Rumours that Michael Schumacher, the tarnished grand prix golden oldie, has been offered an extension on his comeback deal with Mercedes have been denied by his boss.

The 43-year-old legend, seven times the champion but a flop since his £10 million-a-year return to Formula 1, is on a countdown final season to his current contract.

But Ross Brawn, the mastermind behind all the ace's titles, insists no offers have been made to keep him on.

Schumacher, a 91-time winner, has failed to make it on to the podium in his comeback spell and has been outpaced and humbled by his young teammate, fellow German Nico Rosberg, both in the qualifying rounds and the races.

Brawn, who persuaded his old friend out of retirement, had hinted earlier that this might not be Schumacher's swansong season and rumours from Germany suggested a two-year extension was in the pipeline.

But now the Mercedes chief, overseeing pre-season test runs in Spain, which wrap up next week, said: "There is nothing like that on the table at the moment, but we are open-minded. We will see what happens this year and then we will talk about it."

Collective decision

Just to add to the intrigue, and skirting the positives, Brawn added: "He has one more season left on his current contract, but obviously should we have a good year, both for the team and for Michael, then why not carry on?

"It all depends on 2012 and, midway through the season, we will make a collective decision."

Schumacher's old foe Riccardo Patrese, runner-up to 1992 champion Nigel Mansell, believes the one-time all conquering genius is not the world-beater he was, saying: "It may only be a small change in his ability, but that is all it takes for a drop in performance.

"He raced against drivers like myself and Ayrton Senna and Mansell and proved immediately that he could be competitive and better, but now I think Michael is below the level of performance compared to his very best.

"Maybe his motorcycle crash and the injury to his neck has had some effect in some small way. The difference in performance can be very, very small — but there does seem to be a difference."