Briton Jenson Button has tipped world champion Michael Schumacher to retire at the end of the season if he manages to come back and win his eighth world title this year.
Schumacher has had a disastrous start to his campaign this season and is 24 points off the top of the championship table after finishing only one of the first three races, when he secured seventh place in Malaysia.
But Button, who is on the list as a possible replacement at Ferrari, said: "I think if he loses (the championship) this year he'll continue, if he wins he'll probably finish.
"It's obviously up to him when he stops, either he gets bored or wants to spend time with the family. But there's no reason for him to give up as he's obviously quick enough.
"It would be great if he carried on. It wouldn't be good initially if he left, because he's achieved so much in Formula One, and I think if we lose any of the top drivers in Formula One it would be disappointing."
Schumacher, who is contracted to drive until the end of 2006, is one of only two previous champions on the grid this year, along with Canadian Sauber driver Jacques Villeneuve, who won the 1997 championship with Williams.
{{/usCountry}}Schumacher, who is contracted to drive until the end of 2006, is one of only two previous champions on the grid this year, along with Canadian Sauber driver Jacques Villeneuve, who won the 1997 championship with Williams.
{{/usCountry}}Button is one of the sport's new hopes along with drivers like Spaniard Fernando Alonso, who currently leads the title race with Renault, and Kimi Raikkonen, who drives for McLaren.
Ferrari's poor form so far this season has allowed Alonso to rise to the challenge and dominate, securing victory in the Malaysian and Bahrain Grands Prix with ease.
But Button, whose BAR-Honda team finished as runner-up to Ferrari last year, is sure that the world champions will come back with a vengeance in different conditions here at Imola this weekend.
"I think the top two will be the Renault and the Ferraris," said Button. "I think Ferrari will be quick. But for me the Michelin tyres are so superior that they will suffer.
"They've suffered in every race so far with wear so they are probably going to have to bring a harder tyre here, even though it's cooler conditions. Their race pace might be good but I think their qualifying will suffer."
Button's team have made a massive step forward in testing since the last race in Bahrain, however, and he is confident that they will finally be able to challenge for podiums after failing to finish so far this season.
"I'm quite excited," said Button. "It's been the best few tests I've had with the team, the amount of miles, we found quite a bit with the aerodynamics and I think we've made a good step forward.
"We are going to be reliable that's one thing that's sorted, it's just how competitive we are going to be. But this helps your confidence after the start to the year we've had - it's got to help.
"I think we need to be looking to getting a podium, getting back on track and to the position we had last year, and this is the first race we have come to where we think we have a very good chance of getting on the podium.
"It's like another season. This is where it really kicks off for us. We got plenty of experience from the first two races - what not to do in some cases - and coming here now we are all really excited about the rest of the season."