Valentino Rossi for WRC

[terrine]

now this would be a model of interest

MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi will compete in the Network Q Rally of Great Britain (November 14th-17th), final round of the World Rally Championship.

full story http://www.motograndprix.com/en/motogp/index.html? menu=news_info&page=1&news_id=9040

r/peter

[Andrew]

Yeah the news has been around for a while now. He will drive a Peugeot WRC.
Hope he goes better than Martin Brundle did a few years back on the Network Q. Brundle was VERY slow in a semi-works Corolla WRC with V-Rally sponsorship compared to the WRC stars. So much for carrying driving talent over from circuit to dirt...

[SWRT]

Rossi will also test a BAR F1 car in Janurary or Feburary as well,isn't he to test a V8 Supercar as well?

[SmartyMarty]

:D I ll start watching again when Valentino joins the F1

[lowndes]

Its not 100% now that Rossi will drive the BAR. As Valentino is very Anti Smoking and because BAR is sponsored by Lucky Strike he is rethinking the drive. If they remove the Lucky Strike logos im sure he will drive.

[ferrari fan]

Competing in both rally and track is very different and has NOTHING to do with each other!
To conclude that a driver is no good on a one off guest appearance in %#@&^%&@# (impossible,try it.)
Martin Brundle has even been alowed to terstdrive the F2001 Ferrari! and also drove the twoseater Mclaren with VIP's in it
:mad:

[Andrew]

Ha ha ha, Keep your hair on Ferrari Fan! I have these debates all the time with a friend of mine - a rabid F1 fan. I'm not going to start getting into another debate over this here. Sure Brundle is a good driver... He's probably very good at what he does.

Getting back to this thread, I think that Rossi will struggle in the Peugeot WRC (in comparison to the regular WRC drivers - maybe that's a no-brainer) as circuit and gravel driving are two completely different disciplines. That's why the best WRC stars don't hit their prime until their late twenties and thirties, needing the experience to hone their skills in the different environments. Carlos Sainz is late thirties, then look at Kenneth Ericksson, Juha Kankkunen, Tommi Makinen etc. F1 drivers/circuit racers are usually at their peak much earlier than that (however I think Jim Richards and Larry Perkins prove that is not always the case).

I think that Rossi will be very quick in the BAR, but I'm a little surprised at the enthusiasm David Richards has for getting him to have a run in it. Maybe he believes Rossi can cover for Panis' defection to Toyota??? Conspiracy theorists, come out, come out, wherever you are....