We all know Valentino Rossi's passion for rallies. Great fan since his childhood and regular at rallies such as the San Remo and the Montecarlo Rally, Rossi has always declared to be very keen on this motorsport. Therefore, his intention is to take part in this year's RAC Rally of Great Britain, one of the most difficult rallies of the World Championship, once the 2002 season is over. Talking to Valentino about his great passion and about his first participation in a "real" rally is like talking to a schoolboy about summer holidays: both are excited and eager, looking forward to that moment.

How did the idea to take part in a rally come up?

"Well, rallies are my passion. I try to get on a car like that as often as I can if I have the opportunity to do so. Once, talking to the guys of the Italian team Grifone, the possibility to take part in this rally came up and we began to make plans. It's not a hundred per cent sure yet, but things are on the move. The car, a Peugeot 206, will not be an official car nor anything like that, it would be crazy to intend to do anything serious in that rally; it's only about a new experience and having a good time. My co-driver will be the usual co-driver of Piero Liatti, Carlo Casina, who has got a lot of experience of which I will be able to learn a lot."

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"It's a world I have always been attracted to a lot, since I was a little boy. I still remember, some years ago, when I was able to walk around without being recognised by the fans, that I used to go as often as I could, to watch some stage of the San Remo or the Montecarlo Rally with my friends. It was amazing and fascinating, watching how the cars would pass skidding and driving to the limit. I think this is one of the motorsport modalities that has been kept pure, with charisma and a certain mature taste. Y obviously like the rally world because driving a rally-prepared car just fascinates me. The sensations at the steering-wheel of a WRC are simply impressive."

May we be seeing Valentino Rossi racing rallies once he's retired from the motorbike world...?

"I don't know. Right now I'm racing on a bike and I'm completely concentrated on it. I love to drive those cars, but I have a contract with Honda for one more year and that is my immediate future for the moment. Once my sports career in the Motorcycling World Championship is over I might think about it... and the truth is that I would love to do it!!"

Your latest experience in a rally car was quite unlucky, wasn't it?

"Yes", says Valentino smiling, "I know what you mean, the test with the Seat Cordoba WRC with Fonsi Nieto a few days before the Catalunya Grand Prix. The truth is that we went a bit to far with it... you see, even if it sounds illogical, it's easier to suffer a mishap with a rally car than with my bike. Why? Because you feel less protected on the bike and you take more precautions, always leaving a margin for safety...,when you are in the car, you feel much more protected and everything invites you to look for the limit, to look for more. That day, it was a problem of only ten centimetres, that was the distance between the car and the tree I would have crashed into, the only tree on the edge of the whole track we were testing the cars. I took a left-hand corner too fast and the car just went a bit farther than what I had expected..."

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"Yes, I was there last year in December. It's not a rally as such, but a race-show. But anyway, burning fuel is always a good experience... With regard to Didier Auriol, I had the occasion to be his co-driver and it was just crazy. One lap was enough to seriously consider that my experience as a co-driver had come to an end. Very exciting, yes, but too much for me..."

Saving the distances and despite being two completely different kinds of motorsport, which are the main differences between riding your bike and driving a rally car?

"There are several differences, first of all the braking, because the car brakes a lot more than the bike and you can brake so late that the first time you have always several metres left... Skidding control is also quite different, because with the car you are always skidding from one side to the other and it obviously has a bigger dimension than a bike, so you have to be very conscious of the size in order to pass through where you want to without making mistakes. You skid a lot less with the bike and the dimensions are really tiny compared with those of the car, so you just have to sharpen the aim to pass through where you want to. With regard to the power, I would say that I'm much more impressed by the bike's power, the response is much wilder."

Trees, cliffs, stones, hill brows.... You can't find the same safety of the Motorcycling World Championship in rallies, can you?

"That's true but on the other hand, the safety offered by a rally car is not offered by any bike, because on a bike you're completely exposed to everything, while in a car you are safe inside a highly protected cockpit. I personally think that it is more dangerous to race on a bike than in a rally."

Valentino Rossi is somebody used to break all kinds of records... Very few riders in motorcycling history have switched from bikes to Formula 1 or other classes, having most of the times good results or even taking a Formula 1 World Championship. But what we haven't seen until today is a motorbike rider switching to rallies and doing a good job... Where could Valentino Rossi get in the rally world?

"Well, first of all I have to make clear that I don't want to switch to car racing after leaving the bikes believing that I may win. It's only about doing something for fun, because I'm attracted by it and I want to and feel like doing it. The truth is that I'm not even sure to be capable of driving a rally car as well as I ride a racing bike. But you can be sure that if I begin to race in rallies after leaving the bikes, I'll be doing it for fun and just for fun."

But, what would happen if you would suddenly notice that you are very competitive in a rally car?

"I know I'm fast with a rally car after the tests I've already made but it's always been in closed circuits and those are very different conditions compared to the ones you find in real rallies. Winning a rally is something really difficult and doing a good job is something only very few people in the world can do. And I have to confess that I haven't driven a rally car on a real rally stage yet..."

There is no doubt that his switch to cars is, for the moment, a far and difficult challenge for him, but even if the fastest Italian rider on earth tells us, that if he does it, he will be doing it for fun, something tells us, deeply looking into the eyes of this precocious winner, that he will be surprising us once again...

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