Rossi was in frame for Ferrari drive

The MotoGP champion had considered a switch to F1 with Ferrari a few years ago before committing himself to motorbikes - and was once again linked with a move as the Maranello-outfit sought a replacement for Luca Badoer as stand-in for Felipe Massa.

However, Rossi said that the lack of preparation on his neck and the limited opportunity to get mileage in the car, allied to his current title battle in motorcycle racing, meant he decided to turn his back on the idea.

"We spoke with Domenicali, but we had two big problems," he said during preparations for this weekend's MotoGP race at Misano in Italy.

"The first one is the neck, because I don't know if I would be able to finish the race with my neck. Monza is not very strong for [hard on] the neck, but anyway it still needs great effort.

"And also, because we're fighting for the [MotoGP] championship, for sure the race at Monza would be a big stress and it's better to stay in MotoGP."

Rossi said that even prior to speaking to Domenicali he had already been reluctant to take on the opportunity of an F1 race because of the lacking of available testing.

"We had already decided before, that to go into a Formula 1 race without testing the car is more risky than fun," he said. "It's not possible to arrive over there and do all the work to understand the car in just three days."