[Jims5543]

This sure does not seem like a win at any cost person to me.

Some peoples hate for him and their dedication to dispelling him as a great driver only serves as a testament to his greatness.

Michael Schumacher has revealed that he decided to retire from F1 after July's U.S. GP - months after Ferrari had secured Kimi Raikkonen's services for 2007.

The German finally decided to hang his gloves up after holding talks with his wife Corinna at Indianapolis.

"The team left me every opportunity and every door open. Obviously I have a lot of friends there and naturally we discussed the up and the down sides and so on, but in the end of the day it was Corinna and myself," he revealed.

According to Schumi, the timing of the decision was dictated by the need for Felipe Massa to finalise his own future.

"There's no point just to hang in there and maybe take away the future of a very young talented driver like Felipe," he explained.

"Obviously my replacement... I was aware of this for quite a long time, but with Felipe it was obviously around Indianapolis that his future had to be decided and I didn't see a reason to just hang in there and maybe take away his opportunity and I believe he's a very talented and great person."

Suggestions that Schumi shied away from being team-mate to the incoming Raikkonen were given short shrift by team boss Jean Todt.

"Some people, who would speculate that Michael decided because he did not want to compete with Kimi, they are simply stupid," he complained.

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo confirmed that Raikkonen had signed a deal with the team "many months ago," although Todt denied the existence of a rumoured pre-contract.

"What is the important thing is that we never had any kind of pre-contract, we had a signed contract, that's all, so sometimes I was smiling a bit when I saw those speculations or that private meetings to try to get Kimi, but the important thing is that we feel Kimi is a very strong driver, very talented driver," he said.

"I like him as a person and he's committed for the next years with Ferrari."