BMW and Crew WRT have confirmed a major change to their LMGT3 programme for the 2026 FIA World Endurance Championship, with Valentino Rossi now not a part of the WEC driver line-up. The choice brings Rossi’s two-season run within the collection to an finish. It stays to be seen what his involvement with BMW Motorsport will proceed to be in 2026.
Good Outcomes With BMW Motorsport
Rossi has been carefully related to BMW’s LMGT3 effort because the class’s debut in 2024. Driving the #46 BMW M4 LMGT3, the nine-time MotoGP world champion shortly grew to become one of the crucial recognizable figures within the WEC paddock. Throughout 16 begins, Rossi scored 4 podium finishes, together with a formidable third place at Imola in simply his second WEC look and one other podium later that 12 months at Fuji. In 2025, he returned to the Imola podium once more, though a penalty following contact finally denied him a sensible shot at a first-class victory.
The #46 crew, shared with Kelvin van der Linde and Ahmad Al Harthy, completed eighth within the LMGT3 standings in 2025. Whereas the outcomes had been stable, the season was additionally marked by frustration, most notably at Le Mans. After a standout qualifying efficiency that put the automotive firmly in rivalry for sophistication honors, {an electrical} difficulty in the course of the night time rendered the M4 unsafe to proceed, forcing a second consecutive retirement on the 24 Hours of Le Mans. A robust run at Circuit of the Americas later within the 12 months, the place the automotive completed second, underlined the underlying tempo of the bundle.
Regardless of these highlights, BMW and WRT’s press launch asserting the 2026 LMGT3 line-ups made no point out of Rossi. The #46 entry shall be changed by the #69 BMW M4 LMGT3, crewed by Anthony McIntosh, Dan Harper, and Parker Thompson. Rossi, who turns 47 subsequent 12 months, was on a manufacturing unit BMW contract set to run out on the finish of 2025, and his future within the WEC had been unsure for a lot of the season.
Rossi’s Historical past in GT Racing
Since stepping away from MotoGP on the finish of 2021, Rossi has constructed a reputable résumé in GT racing. He joined WRT in GT World Problem Europe in 2022 and has since claimed three dash race victories within the collection, together with podium finishes at main endurance occasions such because the Bathurst 12 Hour, Gulf 12 Hour, and Dubai 24 Hours. At the same time as he lowered his total racing commitments in 2025, Rossi nonetheless appeared at marquee occasions together with Bathurst and the 24 Hours of Spa, securing one other podium in Australia. He additionally performed a job in WRT’s victory on the Indianapolis 8 Hours, the ultimate spherical of the Intercontinental GT Problem, simply forward of the 2025 WEC finale in Bahrain.
Rossi has made no secret of his ambition to maneuver as much as the Hypercar class. He sampled the BMW M Hybrid V8 in the course of the 2024 Bahrain rookie check and has said on a number of events that the prototype fits his driving fashion higher than GT3 equipment. For now, nevertheless, there isn’t a indication {that a} Hypercar programme is imminent. The most probably subsequent step seems to be a return to GT World Problem Europe, the place he beforehand mixed dash and endurance racing along with his WEC commitments.
BMW M4 CS Version VR46
Though Rossi’s WEC chapter with BMW has come to an in depth, his relationship with the model stays broader than racing alone. Earlier this 12 months, BMW unveiled the BMW M4 CS Version VR46, a limited-run mannequin developed in collaboration with Rossi and impressed by his iconic racing quantity and coloration palette. The automotive underscored Rossi’s continued relevance inside BMW’s efficiency and life-style narrative, whilst his manufacturing unit racing function evolves.
For WRT and BMW, the 2026 WEC season represents a reset on the LMGT3 aspect, with a youthful driver line-up and a clearer long-term improvement focus. For Rossi, it’s one other pivot in a post-MotoGP profession that has already confirmed extra substantial and aggressive than many initially anticipated, even when a 3rd season within the World Endurance Championship is now not a part of the plan.
[Source: Motorsport]
