Felipe Massa has signed a one-year contract extension with Ferrari for the 2013 season.
It means that the 31-year-old, who has enjoyed a recent resurgence in form, will be with the Maranello marque for an eighth consecutive year.
Ferrari are, though, in the slipstream of Red Bull, whose team principal Christian Horner is dismissive of a need to impose team orders on his drivers.
Sebastian Vettel, the reigning champion, has won the last three races to take over the lead in the title race. He is six points ahead of Ferrari's Fernando Alonso, while his team-mate Mark Webber – who finished second to Vettel in the Korean Grand Prix on Sunday to give Red Bull their first one-two finish of the season – is 63 points adrift of the the 24-year-old German with 100 available.
Although not arithmetically out of the running, Webber's chances of title success are slim, so logic suggests that Red Bull should fully support Vettel in his bid for a third successive crown.
Horner, though, is to give Webber every chance. "I think it would be wrong to impose team orders while Mark still has a chance of winning," he said. "They demonstrated in Korea they race each other fairly, and that is all we ask of them."
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