Carter: Will Rossi stay or will he go?

Eurosport - Fri, 21 Nov 17:31:00 2008

If you've never seen the excellent World Rally Championship before, preferring instead to concentrate on two-wheeled motorsport, would the defection from one to the other by Valentino Rossi make you switch?

Or at least, have a passing interest in an arena you might not have had a look at before?

I ask because, this week, Valentino himself has dropped some pretty big hints at what might be next for him, career-wise.

The eight-times world champion has been putting a Ford Focus rally car through its paces in a test in Cumbria, part of his preparation for the Rally of Wales next month.

He's also been out in the Monza Rally, where he finished second. Considerably higher up the ranking than the rest of his motorcycle peers managed (and quite a few of them took part too, like Loris Capirossi and Marco Simoncelli>).

Second place would indicate, it is fairly safe to assume, that the still-youthful Italian is taking the matter of sliding around the dirt on four wheels very seriously indeed.

So when, whilst talking to La Gazetta dello Sport, Rossi said: "Yes, I like rallies very much. I think it is possible when I finish with bikes. I have another two years, after that we will see," it sparked a bit of interest around the world.

Is this the clearest indication yet that we've got another couple of years of watching Rossi on the bikes? Is he really going to switch to four wheels for good at the end of 2010?

If he does, what will happen to the MotoGP world? Will Rossi's departure mean that Casey Stoner becomes a results machine, rolling off World Championship after World Championship in a similarly devastating way to that which we last saw at the hands of Mick Doohan and his five crowns?

Or will it spur the others in the MotoGP pack on? Seeing the Alpha male leave suddenly encouraging them all to try and move into the vacant spot of all-time number one?

It is another two years before we know what will happen. Will Valentino find enough interest to carry on with motorcycle racing at all at the end of these next two years? We know he switched from Honda to Yamaha because he needed a fresh challenge and that the arrival of the 800s further sparked the grey matter too.

Two more years isn't a very long time at all, certainly not in racing terms and if all we do have is 36 more races to enjoy Rossi at this, the very top of his game, then we'd better relish it while we can.

And then take note of the WRC calendar, set the video and see how well our boy does in that world.

World champion in two seasons there too, I reckon.