Schumacher closely involved, says Badoer

The German retired from the sport at the end of the 2006 season, and while he is currently spending some time away before officially starting his new role at Ferrari, Badoer says that he is keeping in touch with everything that is going on.

"Michael constantly keeps up to date with what we do," Badoer was quoted as saying by Gazzetta dello Sport.

"He receives in real time on his computer the information that we gather, and he can see at any moment the data from the telemetry.

"I keep talking to him regularly, and because I know him well I am not at all surprised that he keeps on being interested in things."

The Italian added that he hopes Schumacher will return to the cockpit in the future to help the team's progress in testing, but he isn't expecting it to happen soon.

"I wouldn't mind if one day he asks me to let him test, but in fact I hope he will," he said. "However I think it is too soon, he's just quit."