Massa: Rossi tests won't distract Ferrari

With the team having now confirmed that Rossi will join their testing programme at Valencia in Spain next week, there is likely to be increased media interest surrounding the team's efforts at a crucial time in the pre-season build-up.

But Massa is adamant that Ferrari will not take their eye off their preparations for the 2006 campaign.

"For sure not," he said during a break in testing at Barcelona on Thursday. "Everybody inside the team is looking at 2006 and we have a very important championship to do. I have a very important championship and everybody is really focused on 2006. For 2007, nobody knows what is going to happen."

Massa admitted to being excited about the prospect of Rossi running alongside regular F1 drivers for the first time - and dismissed any suggestions that the MotoGP champion's involvement with the team was purely for marketing reasons.

"Of course it is a lot to do with marketing but it is not just marketing," he explained. "He is going to try and see his level and to see if he has any chance to move to F1.

"Definitely it is very early to say. He needs a lot of experience and we need to see his level and I think it is good for him to test with other drivers. It will be good for him and good for the people to get a clear idea about what he can do."

When asked about whether he believed Rossi could become a top-line F1 driver, Massa said: "Nobody knows at the moment. When you do one day testing alone, especially with a V10 car and good tyres, you can for sure be able to do some good laptimes.

"But the biggest problem is when you get on the limit, because if you are two seconds slower, I think many drivers can be there. The difficulty is to improve into the last second.

"For sure he shows a lot of potential but there is a lot of work to do to see if he can move to F1 or not."