Yamaha offers Rossi three-year contract
One of Italy's biggest sports newspapers reckons that Rossi has been handed a three-year contract with Yamaha -- which includes a season in the WSBK title!Influential Italian sports newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport is reporting that Yamaha has offered Rossi a three-year contract to race in MotoGP in 2013 and 2014 then move into World Superbike in 2015 -- a championship which has piqued his interest in recent times.
Rossi has previously said he would make an announcement about his future with Ducati very soon -- sometime in August -- and word on the street is that he will end his contract with Ducati early in order to finish his MotoGP career on a bike that can provide podium pace, and potentially give him another title.
If what Gazetta dello Sport reports is true, Rossi would be hard pressed to ignore the offer, given the current state of affairs with Ducati.
The fortunes of Rossi have monumentally changed since joining Ducati. The Italian team has struggled to supply a bike that suits his riding style and not even engineering maestro, Australian Jeremy Burgess, has been able to fix the issues. As such Rossi's form has slumped, to put it bluntly.
Rossi has struggled to regain his regular podium placings that characterised his career before 2011, but that could all be set change if he rejoins Yamaha.
Of course if he did sign the allegedly contract that Yamaha is offering he would also have a shot at a World Superbike title in 2015, and if he happened to win that championship he would go down in history as the world's greatest motorcycle road racer, taking out 125, 250, 500, MotoGP and World Superbike titles.
Yamaha has plans to return to the World Superbike title in 2014 and Rossi would certainly be an asset in helping to develop its YZF-R1 race bike. You can almost smell the special edition models being commissioned.
Rossi has already ridden a World Superbike-spec Yamaha, when he was recuperating from a broken leg in 2010.
If you were Rossi, would you make the switch to Yamaha in 2013, or see out the Ducati contract and stay with the Italians for one more year?
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