Money not important in 2013 decision - Valentino Rossi
Although Rossi didn't mention Yamaha by name, the struggling seven time MotoGP champion confessed to having 'some other options' that he needs to consider.
While any chance of a Repsol Honda return is over, following the signing of Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez, Ben Spies' surprise announcement of a Yamaha exit officially opens the door to a possible Factory M1 return alongside Jorge Lorenzo.
“The situation is quite clear. I still haven't decided, as it is a bit too early,” said Rossi, winless since leaving Yamaha at the end of 2010.
“I have spoken a lot with Ducati about next year, but still waiting about some important ties and some important things on the contract. And I also have some other options for next year.
“But I think the situation will be clearer in the next weeks, and I think in the summer break I will decide about next year.”
Pressed further about the factors that will influence his decision, Rossi - currently the most highly paid MotoGP rider - ruled out money as the main priority.
“Sincerely from my point of view, money is not very important,” he declared. “If not I would already have decided! Everything has some positive and some negatives. So I have to make a clear balance and make the decision.
“From one side [at Ducati] we have a lot of work to do, but good impression and good feeling for the future. With some other choice [assumed to be Yamaha] is more safe and more sure that it is possible to be competitive in a short period.
“It is also a particular moment in my career, so I have to decide what is more important for the future,” added the 33-year-old, Rossi.
Rossi's post-race Mugello test ended early when he suffered technical problems with a new engine management system and The Doctor doesn't expect many changes to his Desmosedici for this weekend's tenth round.
“We had a bike that was different in the engine, but we had the electric problem at the beginning of the afternoon and I was lucky that the bike switched off in a slow part at a long angle, so just a low side,” confirmed Rossi.
“We stopped testing because we didn't know what happened. But that is a problem for this race because more or less we have the same bike from Mugello, and we have to wait a bit more for something different.
“For this year we need to improve at the beginning [of the race] where I'm not able to go fast enough with the top guys. So we have some ideas for the settings this weekend to try and improve that.”
Rossi is sixth in the world championship with a best finish of second, in the wet at Le Mans, so far this year.
