Seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher said today he has signed a deal to return to Formula One racing with Mercedes GP for the 2010 season.
Having retired in 2006, Schumacher, who turns 41 on January 3, will reportedly be paid seven million euros (9.9 million US dollars) to be on the grid when the new season starts with the Bahrain Grand Prix on March 14.
"After a three-year break, I have all the energy again that I was lacking," Schumacher told a teleconference with reporters after signing the contract late yesterday.
Schumacher had been due to make a remarkable return last season for Ferrari -- for whom he acted as a consultant after retiring -- as a replacement for the injured Felipe Massa but was unable to because of a neck injury.
But the German said today the pain was behind him.
"My neck is no longer a problem," Schumacher said. "Over the summer it was too soon after the accident. Now everything has healed."
The pilot will return to Formula One having won 91 of his 250 Grand Prix races and started in Pole Position 68 times.
Schumacher will be linking up with Mercedes's team principal Ross Brawn, who was the brains behind all of his world titles.
The German won the first of his World Drivers' Championship titles at Benetton in 1994 and was successful with the Italian team again in the 1995 season.
In 1996, he transferred to Ferrari where he proved virtually unbeatable between 2000 and 2004, winning five further world titles. There will be huge interest in the impact Schumacher and Brawn will have now for Mercedes.
It will be 1239 days after Schumacher's last Formula One race in Sao Paulo at the Brazilian Grand Prix in October 2006 and he joins Mercedes in an all-German racing team after compatriot Nico Rosberg, 24, signed up last month.
Schumacher's signature is a major coup for Mercedes, who raced under the Brawn GP banner last season, and a blow to his former stable.
Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo admitted last week he is distraught at the prospect of losing Schumacher to a rival team.
Di Montezemolo started working with Schumacher in 1996, when the German joined the Italian constructor from Benetton.
It was the Italian who first suggested to Schumacher he stand in for the injured Massa after the Brazilian's horrific crash at the Hungarian Grand Prix in July.
"It was me that rekindled his desire to race after Massa was injured in Hungary," the Ferrari chief had said.
Di Montezemolo admits he would have liked to see Schumacher back in a Ferrari but with Massa and Fernando Alonso already on their books for next season he simply could not offer the German a drive.