Schu not Massa 'coach'

(GMM) Ferrari boss Jean Todt has played down suggestions that Michael Schumacher has become Felipe Massa's 'coach' at grands prix this year.

Massa thanked the retired seven time world champion for helping him to victory in Spain two weeks ago, and on the eve of the Monaco race revealed that Schumacher would again be on-site to play a role in devising his race strategy.

Brazil's Massa and Schumacher then emerged from an engineering briefing together in the Monte Carlo paddock on Friday, followed by a lone Kimi Raikkonen; Massa's new teammate.

But Todt denied that Schumacher's role as an unspecified team 'advisor' had now developed, albeit admitting that the pair share "big respect".

"Probably that is helping Felipe psychologically to know that a guy like Michael is a reference point for him in this business," the Frenchman added on Friday.

Finn Raikkonen, meanwhile, appears less at ease in his new scarlet surroundings, but a Brazilian journalist suggests that the anomalous situation may simply be the outcome of how well Massa is driving.

"He is like a completely changed guy," Livio Orrichio, who writes for the newspaper O Estado do Sao Paulo, said.