Luca Baldisserri, Scuderia Ferrari's Head of Trackside Operations, has revealed that next year's F1 car will hit the track on 14th January, while next month Michael Schumacher will resume his testing role.

Scuderia Ferrari's Head of Trackside Operations revealed in a newspaper interview today that next year's F1 car, expected to be dubbed the F2008, will hit the race track on 14th January during the official test F1 test sessions at Jerez. "For the first test we will be ready with two cars," he told Italian newspaper La Stampa.

Despite winning the F1 world title this year at the final race in Brazil, Kimi Raikkonen won't enjoy number one status in the team next year ahead of his team mate, Brazilian Felipe Massa. "The track will determine the hierarchy," La Stampa reported Baldisserri as claiming. "The same as in the days of Schumacher. Barrichello for example ended 2003 very strongly and began 2004 full of chances, but Michael won the first five races."

After his highly successful test with the Maranello team last week in Barcelona, where he topped the timesheets on his return to the F1 cockpit for the first time since retiring, Michael Schumacher will undertake further testing for Ferrari at next month's Jerez test sessions as his experience of grand prix cars without the current era's plethora of driver aids is tapped into by the Scuderia in preparation for new regulations which come into force next year. "After so many years together we are accustomed to facing situations like these with Michael. He will be driving at Jerez on 4 December," Baldisserri told newspaper La Stampa. "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 said.

Baldisserri also said that despite Stefano Domenicali being recently promoted to boss of the Scuderia, Jean Todt would still attend races next year; while he also expressed 'concern' about McLaren's contract to supply the stock ECUs for next year's F1 World Championship. "On the one hand we must protect the confidentiality of our data and on the other try to make it work better," he said in reference to the control units.