Ecclestone: Rossi would have been mad to leave MotoGP

Valentino Rossi would have been ‘stupid’ to have made a multi-million pound switch to Ferrari’s Formula One team for 2007.
That’s the view of F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone – the man who was desperate to lure the Italian MotoGP legend away from two wheels.

Ecclestone backed Rossi’s decision to continue his world championship career in MotoGP after the 28-year-old Italian was constantly linked to a move to F1 in the early part of 2006 having completed several test drives for Ferrari. 

Ecclestone is a huge personal admirer of the Italian and said on more than one occasion he would love to have cajoled Rossi into dumping his motorcycling roots to switch to F1. 

Rossi crushed those hopes though last June when he announced at his home race in Mugello he had decided to sign a new deal with Yamaha, which he extended until the end of the 2008 MotoGP world championship campaign back in February.

MCN asked Ecclestone if he had a sense of disappointment that Rossi had shunned Ferrari’s mega bucks and he said: “He’s not going to do is he? I would like to have seen him with us to be honest with you he’s good where he is.

“Obviously he would have been stupid to have moved. Honestly he’s the king of the bikes and it would have been stupid to come to Formula One and maybe not make it, he did the right thing.

“We don’t know, maybe he would have come in and done well.”

Ecclestone said he now believed hopes of Rossi still considering a future switch were dead and buried, though he said his desire to see Rossi drive a F1 car competitively hadn’t waned despite Rossi’s refusal to leave Yamaha.

“I think more likely he wants to do rallies. For us it’s not closed and for the teams I’m sure they’d love to have him. I’d love him to be there, but I don’t see it,” said Ecclestone, who denied he had spoken personally to Rossi in the early part of ’06 to try and convince the Fiat Yamaha rider to move.

He added: “Not really no, I didn’t speak to him to encourage him.”

Rossi said: “I know Bernie a little from F1 and I’ve always found him to be a gentleman. However I never really discussed with him whether or not to go to Formula One.”