Felipe Massa's manager Nicolas Todt has insisted that the Brazilian will stay at the Ferrari team for 2011, despite a number of rumours linking plenty of other drivers to the second Ferrari race seat for the 2011 season.
Massa returned to the cockpit of a Ferrari this season after missing the second half of last season following his horrifying accident at the Hungaroring last season. So far though, the Brazilian has been in the shadow of his new team mate Fernando Alonso.
And the 2011 rumour mill has been buzzing with suggestions that the Italian squad were lining up either Robert Kubica or Mark Webber to replace the Brazilian, whose contract expires at the end of this season.
But Todt, who is pursuing an F1 grid slot for 2011 with his own ART Grand Prix team, says that he "understands" that Ferrari are keen on retaining Massa for 2011.
"Felipe has been with Ferrari since 2001 [as a test driver], he's lived some fantastic times with his first victories, and difficult times like his dramatic crash last year," Todt bragged to Autosprint on Wednesday.
"It's a special relationship, and I hope it can carry on like this for many years. This is Felipe's desire, and I think I understand it's also Ferrari's."
He added that: "When Felipe started winning his first grands prix it was a great satisfaction. Not many people believed in him, so it was good payback.
"I think Felipe has always been underestimated. Before the start of every season he has always been regarded as inferior compared to his team-mate, while instead at the end of the season his overall result is better."
The Frenchman added that he felt that Massa would eventually get on terms with Alonso, pointing to the new 2010-spec tyres as the reason that his man was currently struggling for pace in the team.
"When I see Felipe being six tenths slower per lap, as it has happened sometimes, I don't think it's down to the driving, otherwise he'd need to change jobs." Todt chortled.
"We've seen that in races with supersoft tyres Felipe has been level with Alonso, like in Monaco and Bahrain."
He went on to say: "The truth is that he has problems with hard tyres, because the car doesn't have enough load for his driving style and he struggles more to control the car compared with Alonso.
"The team has identified the areas to work on in order to suit Felipe better, so I'm confident. Besides, after seven races his gap in the points is definitely smaller and it's open to any result."
Meanwhile, Massa himself has said that he is hugely motivated heading to this weekend's Turkish GP, a race he won in 2006, 2007 and 2008.
"It's a great memory. It's a track which I love to race on, I enjoy driving this track and I won three times in five races," Massa grinned smugly in an interview on Ferrari's official website.
"It's a great story for my career, it gives me even more motivation to go there and push even harder to fight for the victory. I hope we're going to have a good weekend and that everything works well, because it's a nice track."
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