(ANSA) - Valencia, November 9 - Seven-time MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi says he may leave his Yamaha team after next season and join Ducati if his current team decides to pin its future hopes on his younger teammate Jorge Lorenzo.

Speaking to the BBC after the season's last race here on Sunday, Rossi said "Yamaha have to decide between me and Jorge for 2011. I have a great offer from Ducati".

"I'm not sure 100% if I'll stay with Yamaha. It depends on what happens next year. It will depend on my performance and how I do against Lorenzo, as well as what Yamaha wants to do," the 30-year-old rider added.

"I could change bikes, ride for Ducati and try to win a title with an Italian bike. That's an interesting challenge. But for the moment I prefer to stay with Yamaha because they love me and I love them, ours is a special relationship," Rossi told the BBC.

"But to change bikes would feel like betrayal. So if it is important for Yamaha that I finish my career with them, for me it will be important, too" he added Up until a few months ago Rossi said he had every intention to end his career with the Japanese team, although Italian fans have always hoped to see him ride the Italian bike.

''I've always been curious about Ducati because I'm sure I could ride it the way I want and be competitive. But the fact of the matter is that I really like where I am with Yamaha,'' Rossi said in August.

According to some observers, his change of heart may be linked to the praise Yamaha boss Masao Furusawa had for the 23-year-old Lorenzo after the Malaysian Grand prix where Rossi clinched his seventh title in the flagship class and fourth with Yamaha.

Rossi won three top titles with Honda before joining Yamaha and was also champion in the 125cc and 250cc classes.

Others believe that a possible move by Rossi to Ducati may be more technical and based on the fact that the Italian bike has been consistently faster in the past three years than the Yamaha.

With a faster bike, some say, Rossi may have a better chance of matching and then surpassing the eight-title record set in the premier class by Italian legend Giacomo Agostini.

Rossi has reportedly been 'flirting' with Ducati for a while and during at September's San Marino Grand Prix he had unusually high praise for Ducati designer Filippo Preziosi. Ducati on Monday issued a statement to say that "there was nothing new" in Rossi's interview.

Rossi joined Yamaha in 2004 and won the season's opening Grand Prix to become the first rider to clinch back-to-back victories in the flagship class on two different bikes.

It was also Yamaha's first podium finish in over a year and first victory in 18 races.

He then went on to win the title, his fourth in a row, making him the second rider in history to win two consecutive titles on different bikes. The first was Eddie Lawson who won in 1988 with Yamaha and 1989 with Honda.

Rossi is Yamaha's most successful rider, winning 44 races and four world titles.