Valentino Rossi’s second youth: “Now they respect me.”

Valentino Rossi’s second youth: “Now they respect me.”

At 44, Valentino Rossi is enjoying a second youth, at least on a competitive level. Victories at Le Mans and Misano have elevated the Doctor’s status in the GT championships as well. “Now I am no longer the former motorcyclist, rivals respect me,” are the words reported by La Gazzetta dello Sport.

“Now my rivals look at me differently, with respect, because if before I was mainly Valentino the former motorcyclist, now they have understood that I can also be fast with four wheels. I like this very much.”

Also commenting on the Doctor’s happy moment was VR46 CEO Alberto Tebaldi: “The most beautiful, most incredible thing is that Valentino is having so much fun. It gives him taste. When we arrive on race weekends, which we start from home, he lights up after the first half day. And it’s really nice,” are the words reported by Mowmag.

“What Vale is doing is certainly not a mainstream championship. And that makes you realize a lot about him. It was Valentino himself, at one point in 2021, during his last year in MotoGP, who said to me, ‘We have to do GT Fanatec’ Because Fanatec maybe is not WEC GT3, which is a world championship, but Fanatec with GT3s is the most difficult and competitive championship there is.”

“Because all the strongest are there: when there are Endurance races all the companies that are officially engaged bring their drivers there who drive Hypercars. So Ferrari drivers come, BMW drivers come, and you get to Spa-which is a 7-kilometer track-and there are 22 drivers in a second. You have to go and make a difference at Eau Rouge-Raidillon, which is a corner that you do at 260, one of the hardest corners in the world, where you have to put a lot of heart and technique into it. And Valentino by the way needs this thing here.”