There is an old adage that goes `be careful what you wish for, it might just come true'. Trite, maybe, but at Silverstone on Sunday Eddie Irvine was served up a rare dose of proof that in all such fortune cookie philosophy there is a nugget of wisdom. Just a few short days before the British Grand Prix, the Ferrari number two had speculated on how complete his life at the team would be if Schumacher would just hightail off elsewhere.

By Sunday evening, Schumacher had done just that, albeit, thankfully, temporarily and had gone away to recuperate from an operation on a double leg fracture sustained in a horrific head-on crash at Stowe. If wish fulfilment came in bigger helpings Irvine would have to go on a diet. On the surface, Schumacher's accident appears to be all that Irvine could have wished for.

In the German's absence, he will become Ferrari's number one driver, the man to whom the whole team will defer, the man who becomes the focus of Ferrari's best chance of securing that all elusive championship. Ferrari are still two points clear of McLaren in the constructors' championship and are sure to give the Ulsterman all he needs in an effort to keep a re-invigorated Mika Hakkinen at bay.

It is the release the Ulsterman has been demanding since his maiden win in Melbourne four and half months ago. It is the ultimate opportunity. Or is it? For the last four years, Irvine has played the role of chirpy batman to Schumacher's stern senior officer to perfection.

"I could have won at Silverstone. It was there for the taking but the pit stop cost me. It was a bit of a disaster," Irvine said.

"But that's what winning in Melbourne did for me. It changed my attitude, with the car giving me the belief I could win.

"Six points is good for the championship. It means I'm only eight behind Hakkinen, so from that point it's good. But there was 10 there for the getting.

"What happened with the pit stop does turn races. I could lose the championship because of those four points," said Irvine.

Irvine has been a more than able understudy and has fulfilled the constrictive terms of his contract with faithful efficiency and occasionally daredevil aplomb. But since Melbourne he has been staging a one-man proletarian uprising against his leaders.

Now Irvine has been handed control of the means of points production and the pressure is on. Indeed, it is arguable that the pressure on Irvine in the absence of Schumacher will be even more intense than any Schumacher may have been under when he had the luxury of the Ulsterman continually riding shotgun beside him.

"I've just now got to take it race by race, but people can be assured that I will give it my all for the championship.

"This is not exactly the way I wanted to be a number one, though. The team needs Michael back.

"It will be hard to find a top-level replacement before the next race (Austria in two weeks), but hopefully he will be back soon because we've got a constructors' championship to win as well," said Irvine.

Irvine has not had to deal with this pressure before and how he reacts to it will be one of the most interesting cameos of the second half of the season. The evidence to suggest that he will cope adroitly is pretty good. In the often labyrinthine internal machinations of Ferrari, Irvine is believed to be a smoother operator, a more popular choice. But while Irvine will undoubtedly receive the wholehearted support of the Ferrari workforce, it is on the track where Irvine has made his greatest statements of intent and of maturity.

After winning the British Grand Prix on Sunday and thus ending a 15-month dry spell, David Coulthard admitted that winning a race is an inspirational event, giving back self-belief and confidence. Irvine is the ultimate example.

After a superb back-up performance to Schumacher in 1998, culminating in a spectacular drive at Suzuka in the last race of the season, Irvine was supposed to retreat back into his box and fulfil the same task this year. The win in Australia blew that theory apart.

Suddenly Irvine was awash with blustery arrogance, demanding equality, insisting that his tolerance of the restrictions placed on him was ebbing fast. He backed those demands up with a second place behind Schumacher in Monaco, fourth in Spain and then two stunning drives in Canada and Montreal, both of which saw him clamber through the field to claim points that looked lost.

All the while too, the Ulsterman has been nudging closer and closer to Schumacher's lap times. In testing, in practice, in qualifying, Irvine has insistently knocked on the door but until now there had been no answer.

Now, though, the bells have chimed, the doors have been flung wide open and Irvine has his chance.

Taking it won't be easy. Against a McLaren Mercedes team that appears to have solved the reliability problems that plagued it at the start of the season, and against a world champion in hot pursuit of a consecutive title and co-driver in receipt of renewed inspiration, Irvine may struggle.

"The championship will be tough to win for us. But we will give it everything and only time will tell what will happen," said Ferrari sports director Jean Todt.

"I hope Irvine can win the drivers' title. Life has been such that he has often been behind Michael, but Michael will not be there for a few weeks so it's up to him to win as much as he can," he added.

Despite the differences of opinion between the duo in the past, Schumacher is pulling for Irvine now his own chances of the title have disappeared.

Speaking through his manager Heiner Buchinger, Schumacher, who spent another night at Northampton General Hospital where he had his surgery, said: "Go for it Eddie."

However, Irvine is unlikely to receive support as unstintingly competent as his own from any stand-in Ferrari number two, whoever that may be. The ultimate prize of life, liberty and the pursuit of silverware may be tantalisingly close but the vicious hand-to-hand, wheel-to-wheel fighting of Irvine's revolution has really only just begun.