English
Italiano
This weekend Valentino Rossi will take part in his first WEC race at home. In fact, he will be at the start of the 6 Hours of Imola, the second round of the World Endurance Championship. the Doctor is taking his four-wheeled adventure very seriously with the WRT team's BMW, it's a chance to get back into the game and a second racing life. He talked about it at length in the interview you can see above.
"I always wanted to race with the cars and I tried to understand where," he said, "I also like rallies, but I understand during the years that the right place was with GT3s, because they are good cars, fast, their times are similar to MotoGP, you enjoy to drive them. For me it was all new and I needed to understand with which team. I spoke with all the manufacturers more or less, but Vincent was the guy who convinced me the most. He came to Tavullia and spoke very much about racing, not PR. I have raced all my life and I said to Vincent, I want to race."
That is what he is doing, albeit in a very different world than he was used to.
"MotoGP is singular, here it's much more a team work, especially with the teammates in the same car. In car racing you make always a lot of meetings, with motorcycles a lot less", was the first difference.
There are also others: "MotoGP is very easy: you arrive on the grid, 40 minutes, the first 3 corners are crucial and then flat out until the end - explained the Doctor - Here you have a lot of strategy, you have to save the tires, manage traffic, be ready to change your plans: it's a big challenge. But in a lot of points of view, it's exactly the same, you're sitting and you have the steering, but the braking, the lines, the fights with the others are very similar. I think my talent on motorcycles is the exactly what I feel with the car."
Valentino falls into that category of drivers for whom speed is everything, no matter on which vehicle.
"I like to be a driver who can drive anything, this is my ambition," he said, " I worked for a long time to be here because I knew I wanted to race cars when I finished with the bikes. My problem is that I am old, I need 10 years less, but I was able to improve year after year and my target is to arrive at the level of the GT3 cars. With motorcycles it was time to finish, but it is difficult for me if I remain with racing, it is boring. I lived all my life like this since when I was 14."
Of course, the goal is to win.
"Last year I won a race in Misano and the feeling at the flag in P1 was exactly like a MotoGP race. This is why I race and it's the same for the most part of the drivers here, for that moment, and that moment pays back for everything."
Also, with cars, he can have the satisfaction of participating in some legendary races, such as the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
"Le Mans was the first target from the beginning," Rossi clarified, " I've always followed it, but you understand it clearly when you are a car driver. I was there last year and I was impressed about the atmosphere, the people, I can't wait to race there. I still have to understand things especially in the race, but all the Hypercar drivers are top drivers so they know, you need to have respect for each other. It's difficult because you need to stay concentrated and always look in the rear mirror," he smiled.
Now Imola awaits him. "When I race in Italy it is always more difficult, because it is more difficult to handle the people. I like Imola and the layout, I will have fun and it will be very challenging with the Hypercars on the track," he concluded.
