Ecclestone: Vettel Will Be World Champion in 2010

Bernie Ecclestone is known as a person who often speaks his mind about a certain matter, and seldom changes his opinion about things; or favorite drivers. Although admitting his enthusiasm over seeing Michael Schumacher back in Formula One, the commercial rights holder of the series is not shy of naming Sebastian Vettel as his personal favorite for the world title.

“I predict Vettel will be the next Formula One champion,” Ecclestone was quoted as saying by the German newspaper Bild.

However, this isn't to mean the next year campaign of F1 will lack action on the track. On the contrary, the 79-year old billionaire is simply ecstatic over the prospect of seeing no less than 4 world champions at play during the same season, all of them driving race-winning cars through 2010 (or at least that's expected of teams like Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes GP).

In addition, he admitted that he never thought Schumacher would return to the world of Formula One at Mercedes, considering his long and strong relationship with Ferrari.

“I am very, very happy. I never thought he would compete for Mercedes. Next year, we'll have 4 F1 champions compete in the championship. I can't remember the last time that happened,” Ecclestone continued.

Schumacher is leading the champions' pack with 7 world titles, followed by Ferrari's Fernando Alonso with 2 and Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button with one each. The last time 4 champions competed in the same season in F1 was in 1999, when Michael Schumacher, Damon Hill, Jacques Villeneuve and Mika Hakkinen were all part of the entry list. However, only Schumacher and Hakkinen were real contenders for the title, as Hill and Villeneuve were both driving non-competitive machineries.