Rossi, who retired from MotoGP at the end of this year’s season, will take part in the two six-hour tests that make up the endurance event at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi on January 8 , and will do so aboard a Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo .
The teammates of the nine-time world champion will be his brother and fellow MotoGP rider Luca Marini and his friend Alessio Uccio Salucci , with whom he has already finished third and fourth in his two previous appearances in the race in 2019 and 2021, when the race temporarily relocated to Bahrain as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Il dottore has shown his intention to race in cars next season, pointing to four-wheel competition as his “second passion”.
“Every year I try to do one or two car races,” Rossi said in an interview posted this week on IMSA’s Twitter.
“From next year I will be racing GT cars in endurance championships, it’s not decided yet [where].”
The 42-year-old driver left open the possibility of running the North American championship in 2022.
“There’s a very interesting championship in the United States called IMSA,” he said before mentioning the 24 Hours of Daytona , which opens the season in January.
Rossi has also signaled his goal of one day running the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the World Endurance Championship (WEC).
“When I leave MotoGP, I could keep racing cars for another 10 years,” he said in 2019. “I really enjoy it and I’m thinking of trying to do Le Mans.”
Rossi’s experience on four wheels includes participating in two rounds of the Blancpain Endurance Series in 2012 – currently the GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup – in a Kessel Racing Ferrari 458 Italia GT3.
He also tested a Formula 1 Ferrari in 2004 and 2009 and has contested three rounds of the World Rally Championship.
Last month, Lando Norris, who is a big fan of Rossi, revealed that he had talked to the Italian about racing together and Rossi said he would like to share a car with the McLaren driver one day.
(Click on this link or on the photos to see the images of Valentino Rossi in the 12 hours of the Gulf)
