Want an off-the-wall name to consider for the Mercedes Formula 1 ride vacated by retiring 2016 champion Nico Rosberg.

MotoGP rider Valentino Rossi, who strongly flirted with a switch to four wheels a decade ago, has thrown his name into the hat for the Mercedes ride.

It comes after Toto Wolff joked that Rossi and his motorcycle racing rival Jorge Lorenzo, who recently tested a Mercedes and said driving it was easy, are in the frame.

"I don't know, but it would be nice," Rossi, who rides in MotoGP for Yamaha, is quoted as saying by the Italian broadcaster Sky. "If he (Wolff) wants to call me, he has my number."

Italian Rossi, 37, said he would definitely say yes to the offer of a test.

"How could I say no?" he said. "I was lucky enough to test the Ferrari, I am very good friends with many guys in Maranello and it (testing a Mercedes) would perhaps even be half a betrayal -- but how could you not try the Mercedes if asked?"

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