Six of the best

A record six of the 24 Formula One drivers competing in 2010 hail from Germany. They are:

Michael Schumacher
Age: 41
Starts: 249
Wins: 91
Podiums: 154
Best championship finish: 1st - 1994, 95, 2000, 01, 02, 03, 04

This man's CV tells the whole story. The most successful F1 driver in the history of the sport - by a considerable margin, for that matter - has returned after three years in retirement.

Where to begin? Schumacher's unwavering professionalism and commitment, his supreme fitness and self-discipline, his ability to mold a team around him, his technical understanding and feel for developing a race car, and - of course - his metronomic and blistering pace all contributed to him becoming the dominant force in F1 for a decade.

But perhaps the defining characteristic of Schumacher and his success was his ruthless determination, a hunger to triumph that made him one of the most polarizing figures in the sport - always lauded as one of the best of all time, but often criticized for not playing fair.

It would perhaps be asking too much to expect the 41-year-old to wind back the years and win championship number eight on his F1 return, but motorsport fans know that discounting Michael Schumacher from anything is extremely foolish.

Sebastian Vettel
Age: 22
Starts: 46
Wins: 5
Podiums: 9
Best championship finish: 2nd - 2009.

Schumacher might struggle to be the top German driver this year. The bookmakers reckon Sebastian Vettel has a better shot at the title.

Dubbed "Bubi Schumi" ("Baby Schumi") by the German press when he made his F1 debut as a teenager, he's tipped to one day become a multiple world champion.

While Vettel doesn't monopolize the record books quite like Schumacher, he's already written his name into F1 history. He is the youngest point-scorer, podium-finisher, and race-winner ever, and in 2009 he almost became the youngest world champion of all time, finishing a close second to Jenson Button.

Vettel remains with the Red Bull team for 2010, in a car penned by F1 design legend Adrian Newey. Newey made some of the very few cars that managed to beat Schumacher in the 1990s (then at Williams and McLaren), and many pundits expect him to repeat that feat at Red Bull this year.

A massive Monty Python fan, Vettel combines extreme confidence with an easy-going nature, and was on his way to becoming a darling of the German press last year. However, a certain someone's return to the sport might slow that process this season.

Vettel's driving style is extremely aggressive, and his early career was characterized by frequent mistakes and retirements, a problem he seemed to get a handle on in 2009.

Nico Rosberg
Age: 24
Starts: 70
Wins: 0
Podiums: 2
Best championship finish: 7th - 2009

Most international F1 fans consider Nico Rosberg only an honorary German. His father, 1982 World Champion Keke Rosberg, was known as "the flying Finn", the first of a long line of world champions from Finland. However, Nico's mother is German, he was born in Wiesbaden, and he's always raced under a German license.

Rosberg's never won a race, but at Williams he was a consistent over-achiever in a car that couldn't compete at the front. However, critics point to repeated mistakes in those few races where he had the chance to score big, and say he can't handle the pressure of running near the front.

Midway through last season, when Rosberg's move to Brawn GP (now Mercedes GP) was announced, many started tipping him as a possible world champion in 2010.

Then Michael Schumacher announced his return to the sport.

Rosberg says his first goal is to win his first race, but his greatest challenge this season will be to achieve what no man ever has in F1 history - to beat Schumi in the same car. If age is on his side, history is not.

Timo Glock
Age: 27 (though only until March 18)
Starts: 36
Wins: 0
Podiums: 3
Best championship finish: 10th - 2009

Being in the wrong place at the wrong time is not a recipe for success in motorsport, but it's been a recurring theme of Timo Glock's career.

He made a more than respectable debut in 2004 as a stand-in for Jordan, a privateer team that was on its last legs. When Jordan quit at the end of that year, Glock was lost in the Formula One driver shuffle, and had to prove his mettle again in the lower formulas. He fought his way back and secured a drive with Toyota for 2008, only for them to leave the sport at the end of last season, leaving Timo homeless again.

Glock, knowing the importance of finding an alternative quickly, signed up with one of this year's three new teams, Virgin Racing. The price of staying in the sport will be spending the early races, and probably the entire season, right at the back of the pack.

Glock is known as a gutsy driver, who shines over race distances. He was one of the most prolific overtakers of 2009.

Adrian Sutil
Age: 27
Starts: 52
Wins: 0
Podiums: 0
Best championship finish: 17th - 2009.

After three lackluster years, the sun might finally shine on Adrian Sutil in 2010. He stays with the Force India team, but this year the outfit hopes it has progressed beyond its traditional backmarker status.

Sutil says he hopes to generally be "between 8th and 12th" in 2010, which would represent a major improvement.

Depsite a lack of success, this talented pianist with Latin American heritage has shown flashes of brilliance in his career. But these moments have almost always been overshadowed either by horrendous misfortune or careless errors. He has never finished higher than 4th, and has retired 22 times in his short career. He's garnered a reputation as a fast driver with real potential, who is also a bit of a crash-magnet.

This season is Sutil's chance to prove his critics wrong and finally secure his first podium. But some people are tipping him to achieve even more than that.

Nico Hulkenberg
Age: 22
Starts: 0

Rookie Nico Hulkenberg makes his debut with Nico Rosberg's old team, Williams, this season. He's partnered with the most experienced driver in the history of the sport, Brazilian Rubens Barrichello.

Hulkenberg is the latest young starlet under the wing of Michael Schumacher's manager Willi Weber and, like most young drivers to enter the sport, he's being touted as "the next big thing."

He won the GP2 feeder championship at a canter in 2009, and in his spare time he worked shifts at Williams' assembly plant in Oxfordshire, learning how to build and fit various parts of the F1 cars he is now driving.

Hulkenberg, like Adrian Sutil, is in a car that's likely to be a solid midfield contender this season, perhaps capable of causing the occasional upset. But the team hasn't won a race in five seasons, the longest drought in Williams' history.

Author: Mark Hallam
Editor: Matt Hermann