MotoGP world champion Valentino Rossi will be back behind the wheel of a Ferrari Formula 1 car later this month, Ferrari confirmed on Thursday.
Sources at Ferrari said that this month's tests would be ''a chance to celebrate the success of a friend and a team''.
Rossi won this year's MotoGP title while Ferrari again won the Formula 1 constructors' championship.
The 29-year-old Yamaha rider flirted with the idea of moving to Formula 1 after he won his fifth MotoGP championship in a row in 2005.
He tested a modified F2004 car in Valencia and even shared the track with 'real' Formula 1 drivers but in the end decided to stick to two-wheeled racing.
Although he did better than many had expected, Rossi said at the time that ''it's like being on another planet. It's like a soccer player switching to basketball''.
''The sensations are all different. Braking is different, the lines are different, the acceleration is different,'' he added.
Many fans and observers believe that Rossi's earlier Rossi's infatuation with Formula 1 distracted him and were in part responsible for him failing to win the 2006 and 2007 MotoGP championships.
Rossi will test drive a F2008 car on November 20 and 21 at the Mugello circuit in Tuscany.
Ferrari's parent company Fiat is the chief sponsor of Rossi's Yamaha team.
