Italy's seven-times world champ Valentino Rossi on Friday firmly denied having any thoughts of retiring and said he intended to take back the MotoGP title that has escaped him in the last two years.
''Me? Retire? No way. I don't know why people keep asking me,'' the 28-year-old rider told journalists at the official presentation of his Fiat-Yamaha team here.
''I'll carry on racing for as long as I have a chance of winning,'' he continued, adding that he hoped to stay with Yamaha till the end of his career.
Yamaha team manager Davide Brivio was quoted in an Italian sports daily on Friday as saying the rider could decide to end his racing career in 2008 if his results continued in the same vein as in 2007.
Rossi, who won five straight titles between 2001 and 2005, managed only four race victories last year. He ended the season in third place, 126 points behind Ducati's Casey Stoner, the runaway champion.
It was a major disappointment for the Urbino-born rider, who had already been smarting after he was beaten to the 2006 title by Nicky Hayden in the last race.
Rossi, whose contract with Yamaha expires at the end of 2008, blamed his poor form last year on his bike and in particular his Michelin tyres.
This season he has switched to the Bridgestone tyres favoured by Stoner, while his team-mate, Spain's Jorge Lorenzo, will stick with Michelin.
With new tyres and an improved MI bike, Rossi was convinced he had a good chance of showing Ducati's Australian wonderboy a thing or two.
''It remains to be seen how well Casey holds up under pressure. Our job is to get close to him and threaten him. In many races last year we didn't cause him any trouble at all''.
''2007 was a tough season but this year I want to get the title back,'' he continued, predicting that he, Stoner and Honda's Dani Pedrosa would be the top contenders.
Rossi said his Yamaha team-mate, who has just moved up from the 250cc class, could also be a surprise contender.
When journalists noted that Casey Stoner had not included Rossi in his list of top contenders for 2008, the Italian veteran appeared not to take offence.
The new MotoGP season starts on March 9, with the Grand Prix of Qatar. Rossi will be on the track in Malaysia later this month for tests on his M1 bike.
