Montezemolo says Rossi shock move to Ferrari 'not for the publicity'

Former Ferrari boss Luca di Montezemolo says the Scuderia's plans to run MotoGP superstar Valentino Rossi in F1 back in the mid-2000s were anything but a publicity stunt.

Rossi tested for Ferrari several times between 2004 and 2010, and there were often whispers that the multi-world champion MotoGP rider was mulling a switch to F1.

Indeed, Rossi's maiden test with the Scuderia, which took place at Fiorano in 2004, astonished the Italian outfit's staff at the time, including Michael Schumacher himself.

In just ten laps, Rossi was within 0.7s of the German driver's best time, a performance that completely astounded the latter.

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In the end, Rossi never changed his destiny to try and emulate the great John Surtees, but at the time Ferrari was dead serious about its plans to move the Italian rider into F1.

"Everyone knows it was not a publicity operation, Ferrari did not need it," said di Montezemolo told Motorsport.com.

"At the beginning, it was almost out of courtesy for a great champion's desire. I saw he was going strong, despite his lack of continuity, but he had a lot of potential and motivation.

"At one point we thought he would do a year at Sauber, but he was smart and preferred to remain number one in motorcycles rather than be fourth or fifth in cars."

Rossi, who hasn't won a MotoGP event since 2017, heads into his twenty-first season in motorcycle racing's top class, having switched to the Petronas Yamaha SRT outfit where he will race alongside his VR46 Academy Franco Morbidelli.

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