Schumacher yet to drive but is causing stir

Williams pointed out the obvious flaw in the proposal: no other new driver has been allowed to break the ban on testing, so why should Schumacher? When Jaime Alguersuari took over from Sébastien Bourdais for Toro Rosso at the Hungarian Grand Prix, the Spaniard went straight out on to an unfamiliar track in a car that he had only driven in a straight line.

“In a similar situation, Williams would unhesitatingly use its current test driver,” Williams said. “For the sake of consistency and fairness, therefore, we oppose Ferrari’s proposal to test ahead of the European Grand Prix.”

Schumacher is already under investigation by the FIA, the governing body, and he has not even turned a wheel in anger yet. FIA officials were concerned to see him testing a 2007 car on slick tyres on Friday. The 2007 machine originally ran on grooved tyres, which means Schumacher and Ferrari could have broken the test ban. The team, however, claimed on Monday they were within the rules, using slick tyres from a GP2 car.

Massa, meanwhile, is determined to make his own comeback to Ferrari once he has recovered from the fractured skull sustained in Hungary ten days ago. He wants to “return to normal life”, although he has no memory of his accident in qualifying, when a spring from Rubens Barrichello’s car bounced down the track and hit him.

“I didn’t feel anything when it happened,” Massa said. “They told me I lost consciousness the moment of the spring’s impact and I ran into the barriers. Then I woke up in hospital two days later. It’s blank.”

Piquet will be hoping to blank out his own memories. The son of Nelson Piquet Sr, the three-times world champion, issued a statement in which he detailed how Fernando Alonso, his team-mate, was given favourable treatment at his expense.

“The conditions I have had to deal with during the last two years have been very strange, to say the least,” he said. “There are incidents that I can hardly believe occurred. A manager is supposed to encourage you, support you and provide you with opportunities. In my case it was the opposite — Flavio Briatore was my executioner.”