Valentino Rossi heading to Misano where he won three wins with BMW

In 2023 he achieved his first victory in the series and repeated this trick in the years 2024 and 2025.

All three achievements achieved with Team WRT and behind the wheel of BMW M4. Nothing changes in this respect, but this year Rossi will try to win the fourth time with another third team member. After Maxim Martin (2023 and 2024) and Raffaele Marciello (2025), he has now joined the Italian Max Hesse, one of the brightest young BMW stars.

"Every year is harder, but we will try!" says Rossi. "Max makes me feel very good. I've always shared experience with great talent, and he's one of them. He's a great rider, and I feel very good about him, so I think we can fight.

First we have to find out if we're competitive, but I love Misano. It's my place, my home. I'll have my whole family and friends there. It's another motivation to try to fight. "

All three of Rossi's victories in Misan on the Italian circuit were legendary. Each celebrated with the same level of enthusiasm, but one of them clearly stands out as especially significant.

"The first was special. When I started racing cars, I wasn't sure I could win. The feeling after the first victory was certainly different from the others; It was special."

His first win at the GT World Challenge in 2023, of course, in Misan was in no way his first - it was only his first win at four rounds. Ross, his home track, has been racing for almost as long as he remembers.

"Misano is very special to me because it was my first track. I was here in 1992, driving a two-stroke Cagiva 125. That's over 30 years ago!

A lot of things are the same between the GT car and the motorcycle; a lot of things are different. My motorcycle experience helped me, but the GT is different. You have completely different lines compared to MotoGP. "

Since his first GT World Challenge race on this track in 2022 Misano has been flooded with Rossi fans. The event has grown significantly during this period and the upcoming year promises to be bigger than ever.

"There are so many people, and every year there are more and more. They organized a very good weekend this year. Saturday night is a big party where some of my friends are playing. The format is also great. The sprint is very exciting and on Saturday night we have one race and on Sunday afternoon another, so I hope all my fans will be there."

A few weeks ago, Rossi took part in a 24-hour race at Spa for the fifth time. Together with Hess and Dan Harper, he finished sixth in the biggest GT race in the world - with the best BMW - and also won an 8-hour race in Indianapolis and twice ended up in the 12-hour race in Bathurst. The Doctor is now a fully established GT driver, although he still feels he can improve.

"First of all, when you race in this series, you have to learn a lot of things, rules for stopping in boxes and changing riders, and you have to do everything right. You also have a strategy in endurance races.

But I think my main progress has taken place in the proceedings. I had some experience with GT3 cars when I was racing at MotoGP. But if you want to compete with the best, you have to understand how to get the car to the limit, especially with the brakes, the roll-out, the use of aerodynamics. I think I'm still learning! "