Valentino Rossi cagey on 2013 plans

Valentino Rossi has denied his own future in MotoGP is close to being sorted out after Jorge Lorenzo penned a new two-year deal with Yamaha’s factory squad earlier this week.

Rossi is keeping his options open despite Ducati publicly stating its intention to keep the Italian legend for 2013.

Lorenzo will stay with Yamaha for 2013 and ’14 but Rossi, who has been linked with Yamaha and HRC factory seats next season, said he wouldn’t be hurrying his future decision.

He told MCN: “The decision of Jorge doesn’t change a lot and for me. It is quite early and we have to work on the Ducati to be faster and get some good results before I think of the future. I will think about my future in the summer and minimum I have to wait until after Laguna Seca.”

Laguna Seca is when Ducati plans to roll out a new engine spec aimed at taming the Ducati’s aggressive power delivery but Rossi confirmed he has held tentative talks with Bologna factory management about a contract renewal.

He added: “I think Ducati is very happy to continue and we have already started to speak a little bit about the future.”

The 33-year-old heads into this weekend’s British Grand Prix looking to erase the memory of a disastrous Silverstone debut in monsoon conditions 12 months ago.

Rossi finished 64 seconds behind race winner Casey Stoner and he said: “I have very, very bad memories from Silverstone last year. It was one of the worst races of last season. I was very slow and too far from the top guys. At the end sixth position was like a gift because if you see my pace in the race that was very difficult for me.  My target is to try and be competitive as I was in the past races, like in Barcelona, be as competitive as we are in the wet.”

Rossi claimed his best Ducati result in wet conditions at Le Mans last month when he finished second behind Lorenzo’s dominant YZR-M1 machine.

But whether he will be competitive this weekend, with forecasts for heavy rain, remains a mystery after he struggled so much in wet conditions at Silverstone a year ago.

Rossi said: “We are more competitive in the rain and can fight for a better result although last here I was in a bad condition here also in the wet.  It is important to understand if we improve this year.  We have a better base now so I expect to be faster and closer to the top. Usually a wet race is our best chance of a good result but it is difficult to say now. We have to wait until tomorrow.”