Valentino Rossi is experiencing a first season in the GT World Challenge Europe with lights and shadows, characteristic of a forced learning curve to compete among the best GT drivers in the world. Nevertheless, Rossi feels more and more comfortable in the championship and at the controls of the Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II of the Team WRT with which he competes. maybe for this reason the former MotoGP rider has confirmed that his main goal is to continue in the championship next year.
Valentino Rossi’s plan is to compete again in the GT World Challenge Europe in 2023. In fact, the Italian driver assures that he will be back on the championship grid next season at 90%. The seven-time MotoGP World Champion will have to define the ingredients of the project, since Team WRT is immersed in a huge restructuring process which has led the team to end its link with Audi at the end of the season to compete alongside BMW.
Leaving this question aside and after successfully completing his first participation in the 24 Hours of Spa together with his teammates Nico Müller and Frédéric Vervisch, the Italian valentino rossi has assured: “«I think that next year I will also run this championship. This is my goal now, so 90% sure it is. I don’t think I’ll run Le Mans next year, but it’s a race I want to do at some point. Nothing is 100% certain, but I think I will compete in the GT World Challenge Europe next year as well.».
In this aspect, an extra season in the GTWC Europe could be the intermediate step towards his jump to the WEC, taking advantage of the transition between the current GTE vehicles and the GT3, which he already knows from his presence in the SRO contest: «I want to race at Le Mans soon, be there for years to come.. It is not the priority right now, because I want to try to improve as a driver. I want to arrive prepared because Le Mans is a goal for everyone. Perhaps it is the most famous race in the world. This year we are concentrating on Spa, but I hope that in the future we will also have the opportunity to race at Le Mans.”
Going back to the question of Team WRT, yese could say that Rossi has two options on the table. The first goes through stay linked to Audi and call on another structure, with the support once again of official drivers of the brand in order to express the knowledge already acquired about the Audi R8 LMS GT3 Evo II. The other possibility is to continue in WRT, which would lead him to drive a BMW M4 GT3possibly also with the support of one of the factory pilots of the Munich firm.
Photos: GT World Challenge Europe