Brazil's Formula One racer Felipe Massa on Tuesday scoffed at rumors that he will leave the Ferrari team in 2008.

 

"This story of me going to Toyota next year does not exist," he told the Brazilian press on Tuesday, before leaving for Japan, where the next F1 Grand Prix will take place on Sunday September 30.

 

Massa said that his contract with the Italian team, signed in 2006, is valid up to the end of the 2008 season, and stressed that he is already negotiating his permanence in Ferrari in 2009.

 

According to the rumors released by the European press on Monday, the Brazilian pilot would get transferred to Japanese team Toyota next year, leaving room for Spanish champion Fernando Alonso to take over his position in Ferrari.

 

Alonso has recently been spotted in confrontations with MacLaren, especially following the investigations that led FIA to fine the team for spying on Ferrari.

 

The pilot allegedly threatened to reveal contents of e-mails related to the case in order to get a better treatment from the team than the one offered to UK Lewis Hamilton, the current championship leader, kicking off a crisis within MacLaren.

 

(Xinhua News Agency September 26, 2007)