Marco Bezzecchi
Valentino Rossi has found a career in GT racing following his retirement from an illustrious career in MotoGP, and has now named the MotoGP world champion whom he thinks is planning to follow in his footsteps upon their exit from the sport.
It has become somewhat of a pattern for MotoGP’s most successful retirees in recent years, with Jorge Lorenzo, Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner all also trying their hand at some form of four-wheeled racing after calling it a day in MotoGP.
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Rossi has arguably been the most successful out of the famous ‘fantastic four’ from MotoGP, having taken his talents to some of the biggest GT3 racing events in world motorsport, including the World Endurance Championship.
Now, the 115-time Grand Prix winner thinks one of his VR46 Academy riders will be the next MotoGP world champion to make the leap over to touring car machinery.
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Valentino Rossi highlights Francesco Bagnaia ‘in particular’ as having an interest in GT racing
In an interview with Motorsport Italia, the seven-time MotoGP world champion was asked for his thoughts on whether any of the riders within the VR46 Riders’ Academy would ever follow in his footsteps after retirement.
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Rossi named two-time premier class title-winner Francesco Bagnaia as someone who has expressed an interest about it in the past, saying, “The way I see it, our riders, Pecco in particular, but also Bez and Luca, are asking about it a lot, so I reckon they still want to come.
“Luca raced with me before and did really well; he was very fast. They’re all very keen, so I expect they’ll be joining me one day in a few years’ time.”
As alluded to by Rossi, Luca Marini joined his half-brother in the 2019 and 2021 editions of the coveted Gulf 12 Hours, at the Yas Marina Circuit and Bahrain International Circuit, respectively.
The duo, joined by Rossi’s long-time friend and VR46 Racing chief, Alessio Salucci, secured a class win and overall P3 finish in 2019, before claiming a P3 class finish and P4 overall in 2021.
Valentino Rossi answers whether the VR46 Riders Academy will eventually extend to drivers
Rossi was also asked whether he has any plans to extend his development programme to include four-wheeled competitors. The 47-year-old holds a close relationship with the current Formula 1 world championship leader, Kimi Antonelli.
However, Rossi naturally believes his expertise remains on two wheels, highlighting how he is under the impression that he can make more of a difference when guiding riders to the top rather than drivers.
“As for the idea of actually recruiting drivers to set up a car racing academy, honestly, no,” he told the Italian outlet.
“I mean, we specialise in motorbikes and we’ve just taken on another four young riders, so we’ve started all over again with lads aged 15–16. But in my view, we can make more of a difference in motorbikes than in cars.”
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