As one former champion departs McLaren under a cloud, another old champ returns.

Fernando Alonso has left McLaren after a bitter season of rivalry with Lewis Hamilton. He is thought to be heading for a one-year contract with Renault while waiting for a berth with Ferrari.

Meanwhile, veteran genius Michael Schumacher is leaving retirement to test Ferrari’s title-winning car in Barcelona next week.

Seven-times World Champion, Schumacher will concentrate on optimizing the car in the context of the banning of several “cars’ driver aids” next season.

There has been talk of a possible offer from McLaren to the old warhorse to fill the gap created by Alonso’s departure.

In what was yet another dismal race for Lewis Hamilton, the young rookie driver could only trail in 7th in the Brazil Grand Prix after a bad start and repeated gear box failures.

Kimi Raikkonen winner of the 2007 Drivers’ Championship

Given the wall of ill-fate he encountered, his heroic attempts to claw his way back up the field, once the McLaren team had fixed his gear box remotely, at least got him into the points.

Kimi Raikkonen won the race in his Ferrari and took the Drivers’ World Championship, clocking up six wins in the season to Hamilton and Alonso’s four each.

Raikkonen ended a bad-tempered season on 110 points, while Hamilton and Alonso shared second place one point adrift.

Ron Dennis will probably be grateful that a truly awful season, in which his team was fined an eye-watering $100m, can now be put to rest.

However, he did attempt to appeal against a stewards’ decision not to penalize other teams for using fuel at lower temperatures than are required by the rules.

The result stands.

Felipe Massa is in pole positon with Lewis Hamilton second for tomorrow’s Brazilian Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton in Brazil GP practice

Happily, Hamilton escaped with his championship dream in place last night after his McLaren team went unpunished for illegally using two sets of wet-weather tyres in yesterday’s first practice session.

McLaren were fined £10,500 for the error. The Englishman takes a four-point lead into the title decider tomorrow.

Team boss Ron Dennis said, “It was 100 per cent our fault, not Lewis’s. Perhaps we were too tense.”

Hamilton said, “For me, I am so competitive. I always want to over-achieve, I want to achieve more and more and more. I want to win. I want it so bad, and the last race really showed me just how much I want it. I’ve been leading the championship now since the third race, and for me that’s just mind-blowing. Coming into the season, I was just hoping to do a good job, maybe get some points and podium positions, so I never imagined I would have four race wins and six pole positions. But I have the chance to win the world championship this weekend, and if I do, then fantastic. It will be a big step in my career and my life. If not then I will live to fight another day and I will move on to next year and try to win it then. But I feel I was born for this, so I know I’ve got it in me.”

He added, “It’s quite surreal being here. For many years I’ve wanted to come to Brazil and race at Interlagos. My first real opportunity is now here, and I’m buzzing. I can’t wait. I’m really excited about this. I look back and I’ve had a phenomenal season for my first year in Formula One. I’m 22 years old and very fortunate to be driving for McLaren. I’m very, very privileged to be in the position I am now, and I never thought I would be here, days away from potentially winning the world championship. I was in my hotel room yesterday looking out of the window, and I was thinking ‘wow!’ ”

Tomorrow’s race will be a sea of dreams.

After being cleared by a FIA inquiry in mid-week into what appeared to be dangerous driving in the Japanese Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton made a pig’s ear of the Chinese GP when only 25 laps from the World Championship title.

Later, he was man enough to admit he’d misjudged the state of his tyres when forced to retire by erratic road-holding.

The race was won by Kimi Raikkonen, with Fernando Alonso second. The result sets up a three-way fight for the championship in the final Grand Prix of the season in Brazil.

Hamilton will kick himself all the way to the bank if he loses the title now.