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Ferrari has no concerns whatsoever about putting its 2010 driver line-up in place before Felipe Massa has received medical clearance to return next year, according to team boss Stefano Domenicali.

There had been suggestions that Massa's head injury would leave Ferrari in limbo, as it might not want to push ahead with replacing Kimi Raikkonen with Fernando Alonso before it knew for certain that Massa would be fit to race in 2010. But on Wednesday Ferrari officially announced Alonso's arrival and Raikkonen's departure, and Domenicali says the team is taking Massa's 2010 presence as guaranteed.

When asked if he was worred about committing to an Alonso/Massa pairing before the latter had proved his race fitness, Domenicali replied: "No, because obviously Felipe will be back in his normal situation at the beginning of the season."

Massa recently started karting for the first time since his Hungaroring crash, and is recovering rapidly. This has led to speculation that he could make his comeback before the end of the 2009 season, but while Domenicali left the door open for an appearance in the season finale in Abu Dhabi, he dismissed rumours that Massa could race in Brazil in a fortnight.

"To make the story short, I saw some speculation about the fact that he could possibly come back in Brazil, but I can exclude it categorically," he said.

He added that Massa had welcomed Alonso's arrival, provided he retained the equal status that Ferrari's drivers have had since the end of the Michael Schumacher era.

"This is the way we manage the team, this is the way that drivers that want to come to our team have to respect the rules," said Domenicali. For him it's important, because this hasn't changed the philosophy and approach on our side and things will be the same, but it is natural I would say in our team now."

Domenicali said Massa was making great strides and that he would soon be working with the team at Maranello again.

"Felipe is recovering very, very well, because he is already in the second step of his training progress," he said. "He is now doing some karting activity and everything is running very smoothly and he should be back in Europe next week in order to do some activity on the simulator and then we will see after that what will be the next step. We will work and see when it's possible to have him back in another different kind of racing car – and possibly with a Formula 1 to do another test as soon as it is practically possible."