Dakar switch is “another world” for MotoGP winner Petrucci

Danilo Petrucci, a two-time MotoGP race winner, believes the switch from road racing to rallying has been “totally another world” ahead of his Dakar debut in 2022.

After losing his Tech 3 KTM ride for next year, Petrucci will make a remarkable career transfer in 2022. He ended his MotoGP career earlier this month at the Valencia finals.

In 2022, the Italian will stay with KTM and Tech 3, but he will compete in the famous Dakar Rally, which has long been a dream of his.

Petrucci did some desert running in Dubai prior of the last MotoGP events of 2021, and he has continued his preparations after the season ended.

In an interview ahead of the Valencia finale, Petrucci admits the move to rallying has been a significant adjustment – and that he has yet to figure out what the rest of his 2022 season will involve.

“The biggest thing to learn in the Dakar is everything because it’s completely another world,” Petrucci said.

“I think already in one week of training I did more than the distance that I did all this year with a MotoGP bike.

“So, I’m completely new and fortunately I have some quite good skills for riding.

“But then the navigation is really, really something you need to understand because here [in MotoGP] we talk about metres and millimetres on the bike.

“There you talk about kilometres, and you never know what’s going on.

“For this reason, I will do this Dakar, then we will sit down a bit with KTM and will decide what the plan is for the year after, if I enjoy to do these kinds of races or try to do something different.

“But at the moment I’m quite busy doing that because I need a lot of time to recover and especially, to understand how the race can be.”

Last weekend, Dakar organizers unveiled the specifics of the 2022 rally, which would be held in Saudi Arabia for two weeks from January 1 to 14 and will last two weeks.

The Dakar in 2022 will be part of the new FIA World Cross-Country Rally Championships, as well as the FIM rally series.

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