Rossi to drive BMW LMDh car in Bahrain WEC rookie test

Rossi will drive the LMDh machinery for the first time

MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi will get his first run in BMW’s LMDh prototype in the World Endurance Championship rookie test in Bahrain.

Rossi will get to sample the BMW M Hybrid V8 at the Bahrain International Circuit on 3 November, a day after the 2024 WEC concludes in the Gulf nation.

The German manufacturer had first revealed plans to give the Italian a chance behind the wheel of its prototype when he was added to its factory roster for the beginning of the 2023 season.

The original timeline involved Rossi driving the Dallara LMP2-based racer towards the back end of last year, before BMW moved the planned outing to 2024.

Speaking exclusively with Autosport on the sidelines of this weekend’s GT World Challenge Europe event in Monza, Rossi himself confirmed that he will finally get the opportunity to drive the BMW LMDh in a little over a month’s time.

"At the Rookie Test I'm going to try the BMW LMDh and I'm very, very happy because last year I got to drive the LMP2, so the next goal is to see what the M Hybrid V8 is like," he said.

"And then who knows, maybe in the future there will be a place in Hypercar. Let's see."

At last weekend’s penultimate round of the WEC at Fuji, BMW motorsport boss Andreas Roos already hinted at Rossi getting behind the wheel of the marque’s LMDh car in the Bahrain rookie test.

He said: “It will be a surprise, maybe! We will see. He definitely will get the test this year.

“We said from the beginning that Valentino will be in the car and we clearly said at the beginning that it will not be at the beginning of the season, because then we have more than enough to do to get our things sorted, and the focus was clearly there to get everything prepared.

“But he will be in the car this year.”

Manufacturers have regularly taken advantage of the now-traditional Bahrain test to both evaluate and reward newcomers, including drivers who are more famous for their exploits in other disciplines.

Two-time Formula 1 champion Fernando Alonso got his first taste of the Toyota TS050 LMP1 car in Bahrain in 2017 before embarking on the 2018/19 superseason.

The Japanese marque then put its World Rally Championship star Sebastien Ogier in its new LMH car at the end of the 2021 season in the Gulf nation.

Rossi, a seven-time champion in MotoGP, got to complete his first laps in a prototype in Bahrain last year when he took the wheel of a WRT-run Oreca 07 LMP2.

He subsequently entered the WEC this year in a BMW M4 GT3 entered by WRT in the new LMGT3 division.

The 45-year-old’s comments at Monza on Friday indicated that he still harbours aspirations of racing in the top class of either the WEC or the IMSA SportsCar Championship in the BMW M Hybrid V8.