By Jamie Makin
August 22 2005

Ferrari's Rubens Barrichello may have chosen to do the honourable thing and finish the 2005 season with the Scuderia, but that is not stopping his replacement for next year, Felipe Massa, from beginning to test for the team next week.

Massa will take the wheel of the F2005 for two days at the Monza circuit and had been slated to return to team SAUBER PETRONAS for the third day of the test until Michelin's Pierre Dupasquier caught wind of the situation.

"We are not happy about this," Dupasquier said in an Autosport interview. "He will not carry out any more tyre testing for Michelin."

"Our problem is for a Michelin driver not to help our competitor," the Frenchman said in a separate interview with Reuters. "Since Monza is the last test for Sauber and Michelin, and since he will test with Ferrari before running with Sauber, it's easy for us to manage for him not to have an indication to pass to our competitor for next year.

"We trust him obviously," Dupasquier added. "But at the same time we don't want to give any possible potential help to our competitor."

It also leaves one to wonder how much more testing Rubens Barrichello will be allowed to do for Ferrari before moving to the Michelin-shod BAR Honda team next season.

Team principal, Peter Sauber, has not yet commented on the situation. Since SAUBER does not employ a dedicated test driver, it is assumed that Jacques Villeneuve will handle all three days of testing from 24 to 26 August at the Italian circuit.