How Valentino Rossi helped assemble “great” 24 Hours of Spa BMW line-up

Ex-Formula 1 driver Kevin Magnussen has revealed how Valentino Rossi helped assemble WRT BMW’s line-up for this weekend’s 24 Hours of Spa endurance race.

The month of June sees Europe’s three major 24-hour races take place back-to-back-to-back with the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the 24 Hours of the Nurburgring and the 24 Hours of Spa.

MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi will have taken part in two of them by the end of the month, with an entry for the Spa 24 coming after the No.46 WRT BMW he drove along with Kelvin van der Linde and Ahmad Al Harthy was knocked out of victory contention at Le Mans last weekend.

Rossi will get behind the wheel on the No.46 BMW M4 GT3 at Spa alongside WRT’s Hypercar drivers Kevin Magnussen and former event winner Rene Rast.

Magnussen, who has joined the BMW Hypercar programme following his exit from F1 last year, says racing at Spa “with one of the biggest sports icons in the world” is a “massive privilege” he has gained with the German manufacturer.

“Yeah, that is also a massive privilege that I have with BMW,” he said of entering the Spa 24.

“They do a lot of racing. Not only here. They have GT racing and I can sort of take a look at the global motorsport calendar and start to look at Bathurst or Nordschleife or Spa 24, these things.

“It's a lot of fun and I'm very very much looking forward to sharing the car with probably one of the biggest sports icons I would say in the world. Hopefully going for the win there too!”

Magnussen says he became involved during a team dinner in Qatar for the opening round of the 2025 World Endurance Championship when Rossi suggested partnering up for Spa.

“When we were in Qatar, we were out having dinner with all the team and Vale was like ‘we should do Spa together’ then I said ‘yeah, cool’,” Magnussen recalls.

Nine-time grand prix motorcycle world champion Valentino Rossi has contested the 24 Hours of Spa, finishing 14th in class in 2022 and then sixth in 2023.

The Italian says sharing a car with Magnussen will be a major learning boost for him as Rossi considers him “a top driver”.

“Will be very interesting,” Rossi said of the upcoming 24 Hours of Spa.

“I think it’s a great line-up. I think a lot of people who follow this championship [WEC] will follow our car in Spa because

“It’s an idea from Vincent [Vosse, WRT owner].

“I’m very, very proud to share the car with Rast and Magnussen. If you said to me five years ago I would race with a Formula 1 driver in the same car, I say that it’s not possible!

“We did some tests, I already shared the car with Kevin, we enjoyed it very much.

“From him you can learn a lot because he’s a top driver and I’m curious to work with Rast. He helped me very much with the Hypercar last year in the rookie test.

“We pushed a lot on Rene, especially in Qatar, the first race, because he didn’t want to race.

“He said ‘no, for me it’s [WEC] enough’. We pushed, especially Vincent pushed, and at the end he said yes. I’m very happy that we can race together. He’s one of the best GT drivers.”