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 Worldও Challenge Europe season this weekend at Monza, his second year as a four-wheel racer.
He has opened up on the transition from bikes to cars, how his compe🌺titors look at him, and the dif♉fering fear factor.
“In 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 and 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.
“In the sense that he says 'I've been racing cars for a lifetime, now comes th𒀰is one who has always raced with motorcycles’.
“So let's say that they are even more motivatedဣ to keep me behind. And anyway there are a lot of very strong drivers and so the level is quite high.”
Rossi described the racing: "They use the car as a shi﷽eld or in any case to annoy the opponent by exploiting the fact that the car is big.
“Overtaking with the car is much more difficult than on aಌ motorcycle, because on a motorcycle you have four 𝐆times the space.
“But it must be said that in any case r♚acing 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 ra🌟ces a year with cars.
“So in any case I have a good experience al♔so on 💜the four wheels.”
Rossi e🌜xplaining why, aged 44, he still has a passion to race 𓆉in cars: “My father, Graziano, had done this before.
“Graziano stopped racing in '82 and I was only three years old then. I do not 🍸remember. During my career I've always done some racꦇes and so on.
“I've always told myself 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 ܫrace.
“We say the same thꦺings as with the motorbike but here in the car. It's a little bit less physically difficult.”
Rossi repreℱsents Team WRT and will team with Maxime Martin and Augusto Farfus this weekend at Monza in his #46 car.
He will be driving a BMW, after Team WRT sw🍃itched from Audi last season, for the second time after competing in the Bathurst 12 Hours.
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from American sports, to footb🦂all, to F1.
