(ANSA) - As Valentino Rossi celebrated his seventh world motorcycling crown, there seemed to be little standing in the way of a possible future switch to Ferrari's Formula 1 team.
The Italian ace's father, a former motorcycling racer himself, said he was all in favour of a move by Rossi into Formula 1, expressing the certainty that his son could learn how to handle four wheels very quickly.
Meanwhile, Ferrari chief Luca Cordero di Montezemolo made it plain the door was open should Rossi decide to take the plunge. Calling for an end to relentless speculation on the question, he said: "The choice depends on him. I'm sure he'll know what to do."
The historic leap, if it comes, would not come next season but the one after. Rossi recently signed a new one-year contract with Yamaha and Michael Schumacher's with Ferrari has another year to run. "At the end of next season Valentino could think about trying another sport and a gamble in Formula 1 would be really exciting," his father, Graziano, said on Italian radio.
"It would be a bit like the gamble he took - and won - when he moved from Honda to Yamaha."
Rossi abandoned Honda at the end of 2003 for its rival, which at the time was widely accepted as having inferior bikes. Many pundits said he had bitten off more than he could chew, but he won his first race on the Yamaha and went on to win the title again. On Sunday he repeated the feat and, after a thrilling race in which he finished second, he was crowned world champion in the flagship class for the fifth time.
"He could become a good Formula 1 driver too," Graziano Rossi said confidently.
"He's still not sure of how competitive he would be at the wheel. If he can show he has the ability to go fast in a car, he could well make the switch." The universally popular Rossi, whose exploits on Sunday were watched by 3.7 million Italians (more than those that watched the Formula 1 race), has already tried out a Ferrari Formula 1 car several times.
According to the team's technical director, he may find time for more test drives over the winter. This has fueled speculation in the media that Ferrari and Rossi are seriously considering a future together. Italian sports fans - along with sponsors and marketing people - are thrilled by the idea that Rossi might try to be the first Italian driver to win a title in a Ferrari since Alberto Ascari in 1953.
Rossi, who is only 26, is also believed to be attracted by the challenge of successfully making a switch which only one man, Britain's John Surtees, has ever done before. Surtees won four world motorcycling titles before switching to cars in 1960. In 1964, at the age of 30, he won a world title driving a Ferrari. Although there is no lack of encouragement for a Rossi move to F1, there are also those who say he would have no chance of winning anything on four wheels.
The most outspoken in this camp is Renault F1 chief Flavio Briatore. "Racing in Formula 1 requires much more training and preparation than racing on a motorbike," he said during the summer "You can't just arrive on the scene and hope to play the prima donna."
Somewhat nettled by the implied criticism, Rossi begged to differ, saying it was harder to go from four wheels to two. He also expressed puzzlement that Briatore and others in the F1 world should be so keen to argue the point. "In the end it occurs to me that it might simply be jealousy," he added.
