Following his fourth successive podium finish, Ferrari is still refusing to shed light on the future of Kimi Raikkonen at Maranello, if he has one.

Although yesterday's third place was gifted to him by a late mistake by Lewis Hamilton, Raikkonen was still able to add another six points to his team's tally at a time when the reigning champions are battling to hold on to third place in the Constructors' Championship.

A short while ago it all looked so easy. The team already had Felipe Massa under contract while, thanks to a large cash injection from Santander, two-time World Champion Fernando Alonso was heading to Maranello.

With Massa and Alonso on the books Raikkonen would be surplus to requirements next season, and even though the Finn has a contract for 2010 it was widely thought that either a deal would be worked out which would see the 2007 champ head to Rallying or maybe the Maranello outfit would simply pay him off. After all, Raikkonen appeared to have lost interest in F1.

Then came Massa's crash during qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix, followed by the investigation into allegations of race fixing during the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. To add to the confusion, Raikkonen has not only rediscovered his form, he is clearly enjoying his racing.

While Alonso is not understood to be implicated in the 'crashgate' scandal, Ferrari and Santander will be unwilling to make any sort of announcement while the matter is grabbing the headlines. As for Massa, while he is said to be making great progress, with an F1 test scheduled in the not too distant future, there remains a question mark as to his race fitness, even if its a small one. Therefore, Ferrari has to keep its options open and that means keeping Raikkonen on hold.

Asked pointedly by reporters about the Finn's future at Maranello, Stefano Domenicali was unable - or unwilling - to give a precise answer.

"I think that as we have said, we don't want to discuss this now because I don't think it is correct," said the Italian. "As you know, Kimi has a contract with us next year and this is what we can say now.

"We are happy about the performance of Kimi because obviously he is driving very well," he added. "The team is very happy with the way he is performing, above all in the second part of the season."

Which is effectively the same as saying... "thank you for your interest in Ferrari, your call is important to us..."