Massa not keen on Sauber test role

Massa might consider himself unfortunate to have lost his seat after a debut season in which he has outqualified highly-rated team-mate Nick Heidfeld three times, finished fifth in Barcelona and sixth at Sepang and the Nurburgring.

A change in the distribution of prize money in F1, however, means that teams are no longer paid out on the basis of race positions at quarter, half, three-quarter and full distance as they were in the past. Instead, earnings are directly related to constructors championship position and so an experienced, consistent scorer, which Frentzen was previously for Sauber (see this week's AUTOSPORT magazine), is increasingly valuable.

"I don't know what is happening at the moment," Massa said. "I think I have done a good job this year and I want to score more points in the rest of the season and hopefully find a solution. I have a good relationship with Peter Sauber, I like the team and everyone in it, but for sure I want to keep going as a race driver. I will have to study and see what the situation is."

The teams which have still to finalise their 2003 driver line-ups are Jordan, Jaguar, Toyota, Arrows and Minardi.