Felipe Massa's decision to retire from Formula 1 at the end of this season, and Jenson Button's choice to step back for at least a year and sort of 'see how it goes', means the final pieces of this year's driver-market jigsaw should start falling into place.
McLaren-Honda has solved its conundrum by promoting 2015 GP2 champion Stoffel Vandoorne into a race seat alongside Fernando Alonso, but retaining Button as its F1 reserve and ambassador.
That neat Ron Dennis parlour trick takes both drivers off the market, meaning Williams now cannot replace Massa with Button (as it was hoping to do at one stage), while Renault will also definitely not get its mitts on Vandoorne - a driver whom at one point it hoped to sign on a loan arrangement with McLaren.