Kimi Raikkonen’s return to the sport with Lotus means that every winner of the world championship in the 21st century (look it up on Wikipedia tomorrow) will be participating.

That’s a record number of champions in the field, and while it’s a lovely statistic, the effect it will have on the race for the driver’s title is non-existent.

What matters to your enjoyment of the racing is this: How many realistic title contenders are there?

That, of course, depends on the feverish work of the constructors, who are still another month or so away from getting their cars out on track for pre-season testing, but we can already all but eliminate two of our ‘super six’ as potential title winners.

Michael Schumacher is surely discounted. Should Mercedes make a colossal leap forward this year (a big assumption), Schumacher has still got to beat his team-mate Nico Rosberg - something he’s yet to do in two seasons back on track. He’s a 40/1 shot at best with the bookmakers this year – would you really be tempted?

And then there’s Kimi Raikkonen, even further out at around 66/1. At his best, Kimi was as good as anybody. But fans should take note of Schumacher’s frustrating two years in the sport when they evaluate Raikkonen’s prospects for the season. The cars have changed a great deal since 2009, and there’s no longer the opportunity to test day and night to get back in the groove. Rumours that Lotus have cracked a ride height system that could thrust them up with the elite are enticing – but it will have to be a miracle on a par with the Brawn story of 2009, and the Lotus duo don’t have the recent experience that Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello possessed back then to make the most of it.

Having been world champion makes you a serious racer, but without the car to back you up, it doesn’t count for much.

If it did, forget Damon Hill getting a job as a TV analyst this year – why not get him back on the grid? You could put him in an HRT and it would probably take a while before anyone noticed. If Motorhead was being mean, you could say Hill was doing something similar for Arrows anyway in the 1997 season.

Why not take it to the extreme and have 26 champions in the field? Get Jacques Villeneuve and Mika Hakkinen out there! What about Nigel Mansell and Alain Prost? The Champions Tour of F1 has a nice (Nurburg)ring to it, but it would be like watching the summer Masters Football tournaments – not as good as you remembered it.

It would be something quite remarkable if this year’s champion didn’t come from the established powerhouses of Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari.

And even then, we can do a bit of filtering out, because who seriously believes that Felipe Massa will now be able to get the better of Fernando Alonso over the course of a season – or Mark Webber over Sebastian Vettel?

The excitement of the 2012 title race depends on whether McLaren and Ferrari can finally bridge the gap to Red Bull – and if a mid-level team such as Mercedes or Lotus can break into the elite. Without that, it won’t matter how many champions there are in the field, because it will be Vettel lifting the trophy again, with races to spare.

How many title contenders do you think there'll be this season? Is Motorhead rash to dismiss Michael Schumacher and Kimi Raikkonen's chances? Have your say in the comments section!

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Having just spent the last few hundred words espousing the need to be realistic, Motorhead has to pause and say it’s sorry that Rubens Barrichello’s long Formula One career looks to have come to an end.

Bruno Senna has been handed his seat at Williams, and that is set to spell the end for his Brazilian compatriot at the age of 39 and after a record 326 races.

Barrichello is one of those drivers who bridges generations of the sport. In his first race, the South African Grand Prix, the Brazilian was in the same field as Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, Damon Hill, Jean Alesi and Gerhard Berger.

Racing cars looked like this when Barrichello made his debut (and that's to say nothing of what Eddie Jordan looked like):

He’s worked tirelessly and driven to his maximum for six different teams, won races and finished as high as second in the drivers’ championship.

But the sport moves on. Williams reckon that Senna has plenty to offer, including a technical understanding of the car, one of Barrichello’s key strengths these days, and with the team near rock-bottom and in need of an injection of life, Senna represents the future. That's before you even think of the hefty injection of sponsors' cash the young driver brings.

If this is the end of his F1 career, ‘Rubinho’ can bow out with his head held high.

uk.eurosport.yahoo.com