Although Giancarlo Fisichella, like most Italians, has never made any secret of his desire to drive for Ferrari, team boss Jean Todt has made it quite clear that the Roman doesn't figure in the Maranello outfit's plans.

Speaking following yesterday's Canadian Grand Prix, in which Fisichella finished fourth, having served a drive-through penalty for a jump start, Todt took another obvious swipe at the Renault driver.

"We chose a strategy which was to do qualifying with a lot of fuel and it's always easy afterwards to say, it was good, not good, but it was not good enough to allow us to win the race.

"Saying that, second and fifth is not as good as first and second, because every time you lose three points to the opposition, who mainly race with one car, one driver, who makes no mistakes, and for whom everything goes well… it makes things difficult."

Todt, who has made no secret of his admiration of Kimi Raikkonen will be in something of a quandary. On the one hand he will no doubt want to see Michael Schumacher remain with Ferrari for another season, but on the other this would mean the Finn joining Fisichella at Renault.

Then again, should Michael quit and Kimi head to Ferrari, Todt would clearly have no problem with Giancarlo leading the French team.