Alonso to Race Rossi on Ice During Wrooom Event

Valentino Rossi and Fernando Alonso will go head to head in the traditional ice race held each January as part of the Wrooom Ferrari & Ducati Press Ski Meeting. Although some doubts were cast over Rossi's ability to take part in the race due to his recent shoulder surgery, Ducati MotoGP team manager Vittoriano Guareschi confirmed that his new rider will be fit to compete in some ice races during the media event.

The Wrooom takes place in the northern part of Italy (the Dolomites) and represents Ferrari's season-opening media event. Held in January, the event is marked by media conferences, press presentations, ski meetings and some ice racing, usually Fiat 4×4 Pandas and go-karts. The event is held together with Ducati, who usually takes this opportunity to present its new bike, livery and riders for the upcoming MotoGP campaign.

This year marks a special Wrooom event, as this will be Valentino Rossi's first appearance as an official Ducati rider. Together with Nicky Hayden, Rossi will compete against Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso in the aforementioned ice race, as part of the traditional MotoGP vs. F1 head-to-head encounters.

“[Rossi] won't be snowboarding, and he is disappointed about that, because it's just too risky for his shoulder,” Guareschi told Italy's Corriere dello Sport, as reported by Gpone.com, “but for sure he will participate in the car race on the ice, against Fernando Alonso.”

In the past, Alonso and Rossi shared some opinions regarding each other's racing capabilities, with the Spaniard setting the opener back in 2006. At the time, Rossi had tested a Ferrari F1 car for fun and scored some impressive lap times, yet Alonso insisted that he would perform just as well on a MotoGP bike if he'd have enough time to practice.

What happened next was Rossi launching a public challenge to Alonso for the two racers to drive an F1 car, a WRC machine (Rossi used to do some rallying events also) and a MotoGP bike simultaneously and then add up the lap times to find out who's the fastest. The request remained unanswered to this date.