I know all the Schumi fans will have been crying into their cereal this morning at the news that Schumi won't be coming back after all (though at least it was a perfectly legitimate reason - remember kids, motor bikes are ludicrously dangerous!) but there is a bright side to this, Luca Badoer finally gets the Ferrari ride that be should have had 10 years ago in the aftermath of Schumi breaking his leg at Silverstone. At that time for a reason that I still find puzzling they went with Mika Salo, never a top draw driver in F1, more a journeyman driver, rather than a test driver who was race fresh (Luca was competing with Minardi in '99) and knew the car inside out. I thought at the time it made little sense and whilst Salo did a reasonable job of supporting Eddie Irvine's championship bid, I felt that Badoer was cheated out of a Ferrari drive that was rightly his.

Also it will be a novelty, an Italian driving a Ferrari, the last time that happened was 1992 when Ivan Capelli drove for the team (though it can be argued that Jean Alesi could claim Italian heritage but alas he was French).