Return of the Silver Arrows
The 2010 Formula 1 World Championship begins after a five-month winter break with the Bahrain Grand Prix at Sakhir this weekend.
Despite present and past World Champions Jenson Button, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso each looking to add to their trophy collections, most of the talk has centered around a certain 41-year-old driver. Do you even have to ask his name?
Mercedes-Benz has bucked the trend of manufacturers pulling out of F1 by buying the assets of Brawn GP and signing that man, seven-times World Champion Michael Schumacher, to join Nico Rosberg in its driver line-up.
The German manufacturer has a hugely difficult task. Not only is it returning to F1 as a full constructor for the first time in 55 years, but it is also faced with the difficulty of retaining the drivers' and constructors' crowns won by its predecessor in its maiden season in 2009.
Of course, having the 91-times grand prix winner as its lead driver (reuniting him with long-time Ferrari man Ross Brawn) is a major bonus and such has been the winter form of the W01 machine, race victories look a certainty, although podiums are probably a more realistic target for the opening few races of the season.
Even Schumacher has admitted that the car has slipped behind those of Ferrari and McLaren since and will need to out-develop its rivals over the course of the season if it is to provide a mount for its 41-year-old prize asset to challenge for the title, rather than just take the odd win.
So long as he averts a major disaster, Schumacher will be one of the biggest climbers on the Castrol Rankings this year. He is not currently ranked among the 2163 drivers as he has not competed in a scoring series since 2006. A victory in Bahrain however will launch him into the top-800 straight away.
Whether team principal Brawn chooses to give Schumacher number one status, will no doubt have a huge effect on his team-mate Rosberg, who will be desperate not to be marginalised by his more illustrious team-mate.
The German has spent his entire F1 career so far with Williams and had his best season to sate last year as he finished seventh in the championship, albeit failing to match his pair of podium finishes of 2008. The 25-mile hop from Grove to Brackley gives him his best chance yet of becoming the first member of the Rosberg family to win a grand prix since his father Keke in 1985.
Rosberg lies 18th in the Castrol Rankings ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix and second among the German drivers to Sebastian Vettel. The proliferation of his countrymen in top F1 drives this season gives Germany an excellent chance of ending the year higher than its current fourth place in the Nations' Cup.
Whether it will be Rosberg or Schumacher bolstering this position will be down to what happens on-track.
