Driver winter schedule - 26th November 18:09pm GMT

Ferrari's Michael Schumacher, extraordinary winner of 13 races this year, is taking his usual long vacation before firing up his bid for an eighth title and sixth in a row.

"He will not be back before January," said the German's spokeswoman Sabine Kehm. "The only time he will be seen in a racing car before then will be at the Race of Champions."

Schumacher, who turns 36 on January 3, is taking part in a competition pitting the world's best circuit racers against rally aces on a temporary surface at the Stade de France in Paris on December 4.

His rivals will include French world rally champion Sebastien Loeb, NASCAR aces Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, Brazilian IRL champion Tony Kanaan and France's Champ Cars champion Sebastien Bourdais.

Formula One cars will not be involved but drivers, including Briton David Coulthard and French veteran Jean Alesi, will race rally cars and Ferrari 360 Modena models.

Once that is out of the way, Schumacher will attend the International Automobile Federation's gala in Monaco on December 10 and Ferrari's traditional Christmas Party at Maranello. And then he will take it easy.

"There were times this year when I was way more tired than I am now," he said after the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix last month.

"I still feel fresh. But I also know that it's important to take a break before the preparations for the next season get underway."

In previous years, Schumacher has spent November and December with his family in Switzerland and at his Norwegian mountain hideaway -- where nobody takes any notice of him and he can lead a normal life.

This year he stayed away for 102 days before returning on January 22.

Ferrari have no shortage of test drivers, with Italian regular Luca Badoer and new Spanish signing Marc Gene in action in Barcelona while Maserati sportscar racer Andrea Bertolini did aerodynamics testing at Fiorano in Italy.

Brazilian Rubens Barrichello, runner-up in this year's championship, is expected to put in a couple of days testing at Jerez in southern Spain in the second week of December.

"Michael is unlikely to be testing before the 15th of January, after Campiglio," said a Ferrari spokesman on Thursday, referring to the regular January ski weekend organised by Ferrari sponsor Philip Morris in the Dolomites.

Last year there were questions about Schumacher's motivation, with some saying the champion's prolonged absence from the test track suggested he was losing interest in going around in circles.