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Michael Schumacher will retire from Formula One, for the second time, at the end of the season.
Schumacher's seat at Mercedes will be taken by McLaren's Lewis Hamilton in 2013, and with a lack of other options available to the German he has opted to quit the sport at the age of 43.
"I have decided to retire at the end of the season," Schumacher said. "I still feel I am capable of competing against the best but the time sometimes comes to say goodbye and this time it might be forever."
Schumacher, seven times a world champion, first retired at the end of the 2006 season but returned in 2010.
Ross Brawn, the Mercedes team principal and formerly Schumacher's mentor at Ferrari, said: "I think he is the greatest racing driver of this century and I was very privileged to work with Michael. We had some fantastic times, some tough times, but also some very successful times.
"Michael brought a lot to the team in his second period in the sport that people don't see. We haven't achieved what we wanted to achieve but what we achieve in future, Michael will have made a contribution to it.
"For me personally he is the greatest racing driver of this century."
Schumacher's voice broke with emotion as he revealed he would retire, but he insisted the decision to once again leave the sport is the right one, confessing he is "empty".
He added: "It's not painful. It is a relief to me, I have done so much in this sport but when the battery is going low the first time, and then it is doing so again, and I am older, it is something I am looking forward to. There are plenty of other things in life you can do and now is the time to change that."
It seems almost fitting that Schumacher should announce his retirement at Suzuka, a track where he has won six times, and where he clinched two of his titles, including the 2000 success that kick-started Ferrari's period of domination.
And he intends to finish his career on a high, starting with Sunday's race. "It is now key what comes with six races to go," he said. "I will do exactly as I did the first time I retired. I will focus 100% on what I am doing and then look at what happens next. I have options obviously, but what they are I will decide when the time is right. I had options to stay but did not feel right about it."
Mercedes moved for Hamilton as Schumacher could not give a definitive answer on whether he would carry on beyond the end of the season. There had been suggestions the German would join Sauber, for whom he raced sports cars in the late 80s and early 90s, but his emotional statement in Suzuka means he has just six races left.
"We all know Lewis is one of the best drivers we have around and I am sure he and the team will have a successful future," Schumacher said. "The team had an option in Lewis that helped me decide. I was in the picture when negotiations were going on but I was not sure about myself. I have no hard feelings."
Despite his unsuccessful comeback with Mercedes – he has scored just one podium in three seasons – Schumacher's place in the annals of F1 history is secure.
His first stint, between 1991 and 2006, saw him rewrite the sport's record books, winning seven world titles, the first two of them with Benetton in 1994-5, and 91 races.
He will be best remembered for helping to revive Ferrari's fortunes after joining them in 1996 along with Brawn, Jean Todt, Rory Byrne and Paolo Martinelli, and winning five straight titles between 2000–04.
Along the way he set new standards in terms of driver fitness and of understanding of race strategy as he and Brawn dovetailed beautifully.
Collisions in title deciders against Damon Hill in 1994 and Jacques Villeneuve in 1997 damaged his reputation, as did his ruthless squeezing of his former Ferrari team-mate Rubens Barrichello towards the pitwall in Hungary in 2010.
Hamilton, speaking prior to the news of Schumacher's decision, is in no doubt as to the size of the task that awaits him in filling the seat vacated by the German.
"I don't see myself as replacing Michael. I don't think anyone can replace Michael, he's a legend in the sport, he has achieved so much already," the 2008 world champion said. "I feel privileged to have been in F1 at the same time as him.
"I watched him winning all his world championships at home in my living room so to have been on the track with him in 2006 and then for him to come back and for me to get to race against him has been a real privilege so I hope, one day, I can achieve some of the things he has done."
