By Laura Thomson

He's a seven-time MotoGP World Champion so you’d think Rossi’s pre-race routine♎ would be fairly straightf🐼orward, right? Wrong.

In an interview 🍨with Italian TV show Che Tempo Che Fa on RAI, the 39-year-old has revealed the ‘romanti💜c’ measures he takes before each race, in order to keep on top of his game.

But the object of affection isn’t his model girlfriend. Instead,ꦺ the Yamaha rider likes to spend the 🐎run-up to the race whispering sweet nothings to his motorcycle.

"I keep all 𝓡the Yamahas wit💦h which I have won world titles,” he revealed.

“Before each race I spend around 40 minutes around the bike, I speaꦦk to it, almost like were are on a date.”

And despite the big 4-0 fast approaching, Rꦆossi shows no sign ꧋of slowing down.

"February 16, I turn 40? N�💝�eedless to say, I would never have thought of racing that long,” he said.

“But I never asked💃 myself if I would race until I was 40 because it was always my dream to be🔯 a motorcycle racer.

“Maybe others will do it in the futureꩵ, but the important thing is to remain co✱mpetitive.

“When I signed in March 2018 I thought that the two-year contract would lead me to run at age 40, and the thought of d﷽oing it was there.

“I a🅠m convinced, if we can improve the bike we can ⛦be strong.”

Rossi𒈔 will be on track for the first time in 2019 during official testing at Sepang in Malaysia from February 6-8.