Rossi to test next week - 26th January 19:08pm GMT

Formula 1 tests in Valencia next week will offer the first chance to compare MotoGP star Valentino Rossi's performance on four wheels with that of Ferrari's regular drivers .

Official team sources confirmed on Thursday that during the Jan.31-Feb.2 tests in Spain Rossi would be on the track at the same time as seven-times world champ Michael Schumacher and his new team-mate Felipe Massa .

Ferrari, like the other Formula 1 teams that will be in the Valencia, wants to use the tests to allow its two drivers to put the new 'F1 248 car' through its paces. But Schumacher and Massa will also be driving a version of Ferrari's championship-winning 2004 car, so that comparisons can be made .

Rossi, it now appears, will be driving the same version of the older car as he continues to explore the possibility of one day making a switch from motorcycling to Formula 1 .

This means that for some of the tests direct comparisons can be made between the lap times of the 26-year-old motorcycle star and the affirmed four-wheel stars .

"This is his first real Formula 1 trial," said Rossi's father Graziano, admitting that he was anxious about how his offspring would perform .

Rossi's last outing in a Ferrari was in November at the team's home track of Mugello. He reportedly lapped about two seconds behind the circuit record set by Schumacher .

Although he would be an unusually late starter to the sport, there has been persistent speculation that Rossi will some day race for Ferrari .

Rossi is always cagey about his intentions, but his father admits the prospect is on his son's mind. "I think he'll take till about halfway through this season and then he'll decide one way or another." Italian sports fans - along with sponsors and marketing people - are thrilled by the idea that Rossi might try to be the first Italian driver to win a title in a Ferrari since Alberto Ascari in 1953 .

Rossi, who has little left to prove in MotoGP, is also believed to be attracted by the challenge of successfully making a switch which only one man, Britain's John Surtees, has ever done before .

Surtees won four world motorcycling titles before switching to cars in 1960. In 1964, at the age of 30, he won a world title driving a Ferrari .

Rossi recently signed a contract to race another year with Yamaha but after that his future is uncertain .

Some fans see him racing for Ferrari in 2007, when many people expect Michael Schumacher to retire.