I think they have a clutch switch/button on the steering wheel, or they would never get out of first gear/ not stall the car when they spin. They HAVE to have some sort of manual clutch disengagement.

Its all managed by computers now, but they can still drop the clutch and smoke the tires, I saw it done in a video where hondas F1 team raced thier WSB 1000RR in a drag race; the computer for the lanuch control went out and the driver had to manually launch the car.

and the car shifts by hydralic acutators, its a bit different than your standard Automanual gear box. Especially since its a straight cut sequential unit. Its kinda like in Sport bike racing they can up shift by a button that controls the shift lever using a numatic cylinder while disengaging the ignition, but they still have to down shift manually.

I'm a tradionalist and prefer a standard, but the new transmissions on some of the new cars are getting to be really bad ass.