Ferrari ready to wait for Schumacher

Schumacher indicated on Thursday that he was likely to wait until after the season before making his mind up on what he wanted to do in the future.

Speaking about that announcement, Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn said at the Circuit de Catalunya on Friday that his team were not going to force Schumacher to make a commitment before he was ready.

"I think someone of the magnitude of Michael gets as much time as he wants and we have to work around it," said Brawn. "We are not objecting and we are happy to wait, so we will see what happens."

Although Schumacher stalling on making a decision could leave Ferrari exposed to further problems, like losing out on other drivers if their current number one eventually decides to hang up his helmet, Brawn has said he is confident that they have plans in place to cover them.

"We will have to wait and see," added Brawn. "Naturally we have discussed it at length and we are happy with what we are doing."

Brawn did add that a decision from MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi about whether he wants to be involved in Ferrari's plans was still imminent.

"I think Valentino has got some decisions to make and when he makes those decisions it means he will be either be part of the consideration or not. We are waiting for him to make the decision."

When asked whether it would create dramas for Ferrari if both Rossi and Schumacher decided to say yes, Brawn responded: "It is a nice problem to have, so let's wait and see."

With Schumacher's decision now unlikely to come for several months, it means that Brawn will probably have to make his own commitment to the team unaware of who his star driver will be.

But after hinting to Autosport recently that he was likely to change, he said that his own decision would not be influenced on what Schumacher did.

"My decision and roles in the team will not be dependent on Michael's decision," he explained.