Sauber denies Ferrari moving to poach Perez

Peter Sauber has added his own denial to rumours Sergio Perez could be imminently headed to Ferrari.

The Mexican driver played down the speculation at Sepang on Thursday, as did Ferrari, amid reports the famous Italian team is contemplating replacing the struggling Massa with its development driver.

But a flaw in the rumours is that Perez, 22, is under contract to Sauber for 2012.

"No one has spoken to us," team boss Sauber, when asked about the Perez/Massa switch, told Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport.

All eyes will be on Massa this weekend in Malaysia, after Ferrari agreed to change his chassis following a dire performance a week ago in Melbourne.

Michael Schumacher backed his former Ferrari teammate.

"If you look at all the winter testing I think it was very clear that the two drivers (Massa and Fernando) were very close together," he said.

"So to see the big difference that we saw in Melbourne, I can only assume there must have been something not right for him."