Red Bull racing driver Mark Webber is happy that the Formula One series will have a few fresh faces this season after the signing of McLaren and Renault’s rookie racers, Lewis Hamilton and Heikki Kovalainen and the Aussie racer has predicted an array of different faces on the podium throughout the coming year.

In recent years Ferrari legend Michael Schumacher has had more than his fair share of podium finishes, the German driver taking five drivers world crowns in the past seven seasons. But now, with the seven time champion retiring from the sport at the end of last year, the door has been opened for others to come through and shine…

"Clearly, Michael (Schumacher) averaged a lot of wins every year, but that's gone, so things are going to be spread out with lots of different people on the podium,” he told PAS Sport. “I think that will happen this year. We've also a lot of youngsters coming through, and I'm totally up for that. The youngsters are important. It's great Lewis and Heikki are here, and although I'm 30 now, I hope I'm in the middle of my Formula One career and with a few years left."

According to Mark, while Michael had a lot of fans around the globe, the series will not crumble because he is no longer a part of it, something hat became obvious over the past few seasons as Spanish ace Fernando Alonso stood up and challenged Schumacher in a way no other driver had done in a very long time….

"Michael was powerful in the sport. The Schumacher name was big, no question about that. But we all know we went through the period when it was almost too strong for the sport. It was not good for Formula One seeing Michael cruising around every Sunday with a cigar in his hand. That hurt a lot of us. But then when you look at Tiger Woods, do you make him tee off further back? That was the situation Ferrari and Michael were in.”

“The argument we had at the time was always about how long they would go on without any competition. But then in the last few seasons, Fernando (Alonso) has proved he is the man - a double world champion. He took everything to Michael, did a superb job against him. No-one else did that. He was a consistent threat, and that was impressive. Would Michael still be here if Kimi (Raikkonen) hadn't been signed by Ferrari? We don't know. But one thing is for certain, Formula One will still go on."