Valentino Rossi swaps his Yamaha for an Audi R8 LMS GT3

There is a new Doctor in stamina-racing town, his name remaining Valentino Rossi. The 49-yr-outdated Italian motorbike racer gained two Entire world Championships in 125- and 250-cc prior to ringing up seven top-class Globe Championships in 500-cc and 4-stroke MotoGP over a 26-calendar year professional occupation. Retiring from the saddle at the end of the 2021 season did not mean retiring from racing, while. The male nicknamed The Health care provider declared he’ll be campaigning a full time of GT Environment Problem Europe with Belgium’s W Racing Group (WRT). His weapon will appear with two extra wheels and be just one of the finest in the industry, just as his Yamaha M1 as soon as was — the Audi R8 LMS GT3. WRT won the GT Planet Problem, previously recognized as the Blancpain GT Sequence, 4 instances in the past eight a long time. Rossi will be a single of two drivers trying to get the earn ratio to five periods in nine. WRT hasn’t announced who will associate the gentleman from Urbino however.

Rossi wrote in a submit on social media, “I am delighted to be part of Staff WRT for a entire Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe run by AWS programme. Everybody is aware that I have constantly been a wonderful car or truck racing admirer and that I have usually been intrigued in racing on 4 wheels as soon as my MotoGP career would come to an close. Now I am fully available to dedicate myself to a auto racing programme at a higher stage and with the proper specialist tactic. Workforce WRT is the ideal healthy I was wanting for and I am anxious to begin this new adventure in the Fanatec GT Entire world Challenge Europe powered by AWS with them.”

He is been far more than a mere lover of car racing. Among the other forays, he tested Ferrari’s 2006 Method 1 car that year for three times in Spain, finishing with a ideal time a fifty percent-2nd driving Michael Schumacher’s ideal time. Also in 2006, he finished 11th out of 39 entries in the Rally New Zealand. In 2008, he received one more Ferrari examination. In 2012, he drove a Ferrari at two rounds of the Blancpain Endurance Collection, then analyzed Kyle Busch’s NASCAR rig at Charlotte Motor Speedway the adhering to yr. Far more spins in single-seaters and hardtops followed. His most current and realest take a look at commenced with a couple times of enhancement get the job done very last December in the Audi he’ll pilot this yr. 

The 2022 GT Planet Problem period begins with tests on March 8 at Circuit Paul Ricard in France. The very first of the 10-race season, five sprints and 5 stamina events together with the 24 Several hours of Spa, requires place in Rossi’s house nation, at Imola on April 1. Which is when we’ll see what the Vale Yellow #46 can do on the aspect of a V10 in its place of the YZR-M1’s 1-liter four-cylinder.