No room for complacency at Ferrari

Ferrari also took the lead in the constructors' championship over Williams-BMW in Sunday's United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis, and will defend a narrow three-point advantage at Suzuka.

"We go to the last race needing to score one point in the drivers' championship and do all we can to also take the constructors' title," said Brawn. "But it is going to be a tough couple of weeks, during which we will work hard and we cannot take anything for granted.

"In the end, Indy was a fantastic race in which Michael demonstrated his qualities in difficult circumstances. We put him on the wrong tyres at his first pit stop as we were expecting only light rain at that time. The tyres worked very well, except when the track was very greasy and only a bit wet. For the rest of the time, the Bridgestones were the best tyres today. But Michael was really the key to this victory."

Schumacher himself remains concentrated on the job at hand, and says he will be testing on Wednesday to keep the momentum going.

"Obviously, it's a very good position for us to start the last race," said Schumacher. "We just need one point basically. But you never know. I mean, you have first to finish, and that will be obviously the main target. On the other side, I think we have a very reliable car. We have a good record for this, so we will be obviously very optimistic - particularly, my target will be to win another race."