Grapevine: Rossi Has Open Invitation to Test, Say BAR

Italian motorcycling World Champion Valentino Rossi has an open invitation to try out a British American Racing (BAR) Formula One car but nothing has been arranged yet, team boss David Richards said today.

Rossi, last year's 500cc champion, won the first MotoGP world title in Brazil this month on a Honda, the Japanese industrial giant who are also BAR's engine and chassis partners in Formula One.

Richards said BAR were open to the idea of Rossi, who has been as dominant on two wheels as Ferrari's runaway World Champion Michael Schumacher in Formula One this season, getting behind the wheel.

"We're waiting for Honda to progress that. We're quite a willing partner, HRD (Honda Racing Division) are willing but he's contracted to the motorcycle division and it's up to them," he said at the U.S. Grand Prix.

"We haven't discussed when it will be, where it will be or anything."

Rossi has more of a reputation as a fan of rallying than Formula One and is set to drive in the season-ending Rally of Britain in a Peugeot run by Italian team Grifone. He would not be the first motorcycling champion to try out a Formula One car however, with Briton John Surtees winning the World Championship on two wheels and then conquering the Grand Prix world with Ferrari in 1964.

Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone told Britain's Motorsport News this week that the extrovert Rossi had the sort of personality Formula One needed.

"We need someone like Valentino Rossi," he said. "I have met him - fantastic. Unfortunately, I don't have a team myself or I would get him on board straight away."