Motorsport: Schumacher casts shadow over Formula 1 pack

Mercedes GP Formula One driver Michael Schumacher looks fit and focused. Photo / AP

So many significant changes to Formula One for the new season make it difficult to know where to start when calculating likely form.

There is the return of Michael Schumacher, who at 41 is as fit and focused as when he won 92 grands prix and seven world titles, and the metamorphosis of the remarkable double-title-winning Brawn team into Mercedes' own pukka Silver Arrows equipe.

Jenson Button is settled alongside Lewis Hamilton at McLaren and will be determined to prove the 2008 champion will not have an easy time with him.

Then there is Fernando Alonso adding impetus to Ferrari while Felipe Massa returns as determined as ever after his accident in Hungary last July.

Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber are ready to go mano a mano at Red Bull, where owner Dietrich Mateschitz expects them to deliver a title.

Small wonder it is being touted as the most exciting season for the World Championship in years, although sponsorship has never been harder to find. United States F1 failed to make it for 2010 but are hopeful for 2011.

There will still be three new teams - Lotus, Hispania Racing and Virgin - and five rookie drivers, Nico Hulkenberg, Vitaly Petrov, Karun Chandhok, Bruno Senna and Lucas di Grassi. The Russian Petrov and Indian Chandhok are expanding the sport's demographic, preparing for a race in South Korea near the end of the season.

Russia and India are significant markets and are likely to become bigger F1 players. But all must justify their inclusion with solid performances.

The rules have not changed much. The most significant is the ban on refuelling, obliging teams to develop longer-wheelbase cars with up to 160kg of fuel-tank capacity instead of the previous 80kg, and to rearrange weight distribution. The ban will place a premium on drivers preserving the Bridgestone tyres between their mandatory stops - which will be lightning-fast - in which they must now only switch compounds.

"Even a small slide, if you push too hard trying to make a move on somebody who is preserving their rubber in the early laps, can be enough to ruin your tyres for the whole stint," Button has warned.

It will change strategy and promote greater efforts to overtake, too, as there will be less potential for drivers to wait for pit stops to make up places.

A significant change to the scoring offers a much greater reward for winning. Points now run down to 10th place: 25-18-15-12-10-8-6-4-2-1.

Race pace will be more important than qualifying pace, and indications are that McLaren, Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes are closely matched, but that Force India, Williams and Sauber could spring big surprises.

Is it possible Schumacher could harvest all Mercedes' major points, while Button and Hamilton, Alonso and Massa and Vettel and Webber steal them from one another?

- INDEPENDENT