Michael Schumacher will be absent from Formula One's season-opening race for the first time since 1991 on Sunday but double world champion Fernando Alonso could not care less.
"I will not miss him," the McLaren driver told a news conference at the Australian Grand Prix on Thursday when asked about Ferrari's now retired seven times world champion, his great rival last year.
He had nothing more to add.
Schumacher will not be travelling to Australia, the news confirmed to reporters by his younger brother Ralf who spoke to him on Wednesday night.
Winner of the title for the past two seasons with Renault, and now the only active champion, Alonso has a new challenge with a team that last year failed to win a race for the first time in a decade.
"I think I am in a better position than the Renault team and I'm happy," he had told reporters at an earlier McLaren media event. "It is a little bit easier to be honest, to approach the races winning (the title) two times.
"I know how to approach races, how to prepare mentally and physically," added the 25-year-old.
Alonso won in Melbourne last year, when the race was the third round of the championship, and has always gone well at the circuit. But he still remained wary of talking up his prospects.
Even if McLaren have been impressive in pre-season testing, Ferrari have also looked extremely quick over the long distances.
"You never know what is going to happen in the first race. The first race is quite different, quite surprising for everybody," Alonso said. "So to see the real potential of the car we need to wait maybe three or four races.
Meanwhile Ferrrari's new pilot, and Schumacher's replacement, Kimi Raikkonnen is remarkably cool about the prospect of stepping into the German's shoes.
The 27-year-old Finn had endured four mixed seasons with McLaren before he was plucked by the Maranello outfit to partner Brazilian Felipe Massa in what was inevitably going to be a watershed year.
"Of course I know the history (of Ferrari) but I don't really know the details because it's not going to change my life," the deadpan Finn told reporters on Thursday. "It is a very big famous team and I am happy to be part of it."
Raikkonen finished second in the drivers' championship twice during his four-season spell with McLaren, with whom he enjoyed all his nine race wins.