The most eagerly waited Grand Prix season in years

With the return of Michael Schumacher to Formula 1, this season will be the most eagerly awaited season in memory. The eyes of the world will be on the Bahrain Grand Prix and we will have several interesting facets to this season. We have back to back World Champions in Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button both being British and also driving for the same team.

The early signs were clear and Schumacher was struggling to come to terms with the car and was well off the pace being set by team mate Nico Rosberg. But it is the Button-Hamilton rivalry that is really intriguing me at McLaren.

It is also a rare event for four drivers to be World Champion or ex-World Champion in the field. We have Button, Hamilton, Schumacher and also Fernando Alonso. Schumacher though does know the extent of the task facing him. Three years away from Formula 1 is an awful long time.

In my mind it is akin to boxing and three years out of the ring in that sport is an absolute eternity if you are contemplating coming back in straight away against world class opponents. Schumacher is a quality driver but it will take time for him to find his feet back in Formula 1. He is already finding his rhythm in places although even Ross Brawn isn’t convinced that Schumacher can win the title.

Personally I think that Schumacher should hold up and if his neck doesn’t start giving him problems then I can really see him doing well in the second half of the season. It has to be mentioned though that Schumacher stopped racing in Formula 1 not because he wasn’t up to the task anymore but because he was fed up with many of the areas of the sport that he didn’t like.

But without doubt Schumacher has what it takes to be a World Champion again, whether or not it is this season then only time will tell. Who can ever forget the way that he barged Damon Hill off the track in Adelaide in 1994 and he then did the same to Jacques Villeneuve in 1997. He also followed that up by ramming his own brother Ralf Schumacher into the pit wall in the Monte Carlo Grand Prix.

The great Mario Andretti once remarked that in order to become a World Champion, a driver had to go beyond the boundaries of what was actually safe. I think that all of the greatest drivers in history had this quality. When a driver is prepared to do things that are unconventional that no other drivers in the field are prepared to do then that driver has a tremendous edge.

Whether that kind of mentality has dimmed in Schumacher with age remains to be seen! In other sports, ageing can be a problem even if the participants are not being tested physically. Formula 1 betting this season will be very fascinating indeed.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson
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