Although Ferrari is adamant that it will not impose team orders until one of its drivers is mathematically out of contention, its former driver Massa is convinced that it will have no choice but to start favouring Sebastian Vettel.

And that means Raikkonen, who lost victory in Monaco recently after Vettel was allowed to get past him through strategy, will find a situation that is not easy to deal with.

"I think the Kimi situation is quite tricky from now on, because you know Ferrari has a big chance to win the championship," explained Massa, who nearly won the world title with the Maranello outfit in 2008.

"They will try everything they can to win after how many years. Ferrari has not been winning things since 2007, and 2008 the constructors' championship, so they will try everything they can.

"And unfortunately, if you see the difference in points, Kimi is not in the position [he needs to be]. I mean, he needs to accept what things can happen and it will happen."

Amid his suspicions that Ferrari will throw all its efforts before Vettel, Massa thinks that such a scenario could force Mercedes to make a call in supporting Lewis Hamilton.

"I think if Ferrari is doing the same, then clearly Mercedes do have to do also. But it depends. If Hamilton is winning easy, then it is easy.

"But if he is not, then they will need to do so because otherwise they are just giving up points and maybe that can affect [the championship] at the end."

Massa said he sees nothing wrong with teams throwing support behind individual drivers at certain points of the championship – although he feels situations like the Austria switch between Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher in 2002 or what happened with him and Fernando Alonso in Hockenheim in 2010 were not correct.

Reflecting on how Raikkonen supported him at the end of 2008, Massa said: "I think I helped him a lot in 2007 to get some good help. This is pretty clear.

"To be honest, what Kimi did for me in 2008, and what I did for him in 2007, I think was completely inside the sport.

"But when maybe it happens in Germany, which was before the middle of the year and maybe in Austria with Rubens in 2002, this is not good - this is not inside the sport."