Jun.10 (GMM) Fernando Alonso has welcomed the news that his current teammate Felipe Massa will be staying at Ferrari at least until the end of 2012.

It had been rumoured that the Spaniard's friend Robert Kubica, or Red Bull's Mark Webber, might switch to the Maranello based team to replace Brazilian Massa, 29.

"I am very pleased," Alonso is quoted by Ticionline, "because it means the same group will be working together for another two years.

"Stability is very important to the success of a team," he added. "I feel very well with Felipe -- there is a lot of respect between us and that creates the harmony that is necessary to be together for the long term."

Alonso also played down reports that he is ruing a lack of development with the F10 car since winning the season opening Bahrain grand prix.

"It is not right to say that the development stopped; the few tenths to Red Bull has been the same, so that means we have been improving, as have they.

"The truth is that in Spain we did not take the step forward that we expected, while others moved ahead," he said.

Alonso, 28, also acknowledged that the work on the F-duct system has greatly occupied the relevant engineers.

"I think it has been useful to work on it, although we have not been able to exploit this work completely effectively.

"I see that other teams have also had difficulties, while those (McLaren) who had it from the beginning retain the advantage," he added.

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