No doubt much will be made in Melbourne of the reappearance of the Piquet name on the Formula One grid, some 16 years after Nelson Sr had his final F1 outing for Benetton. But just as that name returns, so another is consigned to history. Australia will be the first Grand Prix entry list since Hungary 1991 not to feature a Schumacher.
Ralf Schumacher's F1 career outlived that of his older brother by just a single season, and it's pretty safe to say that he won't be back again. He's now turned his attention to DTM, and we await to see whether or not he accepts the lifeline that Mercedes appears to be offering him.
Back in October, Ralf seemed utterly convinced that he would be staying in F1 in 2008. Some weeks earlier he had announced that he would be parting company with Toyota - before the team had a chance to say so, thus saving face to some degree. It seemed that options elsewhere were limited to Force India, and yet he insisted that he had somewhere to go.