Finland’s Turn Sanomat is claiming that Felipe Massa’s manager, Nicolas Todt, is scouting out potential teams who could be interested in hiring his star client for the 2011 season, further fuelling rumours that the Brazilian’s Ferrari seat is under threat.
Persistent rumours have linked both Robert Kubica and (of late) Mark Webber to the seat alongside Fernando Alonso, with Massa’s seat potentially up for grabs at the end of the season when his contract with the Scuderia runs out.
Despite leading the championship race after the opening three rounds of the season, Massa has of late been outperformed by his two-time Championship-winning team-mate and is believed to be struggling with the handling characteristics of the Ferrari F10.
The Italian team predictably has been quick too cool – but not deny – speculation, with team boss Stefano Domenicali (pictured with Todt, who is also bidding to have his ART GP2 team graduate to F1 for 2011) quoted as saying: "We have a long contract with Alonso, and we trust Massa … he needs to improve is doing a good job."
Massa has also added to the debate with: "I like it very much at Ferrari – I know my seat is in trouble everybody and everybody knows me.
"But it is always encouraging to know that there are others with fast cars who are interested in me and I need to start door-knocking.”
[Original image via Zimbio]
Richard Bailey
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