The multi-tasking sportsman is an easy target. From George Foreman flipping fat-free burgers to Ian Botham's days leading the line at Scunthorpe United, the notion that a hero can spread his genius has long invited cynicism. It has been the same with Valentino Rossi, whose forays into Formula One provoked a snobbish sneer from Fernando Alonso, the two-times world champion in the sport, and whose first attempt to be a crossover rally star ended in a Welsh ditch. Nobody should be deceived, however, because this figure of fun is serious.

Davide Brivio, the manager of the six-times world champion's MotoGP team, confirmed to The Times that Ferrari had wanted to end the flirting and make an honest man of Rossi. “There was the chance for him to drive in GPs with Ferrari in 2007,” Brivio said. “Not as a test driver, no.”

This is the first time Rossi's much-debated role with Ferrari has been defined, but that door is now closed. What it shows is the money-men appreciate Rossi could get off his bike and make a second career on four wheels. It is why all the preamble to the Wales Rally GB, starting early today, has been about whether this 29-year-old maverick will switch to car racing when he hangs up his leathers, comedy stethoscope and blow-up doll-cum-pillion rider.

He has twice won the Monza Rally, albeit he accepts it is “not a real rally” because it is held largely on the motor-racing circuit, and finished eleventh in Rally New Zealand in 2006. In one-off sprints he has beaten a host of rally stars, including one of his heroes, Colin McRae. Today he is wearing a helmet that carries a homage to the late Scot. “It has his flag on it, because he was my friend and one of my heroes,” Rossi said. “I grew up with him and Subaru. This is to remember him in his home rally.”

The thing that is stopping Rossi from pledging himself to the World Rally Championship is not a lack of talent but a renewed love of MotoGP. After five successive titles, the rumours of a move to Ferrari mounted.He then went two years without winning it before regaining it this year. He revealed yesterday: “I think Formula One for me is difficult because I am quite old. Rallying is not impossible, but I have a contract with Yamaha for two more years and I hope that is not my last. If I stay at this level then I still enjoy it. The bike remains my first option and my first passion. My place is over there.”

That sounds unequivocal. Cue groans from four-wheel officials eyeing marketing manna. After his test a fortnight ago at Mugello, where Rossi was 1.5sec slower than Kimi Raikkonen's best time set in September, Stefano Domenicali, the Ferrari team director, said: “He would have been an excellent Formula One driver but he chose a different road.”

In 2006, David Richards, rallying's commercial chief, admitted that he would love him to defect, saying: “He'd be great for the sport.”

Rossi, though, has come to the conclusion that he is a genius on two wheels and anything else would leave a bitter taste. His love of car racing remains unchecked, although he said it will be “very difficult” for him to make the top ten in his Stobart M-Sport Ford Focus. “My father Graziano started rallying after he finished with the motorcycle,” he said.

Graziano was a flamboyant rider who won three 250cc grands prix in 1979 before suffering an horrendous crash, retiring and shunning five-star hotels to sleep in the back of a beaten-up BMW while his son races. “When I was a child, Graziano would take me in the car to make slides and the passion grew in me at that moment,” Rossi said.

He started out in go-karts and had two British idols, Nigel Mansell and Mike Hailwood. As with many elite bikers of his era, Hailwood also raced cars, getting the George Medal for pulling Clay Regazzoni from a burning car during the South African Grand Prix in 1973. Rossi is a keen historian and would dearly love to emulate Hailwood by proving that he is not a one-trick thoroughbred.

However, John Surtees, the only man to win both Formula One and 500cc motorcycle world titles, believes he has left it too late. “They start thinking of making these changes after their peak,” he said. “I probably had another ten years left in me when I switched.”

He also questioned the claim that Rossi had turned down a Formula One grand-prix seat. “I said the stopwatch would decide it and it did - he had a lot of time in the very best car but he wasn't fast enough,” he said. “If he looked like being competitive he'd have changed - simple as that.”

Matthew Wilson, the British rally driver who is tenth in the championship, helped Rossi during an 80-kilometre test. “He can drive,” Wilson said, although he added that Rossi's impressive result in Rally New Zealand in 2006 came against a weaker field than he faces this weekend.

Snow and ice are expected to make this year's Wales Rally GB a treacherous one. Rossi, who followed up his Ferrari test by topping the MotoGP times in testing in Jerez, Spain, last week, says that swapping between disciplines is not a problem. “It's different but not difficult,” he said. “My main target is to have fun. In 2002 I made a small mistake and went home. This year the stages are very good, but it's a pity there will be snow. I will try to improve my times and my feeling with the car stage by stage, but we will have to be lucky.”

Six years ago, Rossi's Rally GB ended with him running down a Welsh forest lane to round up some spectators to pull his Peugeot out of a ditch after nine miles. He went home to London and his co-driver, Carlo Cassina, back again this year, went to Parc Fermé. “That was a disaster,” Rossi said, but he believes the pressure is off this time because, while serious, he is not seeking a second career. The man who used to turn up on the podium in different national costumes has finally decided not to reinvent himself or the wheels.

Stars that “shone” in other sports

Michael Jordan His Airness remains the most famous basketball player of all-time, but his post-NBA foray into baseball with the Chicago White Sox, Birmingham Barons and Scottsdale Scorpions was less memorable.

John Surtees The only man to have won the world title on two and four wheels, Surtees won the 500cc crown four times and then clinched the 1964 Formula One championship in a blue-and-white Ferrari.

Denis Compton An England cricketing legend who captained Middlesex and, er, Arsenal. Compton also played for England at football during the war years.

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