Schu to test at Jerez

Michael Schumacher was fastest in recent testing despite a year sabbatical.

(GMM) Former world champion Michael Schumacher will return to the cockpit of Ferrari's single seater early next month as the 2007 testing season ends at Jerez.

The 38-year-old tested for the first time in earnest since retiring at Circuit de Catalunya recently, impressing observers by setting the pace as the sport gets accustomed to life without electronic aids like traction control.

"After so many years together we are accustomed to facing situations like these with Michael. He will be driving at Jerez on 4 December," Luca Baldisserri, Ferrari's head of track activities, told the Turin-published Italian newspaper La Stampa.

Michael Schumacher back in a Ferrari at Barcelona

"We have asked him to put his helmet back on because F1 has gone back to taking away the electronic aids.

"Drivers today use the accelerator like a button — press it and let the software do the rest. Now they have to learn another way," he added.

The media still can't get enough of the World's greatest

At the end of the bitter espionage affair with McLaren, meanwhile, Baldisserri admitted to being "slightly bothered" about having to now use the new McLaren developed ECU in 2008 and beyond.

"On the one hand we must protect the confidentiality of our data and on the other try to make it (the ECU) work better," he said when asked about working with MES technicians.