Valentino Rossi will return to the controls of the #46 Team WRT BMW for this season's Sprint Cup round at Misano, chasing a third win in as many years at the Italian venue.
Rossi has shown outstanding form at his home track, triumphing alongside Maxime Martin in 2023 and 2024 to the jubilation of a his supporters. Last term's Race 1 win was backed up by a podium finish in Race 2, capping his best-ever weekend in GT World Challenge Europe powered by AWS.
In 2025 he will share the #46 BMW with Raffaele Marciello. The pair were Endurance Cup teammates last year, which was Marciello's first as a BMW works driver. The Swiss is the undisputed master of Sprint Cup qualifying, scoring a record 14 pole positions between 2018 and 2023.
Misano has been a hugely successful circuit for Team WRT. The Belgian outfit has earned a remarkable 12 victories from the past 15 races staged at the Adriatic venue, including clean sweeps in 2018, 2021, 2022 and 2024.
Marciello has been among the few to stop them, taking victories in 2020 and 2023. Having previously been the man to break the WRT stronghold, Marciello will now seek to strength it in what will be his first Sprint Cup outing with BMW.
The #46 will complement a three-car Team WRT line-up at Misano. The #32 BMW will be shared by Pro drivers Charles Weerts and Kelvin van der Linde, while the #30 combines young talents Gustav Bergström and Gilles Stadsbader in a Silver Cup effort. The associated AlManar Racing by WRT entry will compete for Gold Cup honours with Al Faisal Al Zubair and Jens Klingmann at the controls.
Misano will host the third round of the Sprint Cup season following events at Brands Hatch and Zandvoort. Tickets for these events are on sale now; for more information, please click here.