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Michael Schumacher is even closer to Ferrari than most would imagine. That much is clear from the tears that stream down Luca di Montezemolo's face as Schuey steps from a Ferrari F1 car for the very last time, after a demo drive at the Finali Mondiali at Monza.

It's clear too from the huge number of fans who have come here to say their goodbyes to him; at least 45,000 of them.

So it's not surprising that Ferrari built the last FXX especially for Michael. In black. With a thin red line circling the edge of each wheel, and with his logo stitched into the seats.

Originally, Ferrari had only planned to build 10 cars and to invite their most loyal customers to participate in what was billed as an exclusive development project. That number grew to 29... and then Schuey put the phone call in.

As he faces retirement, he has become at least as involved in the project as every other FXX owner. But as befits the most successful F1 driver in history, his FXX is more exclusive than the others'.

It's more black for starters - there were reports that Schumacher's FXX was going to be in stealth matt-black, which would have really convinced all bearing witness here that he has impeccable taste, but it trundles out of the pit garage in metallic black, with a healthy sheen to it.

Schuey's is the only car with matt-finished exhausts though, the others having polished pipes. Other than that, and those seats and wheels, his car is pretty much identical to the rest. Which is as it should be, because Herr Schumacher will be providing much the same sort of data for Ferrari's engineers as every customer will be expected to.

The FXX programme is a contender for the greatest marketing coup the world has ever seen. Ferrari has managed to make customers part with huge sums of cash (sums still treated as confidential) to own an 800bhp-plus car that they won't have free rein to drive.