Formula One in Need of Another Hero?

In this article NASCAR section writer Ron Ripple (gotta love that name) expresses frustration that driver Jimmie Johnson is poised to win the Sprint Cup for the third successive time.

I think many F1 fans might sympathise with Ron's view; he is sick of hearing Jimmie Johnson's name, and that feeling rings a Teutonic bell with me.

The same driver winning year after year is somewhere F1 fans have been. We've got that T-shirt, and it has an oh-so-familiar face on it.

Michael Schumacher was a habitual, compulsive, serial winner. If he had not retired there is good reason to believe he would have won the F1 drivers' championship in 2007 and 2008, and would now be preparing for a jaw-dropping 10th title in 2009.

If Schumie had stayed on, and if he had won the 2009 title, he would be only 40 years old. Jack Brabham was racing in F1 at 44, and the oldest driver to enter an F1 event was 58.

It is conceivable that Germany's finest could have been waving to the crowd after winning his 25th championship, still thinking his finest days were ahead of him.

What a delicious thought for hard-core Schumacher fans, but what a distressing one for everyone else, especially F1's commercial interests.

Competitive sport has to pose one question: Who will win? If the question is not asked, then there is little point in the uncommitted millions switching on their TVs to watch, and even less point in advertisers spending the money to reach them.

Having won two world championships with Benneton in the 1990s, Schumacher won with Ferrari in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004.

When Michael Schumacher was winning, winning, winning, TV audiences fell markedly. He was making the sport boring. Now to be reasonable, it wasn't his fault the other teams and/or drivers weren't good enough. However, outside of the Tifosi few wanted reason; they wanted competitive racing.

Put bluntly, they wanted the brakes put on Schumacher.

The FIA changed the scoring system to at least stop him clinching the championship early in the season. It didn't work, of course, although it did stop Ferrari driver Felipe Massa winning the 2008 title. If the Ferrari was half-decent, Schumie could pull a trailer and still win.

At last, in 2005 and 2006, the pendulum swung against Ferrari and Schumacher. The brilliant Fernando Alonso drove a hot Renault to win two world championships.

Schumacher retired from driving at the end of 2006, and the TV moguls must have breathed a collective sigh of relief. In 2007 and 2008 the sport did provide real contests, with championship winners Kimi Raikonnen and Lewis Hamilton both achieving victory by the skin of their teeth.

F1 seasons that are closely fought, and ideally decided at the final race, are exactly what the sport needs precisely because that is the action fans want to see.

Do we need another dominant Schumacher-like hero, bestriding the sport like a colossus? I say we do not, but of course I'd like to hear your views.