The German's retirement took most of the headlines the following day - and for the rest of the week - with
Ferrari confirming
Kimi Raikkonen and
Felipe Massa as its line-up for 2007. Ross Brawn is also expected to take a year out from the front line, but the rest of the Scuderia's technical team looks set to stay on for at least another year.
While Schumacher will be around until this season's
denouement, missing from the line-up will be Christian Klien, who parted company with
Red Bull Racing after declining its offer of a Champ Car seat next season.
With the Austrian casting around, unsuccessfully it seems, for an alternative ride for this weekend and the remaining grands prix in Japan and Brazil, his seat alongside
David Coulthard will be taken by test driver Robert Doornbos, with GP2 race winner Michael Ammermuller filling the third driver role in Friday practice.
Another GP2 frontrunner, Alexandre Premat, also helped to put paid to Klien's hopes of continuing his involvement in this year's world championship, the Frenchman snapping up the third car at the renamed Spyker
M
F1 team for Shanghai. The team, borne out of the former Midland team following an eleventh-hour take-over signed in the Monza paddock on Saturday night, has also confirmed that
Adrian Sutil and, superlicence permitting, Ernesto Viso will fill the spare car at Suzuka and Interlagos respectively.
Third driver confirmations continued with
Sebastien Vettel secured at
BMW Sauber for the rest of the season, but speculation that GP2 champion
Lewis Hamilton may find his way into a
McLaren for the remaining grands prix was dashed when Pedro de la Rosa was confirmed for China and Japan. The seat for Interlagos remains open at the time of writing, with Hamilton having joined
GP2 rival
Nelson Piquet Jr in making a bow with his likely 2007 employer at the recent
Silverstone group test.
The biggest news away from the circuit during the three weeks since Monza concerned the
FIA's clarification of the blocking rule, a move no doubt brought into focus by the uproar over Alonso's penalty, with the stewards not being involved unless any move appears to be a deliberate attempt to impede a rival.
