As Alonso put it "...leaving Ferrari to change teams is a step backwards."

And leaving the French Team Renault for the storied Italian team is a huge step forward.

Unfortunately for Kimi, he's taking the steps backwards, but his biggest step backward was not realizing his potential.

It is true he won a championship with Ferrari, but not in the dominating Schumi-esque style that his abilities warranted.

Maybe he will realize what he had now that he has lost it.

Sebastian Vettel decided to show up again and won a great race in Japan. This keeps him technically in the title hunt, 16-points behind Button.

Button finished 8th and Barrichello finished just 7th.

For Barrichello, this is the second failed opportunity to gain ground on Button. He was well ahead of him at Singapore but somehow fell behind, and today, a day where Button could only finish 8th, Barrichello lets him off the hook and finishes 7th.

Kimi finished 4th continuing his more consistent performance that started a few races ago, but is still 6.5-points behind Webber.

Next is the Brazilian Grand Prix where the pressure will be on Rubino to do well. Here's hoping he does.

Rubens Barrichello is serious, and he's on a roll.

Between he and his teammate, Jenson Button who had started the year with a huge lead in the championship, Rubens is no doubt the one with the momentum.

Today, Button made a kind of comeback finishing 2nd, but he was no match for the Great Rubino!

The gap is now only 14-points with 4 races left to go.

One false move by Button, and it could be over before you say Samba! Samba! Samba!

Meanwhile, Hamilton did Kimi a huge favor crashing out with about a quarter lap left to go, giving Kimi a podium in Italy.

And after the horrible qualifying and practice sessions, Fisi came to within 1-second of getting a point in the other Ferrari. He finished 9th.

Next up, Singapore in two weeks, which marks the beginning of the last leg in the 2009 season.

Thank god!

Kimi Raikkonen is having a kind of rivival since the talk of Schumi coming back. Maybe he felt threatened? Or maybe he realized he hasn't yet had the impact a true champion should have after witnessing the response to a possible Schumi comeback?

Either way, things are looking up: Kimi won the last race and today he qualified 3rd, behind Hamilton and Sutil who finished 1-2 respectively.

And I don't care what anyone says, if Kimi can't get passed the Force- India while racing in Monza, there is something very, very wrong in the F1-world.

Fisi, by the way had a better day, but still managed only 14th. We'll cut him some slack since its his first race with this Ferrari. Even a Ferrari requires some getting used to.

Kimi Raikkonen finally won a race this year in Spa, and it was Giancarlo Fisichella in his Force India that pushed him all the way.

Kimi used his KERS system to slingshot past Fisichella after a safety car (about time that KERS system actually did something useful), and from there it was just a making no mistakes.

Behind Fisichella, Vettel drove a strong race, as did Kubica in 4th, Heidfeld in 5th, Kovalainen in 6th, Barrichello in 7th, and Rosberg in 8th.

Barrichello lost a huge opportunity to make up significant ground on Button as Button did not finish due to an accident. But, Barrichello at least made up a couple points.

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Rubens Barrichello is showing great patience, and experience by winning the European Grand Prix today, and reminding everyone that it ain't over 'till it's over.

Barrichello's win, with Buttons 7th place finish means he is not only 18-points behind the Brit. Thats just 2 wins, and with six races left to go, anything can happen (just remember how Kimi won a couple years ago).

Kimi had a pretty good day finishing 3rd, but behind Hamilton, so Hamilton now has a 3-point lead on Kimi. And unfortunately Luca Bodoer looked a lot like a test driver finishing just 17th.

Next, it's Belgium in just seven days.

It wasn't big news, but a little while ago Schumacher suffered a pretty serious neck injury, and it is that neck injury that will unfortunately keep him out of an F1 car for the foreseeable future.

"(Monday) evening, I had to inform Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo and team principal Stefano Domenicali that unfortunately I'm not able to step in for Felipe," Schumi wrote on his website. "I really tried everything to make that temporary comeback possible, however, much to my regret it didn't work out. Unfortunately, we did not manage to get a grip on the pain in my neck which occurred after the private F-1 day in Mugello, even if medically or therapeutically we tried everything possible."

"The consequences of the injuries caused by the bike-accident in February, fractures in the area of head and neck, unfortunately have turned out to be still too severe," he wrote.

"That is why my neck cannot stand the extreme stresses caused by Formula One yet. These are the clear results of the examinations we did on the course of the past two weeks and the final examination (Monday) afternoon.

"I am disappointed to the core. I am awfully sorry for the guys of Ferrari and for all the fans which crossed fingers for me. I can only repeat that I tried everything that was within my power. All I can do now is to keep my fingers crossed for the whole team for the coming races."

They say that "money isn't everything", and that "money can't buy you happiness", but money isn't nothing either, and it most definitely makes the challenges of life much easier to handle.

In the case of Michael Schumacher, his money and nothing else will make him a very unique individual.

Schumi is reported to be the latest famous name to sign up for a ride on one of Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic space trips. Schumi is one of many famous (read: wealthy) people names willing and able to pay $200,000 for the flight.

Other also going on this trip include: Niki Lauda, French designer Philippe Starck, and renowned physicist Stephen Hawking. “There is a long list of 300 people, who come from all walks of life," Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn confirmed, "Many are scientific entrepreneurs, some of them are from the financial services industry, and we’ve got a couple of politicians, although they don’t want their names released at the moment.” I guess thats a nice way of saying "rich and famous people". Oh well...

Watch Massa's first interview since his crash provided by the BBC:

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Well, they say the scars will heal.. and Massa is just happy to be alive.

We are too Felipe!

What does it say about a sport when a retired 'old man' makes an unexpected return, and literally steals the headlines away from the rest of the young guns trying to take his place.

This is exactly what is happening in F1 since it was announced that Schumi will be filling in for Felipe Massa at until Massa is fit to race again, which probably means for the rest of the 2009 season.

This shows great loyalty on the part of Schumacher, but shows how messed up F1 is. People like Hamilton, Webber, and Button are all saying the right things. That it will be "good for the sport", a great challenge "to compete against him", etc., but who's the star here? Even if Schumi was the greatest of all time, he won't be (or at least shouldn't be) the greatest now.

It makes one realize how much F1 must be longing for a not-so-distant past, when the news came from the track and not the courts. And maybe this time around, the same way the French finally appreciated Lance Armstrong in this year's tour, F1 will properly appreciate Schumi.

Once everyone gets over the euphoria of Schumi's return to F1 - which by the way includes more than anyone every single F1 official or team, because they need this shot in the arm - a little bit of reality will certainly set in.

In other words, Schumi has not driven in F1 since the end of the 2006 season, he does not know the Valencia track, which he intends to make his comeback, thanks to the F1 rules he is not aloud to test, and he has to make sure his neck is up to it since he injured it not too long ago racing motorcycles.

Add to that the fact that the current Ferrari is not very competitive, and the prospects of seeing Schumi on the top podium again are probably not very likely.

Having said that, this is a huge opportunity for Schumi, and his personal statistics.

To date, Schumi has won 91 races in 250 starts. That ratio will unfortunately be hurt since winning should be more difficult than in previous years, but one more race victory would give him the exact total that both Alain Prost AND Ayrton Senna won. Imagine that: Senna + Prost = Schumi.

Plus, he can take a couple steps closer to 100 victories, something I always wished he would have done, and that I think he would have done by now had he not retired (just think of the races Massa and Kimi won since Schumi's retirement. They would have been almost all Schumi's had he not retired, not to mention an extra championship or two).

So, maybe we shouldn't get too excited about Schumi's prospects. Maybe this is an encore final lap, giving fans who didn't get a chance to see him race in person before he retired a second chance.

What ever the case, though, it should help F1 and it should also rejuvenate the Ferrari team, which is in desperate need of positive change.

...a Ferrari 458 Italia!

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Not to make Massa feel any worse, because I don't think the reaction to Schumi replacing him is necessarily a reflection on Massa, but do you think the folks at Ferrari are happy about Schumi coming back?

Take a look at the Ferrari home page below:

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