Valentino Rossi set for 2023 Fanatec GT World Challenge Europe season: “Drivers look at me like a motorcyclist”
Valentino Rossi claims that rival drivers still see him as a motorbike racer, and it gives them extra motivation to beat him.
The MotoGP legend begins the 2023 Fanatec GT World 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 competitors look at him, and the differing 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 this one who has always raced with motorcycles’.
“So let's say that they are even more motivated 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 shield 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 a motorcycle, because on a motorcycle you have four times the space.
“But it must 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 wheels.”
Rossi explaining why, aged 44, he still has a passion to race in 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 races 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 race.
“We say the 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 Farfus 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 in the Bathurst 12 Hours.
