MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi will take to the wheel of a BMW LMDh prototype for the primary time throughout the Endurance World Championship rookie test in Bahrain.
Rossi can have the chance to check the BMW M Hybrid V8 on the Bahrain International Circuit on November 3, the day after the top of the 2024 WEC season within the Gulf country.
The German manufacturer first revealed plans to provide the Italian a likelihood behind the wheel of a prototype when he joined the works squad at the beginning of the 2023 season.
The original schedule was for Rossi to drive a Dallara LMP2 race automotive at the top of last yr, but BMW has pushed back the planned begin to 2024.
In an exclusive interview with Motorsport.com on the sidelines of the GT World Challenge Europe in Monza, Rossi himself confirmed that in only over a month he’ll finally have the chance to drive a BMW LMDh.
“I will be trying out the BMW LMDh in the rookie test and I am very, very happy because last year I had the opportunity to drive an LMP2, so my next goal is to see how the M Hybrid V8 performs,” he said.
“And then who knows, maybe there will be a place in Hypercar in the future. We'll see.”
#20 BMW M WRT BMW M Hybrid V8 Team: Sheldon Van Der Linde, Robin Frijns, Rene Rast
Photo: JEP / Motorsport Images
During last weekend’s penultimate round of the WEC at Fuji, BMW Motorsport boss Andreas Roos suggested that Rossi can be behind the wheel of an LMDh automotive within the rookie test in Bahrain.
He said: “It might be a surprise, perhaps! We'll see. He will certainly get a test this yr.
“We said from the start that Valentino can be within the automotive and we made it clear in the beginning that it wouldn’t be at the beginning of the season because then we’d have good enough to do to get things so as and it was clear that our focus was to get all the pieces ready.
“But this year it will be in the car.”
Manufacturers recurrently use the standard Bahrain test to evaluate and reward newcomers, including drivers higher known for his or her exploits in other disciplines.
Two-time Formula 1 champion Fernando Alonso first drove a Toyota TS050 LMP1 in Bahrain in 2017, ahead of the beginning of the 2018/19 Super Season.
At the top of the 2021 season, the Japanese brand seated its World Rally Championship star Sebastien Ogier in the brand new LMH automotive within the Gulf country.
Rossi, a seven-time MotoGP champion, accomplished his first laps in a prototype in Bahrain last yr, driving WRT’s Oreca 07 LMP2.
This yr he took part within the WEC Championship in a BMW M4 GT3 entered by WRT in the brand new LMGT3 division.
The 45-year-old’s statements on Friday at Monza indicate that he still dreams of racing in the highest class of the WEC or IMSA SportsCar Championship on the wheel of a BMW M Hybrid V8.
