F1: Massa sees hopes of being World Champion evaporate as Alonso signs with Ferrari until 2016

It's probably Alonso's last berth in F1: he's going to be fairly aged in five years' time and, unlike the dwindling star that is Michael Schumacher, he probably won't stick around to see his heritage tarnished.

And Alonso sees it that way, too: “I immediately felt comfortable within Ferrari and now it feels to me like a second family. I have the utmost faith in the men and women who work in Maranello and in those who lead them: it is therefore natural for me to decide to extend my relationship in the long term like this, with a team at which I will no doubt end my Formula 1 career one day,” he said this morning when the deal was announced.

The team made it plain where it sees its future: “It is a great pleasure to have renewed our agreement with a driver who has always demonstrated a winning mentality even in the most difficult circumstances. Fernando has all the required qualities, both technically and personally to play a leading role in the history of Ferrari and I hope he will be enriching it with further wins very soon said” President Luca di Montezemolo.

That reads like a nail in the coffin of Massa's hopes of being champion with Ferrari. For him, then, the question is going to be who will take him and how much money will he have to find in sponsorship to get a seat?

Ferrari might put him in a seat with a team using its customer engines.

With the restoration of team orders this season, there is no need for Massa's engineers to give him coded instructions. Now they can just tell him to move over to let Alonso through.

Adding all of this up, it's clear - unless Massa is at least one car ahead of Alonso and easily keeping station, he is not going to finish ahead of Alonso.

And that, probably, means Massa has won his last race with Ferrari unless Alonso is technical difficulty or fails to finish.