello, Gabriel Rodrigo has not been riding due to injury and he won’t be back either – The 25-year-old has announced his retirement
Since the Italian Grand Prix at the end of May, Moto2 rider Gabriel Rodrigo has had to take a break due to injury. Now the Argentinean has declared his immediate retirement from racing. The 25-year-old announced the decision in a video that he distributed via social media channels.
“I thought about it for a long time,” Rodrigo says in it. “It all started last year, shortly after I signed my contract to move up to Moto2.”
“During a practice session I had a very serious accident that put my life in danger. This, along with all the recent misfortunes of our colleagues, has made me reconsider whether it is worth taking so many risks every time I get on the bike. “
“I have many plans and ambitions. I like my life and my family, and I am not willing to put myself in danger and lose everything to continue racing motorbikes. That is the main reason for this decision,” Rodrigo said.
He further explains that he came to this “point of maturity” with the help of a psychologist, and reveals that he had already been thinking about quitting before the start of his rookie season.
“At the beginning of this year I told her and my girlfriend Elia that I didn’t want to race for much longer. I wanted to test myself in Moto2 and I felt that I wanted to keep giving 100 per cent, but that I wouldn’t continue for much longer. “
At this point the shoulder injury occurred which eventually required surgery. “The injury meant that I rode in poor condition for most of the year and had to stop. Thanks to the break, I was able to take my time, listen to my body and my heart,” explains the 25-year-old.
If he had continued, it would only have been out of melancholy about what had been his identity all these years. Now he wants to devote himself to other things. In closing, he says, “I consider myself very lucky to have been able to make a living from my passion, and I take so many special memories and people with me. “
“I can say goodbye to motorcycling with a smile on my face. If I had put it off, all my love for the sport would have been poisoned if I had continued to race without the desire to do so.”
In his World Championship career, Rodrigo contested 123 Grand Prix races, took six pole positions and finished on the podium twice: at the 2018 Catalunya Grand Prix and the 2021 Italian Grand Prix, both times in third place. In his rookie Moto2 season he finished in the points once, in tenth place at Portimao.