First training session of 2023 for Valentino Rossi who is about to compete in his first race on four wheels.
Valentino Rossi starts the new year with a very special training session. After his farewell to MotoGP in November 2021, when he ran his last race in Valencia, the champion embarked on the path of car racing, racing in the Fanatec GT WCE behind the wheel of the Belgian WRT team’s Audi R8 GT3. He has twice reached 5th place as the best result of the season but now it’s time to raise the bar of results.
In the first days of January he trained with i karting on the Corridonia circuit, in the province of Macerata: “First motorsport of 2023. I’m preparing for a 24 hour race in Dubai next week with my BMW M4“. From 13 to 15 January, Valentino Rossi will race the famous race on Arab land together with teammates Maxime Martin, Sean Gelael, Tim Whale and another driver, at the wheel of the BMW M4. It will be an appetizer in view of the next World Challenge Europe powered by AWS championship.
Valentino Rossi is preparing for a new season
A few days ago the Doctor and BMW M Motorsport announced the new collaboration. We change cars, but the team remains the same. In the first weekend of February, however, he will be busy with the Bathurst 12 Hours, before embarking on other preseason tests driving the new Elica racing car. “This is a great opportunity for me“said the 43-year-old from Pesaro. “Last year I started racing for real and finished my first season with Team WRT“.
In the 2023 season he will have two new teammates: Maxime Martin And Augustus Farfus. “I still have a lot to learn and I can keep improving. I hope I can overcome the challenges on the race weekends and be fast enough“. After all, Valentino Rossi has cultivated a passion for four wheels from a young age, also carrying out tests on the single-seater Formula 1 Ferraris and then in Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes. He has entered several editions of the Monza Rally and two rounds of the World Rally Championship, in 2006 in New Zealand and 2009 in Wales.
In 2019 Valentino Rossi competed in the 6 Gulf Hours together with Luca Marini and Alessio Salucci. But he has never pulled the plug from MotoGP, where he has his own team Mooney VR46 who in 2022 collected a podium and a pole position with Marco Bezzecchi. And also this year he won’t miss his presence with a few visits to the paddock, to make his closeness felt to the team directed by his right-hand man Alessio Salucci.
