A three-year contract extension is reportedly in the works for Ferrari’s Felipe Massa.
The 28-year-old Brazilian’s deal with the Italian team runs out this season, and it had been rumoured that Robert Kubica could become Fernando Alonso’s teammate in 2011.
But team boss Stefano Domenicali has told the latest edition of the German magazine Sport Bild that Ferrari wants "to build with Felipe into the future".
A subsequent report in Brazil’s O Globo newspaper agrees that Massa, the current world championship leader, is "close to renewing his contract for three more seasons".
With a new deal through to the end of 2013, the future of the 2008 championship runner-up would be even more secure than double world champion Alonso’s, whose contract is for a guaranteed three years beginning in 2010.