It would be unwise to write off Valentino Rossi in this weekend’s L꧒e Mans 24 Hours.

The MotoGP legend returns for his second crack at the 🧸French endurance classic, driving the #46 BMW M4 GT3 Evo for Team WRT in the LMGT3 categoꦏry.

Rossi’s Le Mans debut last year showed early promise, as he led the opening stages of the race in class. However, his maiden appearance ended prematurely when teammate 🍌Ahmad Al Har🌃thy crashed at the Esses in wet conditions on 🌃slick tyres, inflicting terminal damage to the BMW.

Twelve months on, both Rossi and Al Harthy are vastly more experienced, having gained significant mileage🌳 in the World En൲durance Championship. There is also a new addition to the #46 crew, with two-time Nurburgring 24 Hours winner Kelvin van der Linde stepping in as the car’s designated platinum driver to replace Mercedes-bound Maxime Martin.

Rossi has also downscaled his involvement in other categories to prioritise his primary commitments in the WEC this year. Hence, instead of splitting his time between WEC and the GT World Challenge Europe, nearly all of his focus is on the world champꦬionship this year.

While the change in approach was driven by major events in his personal life - he became a father for a second time in January - and a desire to spend more time with his VR46 team in MotoGP, it should nevertheless h🉐ave a positive impact on his competitiveness on track.

Now in h🌺is fourth year in car racing, post his MotoGP retirement after 2021, Rossi has consisteꦅntly shown signs of improvement.

In 2023, he claimed his first major GT3 win in the GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Cup round at his beloved Misano track. Last year, he repeated that feat, while also finishing on the podium in 🔜both Imola and Fuji W﷽EC rounds.

This year, he came incredibly close to a maiden WEC victory, as the #46 B♊MW finished just three-tenths down on the race-winning #92 Po♍rsche 911 GT3 of Ryan Hardwick, Richard Lietz and Riccardo Pera.

Rossi would - and should - have won that race had he not c🌼lattered into the #21 AF Corse🐻 Ferrari 296 GT3 of Simon Mann in the fourth hour. That contac🎃t earned him and his teammates a stop-and-go penalty, leaving them out of contention for victory.

However, it’s important to highlight how Rossi’s teammate van der Linde 🏅bounced back from that disappointment to drag the car back up to the second spot on the podium.

With platinum-rated drivers doing the last part of the race at every WEC event, van der Linde’s late-race speed could well work in Rossi’s favour as 🔯he chases the biggest win of his car racing career.

As always, clean execution will be vital. Last year’s crash by Al Harthy and Rossi’s misjudgment at Imola are reminders of how quickly races can unravel. Even beyond driver errors, endurance racing is fraught with unpredictability and a car could be forced out of contention even through no fault of the person driving it. Just ask BMW’s🌠 Hypercar driver Dries Vanthoor.

Still, there’s reason for optimism. WRT finished second in class at Le Mans last year with its #31 BMW driven by Sean Gelael, Augusto Farfus and Darren Leung, demonstrating the M4 GT3’s competitiveness around the Circuit de🐲 la Sarthe.

Rossi and his crewmates now need to put everything together to match that result - or go one better t✅hisꦬ time.