Ending weeks of speculation, Mercedes GP, which bought out the Brawn GP team, have confirmed that seven time F1 World champion Michael Schumacher will be driving for them in the 2010 season. There is still a lot of talk about how difficult it might be for the 41-year old to readjust himself to the pace and compete against talented young drivers hungry for success half his age. Even his Mercedes GP teammate Nico Rosberg has openly stated that he would not be the No. 2 driver in the team. Let alone Rosberg, apart from the likes of talents like Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, Schumacher also has to battle it out with former title rival Fernando Alonso and his Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa, as well as defending champion Button and Mark Webber. If Button could do it, Webber could also. And Webber has proved that quite convincingly last season.
The field is tighter than ever, something that Schumacher has reportedly admitted. Assuming the Brackley-based outfit keeps up its winning ways, it could very well be a eight-car horse race to the Championship title. Ferrari will be all charged up after having a season which it would rather forget. Now that double F1 World Champion Alonso has signed up with Ferrari, they would go all out to win. Ferrari will have an added edge, knowing from previous experience how Ross Brawn runs a team, how Schumacher drives, and how they two combine together. Hopefully this can be used to their advantage. Button moving on to McLaren means that McLaren now has an all-English driver line-up with two recent F1 World Champions and they definitely will be determined to prove a point about how good the English are at racing, as always. Buoyed by their recent success and their new-found confidence in the fact that you do not necessarily need a Mercedes engine in the back to win races, this time Red Bull will be hoping to lay their hands on that Constructors' title which eluded them by the narrowest of margins last season. All Adrian Newey needs to do is to come up with a good chassis for the Renault engine again. Speaking of engines, we could very well see some good showing from the Cosworth-engined cars of Williams and Lotus. Perhaps even Manor, renamed Virgin Racing, will see some good results, maybe even Top 10 finishes in the points. As of now, all bets are off for the upcoming 2010 season. Maybe the opening race in Saakhir will provide us some revelations. Until then, we have no choice but to wait.
Manufacturers taking over existing teams have generally not met with success in the past-Honda, Toyota and BMW to name a few, two of them who exited the sport at the end of the last season. One hopes, for the sakes of both Michael Schumacher as well as Nico Rosberg, that Mercedes would prove to be an exception. For now, the world waits with bated breaths to watch the return of the King as well as the legendary Silver Arrows.
The field is tighter than ever, something that Schumacher has reportedly admitted. Assuming the Brackley-based outfit keeps up its winning ways, it could very well be a eight-car horse race to the Championship title. Ferrari will be all charged up after having a season which it would rather forget. Now that double F1 World Champion Alonso has signed up with Ferrari, they would go all out to win. Ferrari will have an added edge, knowing from previous experience how Ross Brawn runs a team, how Schumacher drives, and how they two combine together. Hopefully this can be used to their advantage. Button moving on to McLaren means that McLaren now has an all-English driver line-up with two recent F1 World Champions and they definitely will be determined to prove a point about how good the English are at racing, as always. Buoyed by their recent success and their new-found confidence in the fact that you do not necessarily need a Mercedes engine in the back to win races, this time Red Bull will be hoping to lay their hands on that Constructors' title which eluded them by the narrowest of margins last season. All Adrian Newey needs to do is to come up with a good chassis for the Renault engine again. Speaking of engines, we could very well see some good showing from the Cosworth-engined cars of Williams and Lotus. Perhaps even Manor, renamed Virgin Racing, will see some good results, maybe even Top 10 finishes in the points. As of now, all bets are off for the upcoming 2010 season. Maybe the opening race in Saakhir will provide us some revelations. Until then, we have no choice but to wait.
Manufacturers taking over existing teams have generally not met with success in the past-Honda, Toyota and BMW to name a few, two of them who exited the sport at the end of the last season. One hopes, for the sakes of both Michael Schumacher as well as Nico Rosberg, that Mercedes would prove to be an exception. For now, the world waits with bated breaths to watch the return of the King as well as the legendary Silver Arrows.
Return of the Silver Arrows
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