F1: Return of Schumi -- to Mercedes

I promised myself I'd talk about something other than NASCAR this time. So here it is: Michael Schumacher is officially back.

It was only a test, but since he didn't come out of it complaining about his neck (as he did after an aborted return with Ferrari in Massa's stead), it looks like his old motorcycle injury has healed enough to bring a seven-time champ back into the field.

....great. One of the things about Schumacher (and any multiple-time champion), is that basically you can love him or hate him; there is no middle ground. There are a couple of side stories that make this return interesting, though.

1) There's the standard changes that have occurred in vehicle specs since Schumacher retired from full-time competition.

2) There's his return with the Mercedes (formerly Brawn GP, with Mercedes power) team, who are facing the challenge of having to organize two teams... Neither driver was with Brawn last year, as the driver who gave Brawn the championship this past season, Jenson Button, is now with McLaren (which in the past has also shared a fair amount of tech, particular engine/powertrain, with Mercedes).

It doesn't matter that this was a team that won the championship this past year (driver and constructor), or that Schumi is a past champion several times over.... some reorganization challenges are going to arise. Yeah, I know, the success of Brawn last year argues against that, as they were the previously tepid Honda team.... but I'm sticking to it at least until I see some real on-track action...

3) Which brings up the next point of the current F1 ban on testing outside of sanctioned periods. Until we see a Mercedes F1 car being driven by Schumacher, that is, the full package, it's difficult to say what this is really going to mean. It could be he comes in and dominates the sport again (after all Brawn did that last year).... at which point, we can all start ignoring F1 again. Of course, the US in most cases already does that.

....we'll have to see if USF1, another new addition to FIA's top series, can make the first steps to changing that attitude as well.... F1's opening event is March 14 in Bahrain.