Seven-time MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi has seemingly been left out of the BMW team of the FIA World Endurance Championship, and will drop to another category next year if he wants to keep racing, delaying his ambitions to racing with Hypercars in the future.
Rossi, 46-year-old, joined car racing in 2022, immediately after finishing his motorcycling career in 2021, first joining Team WRT, taking part in the GT Challenge and the European Endurance Cup and eventually in the FIA World Endurance Championship in 2024, driving a BMW with the no. 46.
At the WEC, Rossi achieved good levels of success, with three podiums in Imola, Fuji and COTA during the 2024 and 2025 seasons, and led the 2024 edition of the 24 hours of Le Mans at some point. However, a setback by his teammate Ahmad Al Harthy in 2024 and electrical problems in 2025 caused Rossi to never finish the race in Le Mans.
Now, BMW has announced the driver line-up for the LMGT3 category at the WEC, and Rossi's number 46 is not listed (neither any of his former teammates), confirming that he has been taken out by the team one year before his contract expired with the German team. It is expected that Rossi will return to the GTWCE and compete again at the GT World Challenge.