Speedracer: Here’s a new twist on the ever persistent Rossi-to-Ferrari rumours...At least he has a super license now…And at 80 million euros he’s a fraction of the cost of one Herr Schumacher…Courtesy www.cyclenews.com
Valentino Rossi is headed to Formula One in 2007 after his one-year contract with Yamaha expires at the end of 2006.
That’s the conclusion drawn from published interviews with key Ferrari personnel at last weekend’s Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
Ross Brawn, Ferrari’s technical director, told the Associated Press that the Gauloises Yamaha rider could test as often as once a month beginning this winter. Rossi has already tested the Ferrari three times at the company’s test track in Fiorano.
"He is already as quick as a F-1 driver in the slow corners," Brawn told the AP on Friday.
Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo told Reuters that Rossi’s signing would be with the intent to win, not to capitalize on his immense popularity in Italy and much of Europe.
"He is not obliged to race in F1,” di Montezemolo said. “If he decides to, it is because he decides he is ready to win. He knows that he must do some tests and a champion like him goes into Formula One if he chooses to do so, if he feels he is going there to win. Neither he nor we have a pistol to our heads. If something comes of it, it will above all be his decision. If Ferrari and Rossi come together, it will be to win the world championship and not to put on a show that we do not need," di Montezemolo told Reuters.
The last motorcycle world champion to jump to Ferrari was Britain’s John Surtees. Surtees won seven world championships before capturing the 1964 F-1 crown for Ferrari.
La Repubblica, an Italian daily newspaper, last week published an unsourced report that Rossi will be offered a three-year contract worth 80 million Euros, nearly $100 million.
Kimi Raikkonen, McLaren’s current F-1 driver, would be his teammate, the paper wrote.
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