All eyes on Schumacher

Former world champion Michael Schumacher is back! Under normal circumstances, world champion Jenson Button's move to McLaren, where he joins up with 2008 champ Lewis Hamilton, or Fernando Alonso signing with Ferrari would have been huge, with headlines galore, but then, these are not normal circumstances.

1,239 days after competing in his last race, the German is poised to make his comeback - hoping to achieve an eighth world championship with Mercedes and the architect of his seven titles, Ross Brawn.

However, it will not be easy, as all other teams also have their eyes on the championship silverware.

Last year's runner-up, Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel, who was a Schumacher fan during his youth is keen to show his compatriot that the present belongs to the young, while Ferrari is hoping to prove that its dynamic duo of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa are the men to beat. McLaren, meanwhile, which will continue to use engines supplied by Mercedes, have the two last world champions driving for them and are looking for a better season than last year.

There will be a number of superlatives in this year's showpiece of motorsport: four current drivers have a total of 11 championships between them and for the first time ever, 26 drivers belonging to 13 teams are supposed to be racing.

The season will consist of 19 races, which is two more than last season, with South Korea being new on the calendar and the Canadian Grand Prix returning in Montreal.

Demand for tickets to this year's races are reported to have increased after Schumacher's announcement of his return in December and the TV stations lucky enough to have secured grand prix rights rubbed their hands in anticipation of ratings.

Also smiling was Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone, who is hoping that Schumacher's return will gloss over all the negative headlines the sport endured in the passed few seasons. "It is fantastic," Ecclestone said about the return of the 41-year-old German.

Also smiling were some of the young drivers, many of whom were fans of Schumacher when they were growing up and now suddenly find themselves in a position to race against him.

"For Michael, it's a real pleasure just to have such a legend on the track," said Hamilton. "I'm excited just to be on the same track as him. I'm sure at some stage we'll have some good battles and I'm looking forward to that."

"I will certainly not look into the rear-view mirror and pull over every time I see Michael to let him past," said Vettel.

Unlike Vettel, another German who is being considered as a potential champion, Nico Rosberg, does not have the luxury of being able to keep out of the Schumacher spotlight. The son of former world champion Keke Rosberg is Schumacher's team-mate at Mercedes and needs to accept whatever role he is given by the team.

Although - officially - there is no ranking within the team, it seems unlikely that a driver with 91 Grand Prix victories and seven championships will play second fiddle to a driver who has yet to taste victory in 70 Grand Prix races.

How many competitors Schumacher will face in his first race for Mercedes in Bahrain remains to be seen. Richard Branson's billions have secured the Virgin team and Lotus also seems to be a certain starter.

The situation pertaining to the other two new teams - USF1 and Campos - is much more doubtful. The American team is without a car and has no money and their only driver is on the verge of joining the similarly doubtful Campos team. Both teams have yet to conduct any tests, prompting a Serbian team called Stefan GP to ship some parts to Bahrain in the hope of joining the circuit at the last minute.