Felipe Massa has done enough to secure a new Ferrari contract for 2013. The Brazilian was at times even faster in Korea than his championship-challenging teammate Fernando Alonso, and after the race team boss Stefano Domenicali was all but confirming paddock rumours that a new deal will be announced imminently.
"As my friend (singer) Laura Pausini would say, 'Wait and see'," Domenicali said. He said Ferrari's position would be made clear "very soon". Asked if he still had any doubts he will still be racing a red car in 2013, the similarly-smiling 31-year-old Massa said in Korea: "No, I don't. But anyway we wait for the (right) time. I think it will be pretty soon to be honest."
With Massa's future now clear, it has also emerged that Nico Hulkenberg - until now a leading contender to replace the formerly-struggling Brazilian - will instead move over to Ferrari-powered Sauber to replace Sergio Perez. "At the moment, my focus is simply on 2012 and doing the best I can," the German said in Korea after racing to an impressive sixth place. But his future boss Peter Sauber told Blick newspaper on Sunday: "Nico's race was very strong."
Sauber said much less about Kamui Kobayashi's race, leaving it to Jenson Button to brand the Japanese an "idiot" and "Kobay-crashi" for his first-lap antics. Kobayashi is believed in real danger of losing his seat to the Telmex-backed Esteban Gutierrez.
Button was also not impressed with his future McLaren teammate Sergio Perez's first-lap driving, saying of the Sauber pair: "It's very poor driving standards, considering this is the pinnacle of motor sport. A race is not two corners long and some people need to learn that. Whether they will ever learn that, we will have to wait and see," he added.
With Hulkenberg moving over to Sauber, reports suggest the leading contenders to replace him at Force India are Adrian Sutil, Jaime Alguersuari and Sebastien Buemi. (GMM)
Announcement Massa staying put at Ferrari imminently
- Published on 15 Oct 2012 09:04
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- By: Rob Veenstra
F1 News
Fernando Alonso
Jenson Button
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Driver profile
- Team Aston Martin
- Points 631
- Podiums 9
- Grand Prix 204
- Country Spain
- Date of b. Jul 29 1981 (45)
- Place of b. Oviedo, Spain
- Weight 68 kg
- Length 1.71 m
- 188,103 comments on Aston Martin
78 members have this team as their favourite
Tweets about Fernando Alonso
Team profile
- Team name Sauber
- Base - Switzerland
- Gabriel Bortoleto
- Kimi Räikkönen 7
- Felipe Massa 8
- Marcus Ericsson 9
- Nico Hülkenberg 11
- Felipe Nasr 12
- Esteban Gutierrez 12
- Felipe Massa 12
- Felipe Massa 12
- Kamui Kobayashi 14
- Sergio Perez 15
- Charles Leclerc 16
- Kamui Kobayashi 16
- Sergio Perez 17
- Kimi Räikkönen 17
- Esteban Gutierrez 21
- Kamui Kobayashi 23
- Guanyu Zhou 24
- Nico Hülkenberg 27
- Antonio Giovinazzi 36
- Valtteri Bottas 77
- Pascal Wehrlein 94
- Adrian Sutil 99
- 115,816 comments on Sauber
- 5 members have this team as their favourite
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