Ferrari will Wait for Rossi to Decide

Technical director Ross Brawn said this month that Rossi, who could take his fifth consecutive premier class title in Malaysia on Sunday, was likely to test every four to six weeks for the Italian team next year.

However the charismatic Italian rider said last week that he knew nothing of such plans, did not have time for a lot of tests and had not made up his mind about the future beyond staying in MotoGP with Yamaha next year.

"He's the final arbitrator of what he does, I don't determine what he does," Brawn said at a Brazilian Grand Prix news conference when asked about Rossi's reaction.

"I probably got ahead of myself because I was asked how would you go about turning Valentino Rossi into a Grand Prix driver," he added.

"To me that's how you do it, that would be the programme to follow if Valentino wants to go Grand Prix racing.

"But he's indicated that he's not made that decision yet so I think we need to wait and see what he wants to do."

Nice Combination

Rossi has tested a Ferrari Formula One car twice at the team's Fiorano test track and impressed the engineers with his performance.

"I would hope that if Valentino wanted to get into Formula One he would do it with Ferrari because it's a nice combination," said Brawn.

"He's done two tests for us now and he got on very well with the people...so naturally it's very attractive.

"But I think he will look at all his options and make that decision when he has to make it. As our president said, nobody is holding a gun to his head.

"We'd certainly be interested in working with him if there is some potential in the future."

Brawn said he did not think any further tests had been decided for the rest of the year and knew of no exclusive agreement binding the Italian to Ferrari should he want to enter Formula One.