Valentino Rossi set for 2023 Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe season: “Drivers look at me like a motorcyclist”
The MotoGP legend begins the 2023 Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe season this weekend at Monza, his seconᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚdꦇ year as a four-wheel racer.
He has opened u🦋p on the transition from bikes to cars, how his competitors look at him, and ✤the differing fear factor.
“I🍷n the car they are worse than on the motorbike because, in the car, it is less scary,” Rossi told Gianluca Gazzoli’s podcast.
“In the car you are inside a cage 🎃andඣ therefore crashing into another is less scary.”
Rossi said about his hostile welcome onto the grid: "It's difficult. First of all, because the driver looks at you as if you were still a motorcyclist.&nb﷽sp;
“In the sense that he says🌜 'I've been racing cars for a lifetime, now comes this one who has always raced with motorcycles’.
“So let's say that they are even more motivate𒀰d to keep me behind. And anyway there are a lot of very strong drivers and so the level is q𒈔uite high.”
Rossi described the racing: "They use the car as a shield or in any case to annoy the opponent by exploiting the fact that t♔he car is big.
“Overtaking with the car is much more d🥀i♍fficult than on a motorcycle, because on a motorcycle you have four times the space.
“But it mu🌌st be said that in any case racing on a motorbike is a very similar thing from many points of view and then I have always tried to carve out the time to do two races a year with cars.
“So in any case I have a good experience also on the four w🐎heels.”
Rossi explaining why, aged 44, he still has a passion to race iꦚn cars: “My father, Graziano, had done this before.
“Graziano stopped rac꧟ing in '82 and I was only three years old then. I do not remember. During my career I've always done someꦉ races and so on.
“I've always told mys𝓀elf when l stop riding and I want to race in the car so I don't stop racing. That's why in the end it's the same sensations.
“You have to work every weekend꧋ with the team to be more competitive so you have the adrenaline of the race.
“We say ♏th🐓e same things as with the motorbike but here in the car. It's a little bit less physically difficult.”
Rossi represents Team WRT and will team with Maxime Martin and Augusto 𓂃Farfus this weekend at Monza in his #46 car.
He will be driving a BMW, after Team WRT switched from Audi last season, for the second time after competing i🐼n the Bathurst 12 Hours.
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American 🍷sports, to football, to F1.
