Ferrari confirmed on October 16th that Felipe Massa's contract has been extended until the end of the 2010 season. The Brazilian, who previously raced for Sauber, debuted in competition with the Scuderia alongside Michael Schumacher in 2006 and took his maiden F1 victory in Turkey.
This year he has so far scored three victories and was a championship contender until Japan. He will be fourth overall in the drivers' standings no matter what happens in Brazil this coming weekend. "Ferrari announces that it has extended its agreement with the driver Felipe Massa through to the end of the 2010 racing season," said a statement from the team.
"Felipe has been contracted to the Scuderia since 2001. To date, he has taken part in 34 Grands Prix for the team. He has won five times, had sixteen podium places and finished 25 times in the points. He has secured eight pole positions and the same number of race fastest laps, with a total of 166 points scored."
The announcement appears to negate rumours that Ferrari had an eye on Fernando Alonso to replace Massa. The Spaniard seems unlikely to stay with McLaren and speculation suggested he could step into Massa's seat even as soon as next year. However, Ferrari chief Jean Todt always denied that such a scenario was being considered as both Massa and teammate Kimi Raikkonen were already contracted for 2008.
