"New sponsor to fund Rossi pay rise?"

Valentino Rossi's career three winning streaks my request for early pay rise.

Valentino Rossi in the success of win three consecutive races and increasing the top of the MotoGP championship may have blocked plans to offer the Yamaha seven times world champion cutting payment in 2009, according to the Spanish daily newspaper Sport.

The dynamic pairing of Rossi and 21-year-old Jorge Lorenzo - the dream team that represents both the present and future of MotoGP - has also provoked an avalanche of blue-chip sponsors willing to replace as Fiat factory Yamaha team's sponsors, the newspaper said.

Fiat contract expires at the end of this year, and the automaker is said to be unlikely to renew its support. But three or four major Spanish companies, including two banks, an insurance company and a telecommunications organization are willing to talk, according to Sport.

The telecommunications company is said to be Telefonica, which supported Dani Pedrosa on 125 and 250cc competition until the Spanish moved to MotoGP. Banks can be Caja Madrid and Santander - the latter already active with Yamaha in World Superbikes.

Lorenzo Rossi and may purchased separately its sponsor, as the author of the article, German G Casanova. And the total price backing of the two pilots would be € 12 m per year, compared with € 6 m per year that Fiat had paid in 2007 and 2008.

"Nobody has refused anything in the article," Casanova told me in Mugello on Sunday night.

Their sources indicate that Yamaha Rossi were considering offering a cut of 5 to 7 € m m € in 2009. But Rossi success of the wave can lead to thinking in the region of € 10 m per year - € € Yamaha 6 m and 4 m of personal sponsors, as Kerakoli and Nastro Azzurro. He has to pay the tax authorities Italian € 30 m after his recent tax dispute.

Doctor hopes to sign a new contract Yamaha MotoGP before the summer recess begins on July 20, but still are not sure whether it will be a year or two in front.

Rossi: Ferrari wanted me; Schu falls.

Italian legend reveals that another Italian legend wanted him to sign on the dotted line - the only thing that stopped him was his love of racing on just two wheels ...

Valentino Rossi has claimed that Ferrari wanted him to make the jump across the Formula 1 - and acknowledged that he believed the switch, but in the end decided that enjoyed by motor racing too much in return.

The seven times world champion proof of the legendary Scuderia on several occasions, most recently at Valencia in Spain in early 2006, when he overlapped competitive only one second adrift of Michael Schumacher, who has won the largest number of titles on four wheels as Rossi in two.

The 29-year-old star of Yamaha triumphed at home in Mugello on lawn on weekends, its third successive victory in 2008 and has expanded its advantage over the riders' classification to twelve points over Honda Dani Pedrosa rival as he seeks to include in its four consecutive MotoGP crowns made from 2002 to 2005, a period when the man nicknamed 'The Doctor' was unbeatable.

"I've thought about it," the Italian confessed to the German publication Welt am Sonntag when asked about why he had never ido a career in F1 after his essay encouraging. "I wanted to Ferrari. It is another world, but I was fast."

The prospect of a showdown Rossi vs. Schumacher at the pinnacle of international four-wheel racing certainly have been a mouth watering, but ultimately, man of Urbino chosen to stick with the devil knew - although he did admit to having recently had "some regrets" about his decision not to run the risk [see story - here].

"There was a possibility of moving to F1," he added in an interview with Spanish daily El Mundo. "I do not know if I would have done well or not, but in the end I like my life and still have a passion for motorcycles."