The MotoGP legend begins the 2023 Fanatec GT World Problem Europe season this weekend at Monza, his second yr as a four-wheel racer.
He has opened up on the transition from bikes to vehicles, how his opponents have a look at him, and the differing worry issue.
“Within the automotive they’re worse than on the bike as a result of, within the automotive, it’s much less scary,” Rossi instructed Gianluca Gazzoli’s podcast.
“Within the automotive you’re inside a cage and subsequently crashing into one other is much less scary.”
Rossi mentioned about his hostile welcome onto the grid: “It is tough. To begin with, as a result of the driving force seems to be at you as for those who have been nonetheless a motorcyclist.
“Within the sense that he says ‘I have been racing vehicles for a lifetime, now comes this one who has at all times raced with bikes’.
“So to illustrate that they’re much more motivated to maintain me behind. And anyway there are a number of very robust drivers and so the extent is kind of excessive.”
Rossi described the racing: “They use the automotive as a defend or in any case to bother the opponent by exploiting the truth that the automotive is large.
“Overtaking with the automotive is far more tough than on a motorbike, as a result of on a motorbike you’ve gotten 4 instances the area.
“But it surely should be mentioned that in any case racing on a bike is a really related factor from many factors of view after which I’ve at all times tried to carve out the time to do two races a yr with vehicles.
“So in any case I’ve expertise additionally on the 4 wheels.”
Rossi explaining why, aged 44, he nonetheless has a ardour to race in vehicles: “My father, Graziano, had performed this earlier than.
“Graziano stopped racing in ’82 and I used to be solely three years outdated then. I don’t bear in mind. Throughout my profession I’ve at all times performed some races and so forth.
“I’ve at all times instructed myself when l cease using and I wish to race within the automotive so I do not cease racing. That is why in the long run it is the identical sensations.
“You must work each weekend with the group to be extra aggressive so you’ve gotten the adrenaline of the race.
“We are saying the identical issues as with the bike however right here within the automotive. It is a little bit bit much less bodily tough.”
Rossi represents Workforce WRT and can group with Maxime Martin and Augusto Farfus this weekend at Monza in his #46 automotive.
He might be driving a BMW, after Workforce WRT switched from Audi final season, for the second time after competing within the Bathurst 12 Hours.