GT World Challenge

Valentino Rossi will compete in the GT3 championship with an Audi R8 LMS

The mythical Valentino Rossi, a motorcycle rider who combines incredible speed with exuberant friendliness, was as quick at the controls of the Moto GP machines as he was at changing modes. Until 2021 he was an official rider of the Honda, Ducati and Yamaha brands, in Moto GP, but from 2022 he changes weapons and luggage for the GT World Challenge.

A few weeks after retiring from the two-wheel speed world championship, “Il Dottore” signed for the Belgian team W Racing Team (WRT), which has won 50% of the GT World Challenge championships in the last eight years. The WRT regularly enters the Audi R8, which in 2022 will appear with the R8 LMS GT3 Evo II specification.

Rossi says he feels “honored to join the WRT team” and recalled that, despite having been a motorcycle world champion in virtually every category, he has always been “a big fan of motor racing”. He then admitted that he now feels “completely available to dedicate himself to a full-time racing program in this European GT3 championship”.

Instead of Yamaha's official Moto GP bike, which he used from 2013 to 2021, Rossi will ride the latest version of the Audi R8 for GT3 racing(in the image above). The engine remains the 5.2 V10 of Lamborghini origin (equips the Huracán) which, despite being atmospheric, provides a total of 585 hp. The impressive V10 is associated with a sequential racing gearbox, with six forward ratios, with all the horses being passed to the asphalt through the rear wheels. Compared to the GT3 R8 used so far, the 2022 version uses a series of improvements, aiming to make it more efficient and faster, in terms of suspensions, damping, traction control and, above all, the aerodynamic package.

Rossi, who has driven a little bit of everything (from WRC cars to Formula 1), will make his debut in the European GT3, which starts on March 8 at Paul Ricard's French circuit.

Autonews