Formula 1 - Not Long Now

Not long until Friday Practice gets underway in Melbourne. Under 7 hours to go and I am just a little bit excited about the start of the new season. As I have said before I am totally unsure of who to support this year and well I am also totally unsure of how things are going to go. This season is not going to be easy for anyone, in fact everyone will have a tough season and it is looking like it could be slightly better for the smaller teams.

So just before things get under way I think I will give a wee run down of my thoughts so far regarding the major changes and the teams.

The main rule changes as we all know include the return of ungroved slicks, no fancy aerodynamic bits and the introduction of the Kinetic Energy Recovery System or KERS for short. These changes are excellent for the followers of the sport as well as drivers as they will ensure each lap of each race to be entertaining and overtaking will happen a lot more than it use to as the drivers can get closer to each other but also improve there chances through the KERS system that will give them a boost to either stay in front or get in front. Another excellent thing about these rule changes is that all the cars will nearly be exactly the same in design and construction so everyone will be equall. The main thing about the changes is it will show what drivers are really the best in the business.

Personally I think these changes should have been done a few seasons ago as the sport has been dominated by McLaren & Ferrari for a while now and the smaller teams havent managed to do much to catch them with only Reanult coming close. Now it looks like even the newest member of the paddock, Brawn GP will do well and some are tipping Jenson Button to win in Melborne on Sunday. Now if that happens it will be a major upset in the sport as it will show that the likes of Brawn GP are going to be a threat for the championship.

Brawn GP are the new boys in town and well they do have some experiance since most of the team were all at Honda last year who have pulled out, basically Brawn GP are a reincarnation of Honda. They also have the most experianced driver this season with Rubens Barrichello who has raced with many legends of the sport.

Red Bull are definetly a team to watch this season as it looks like they may just have an edge over the rest of the field. But the size of that edge won't be known until we see everyone in action. Red Bull are going to be in or near the top 5 at the end of the season maybe Mark Webber will manage to get them a good place in the drivers championship as well.

McLaren last year Lewis Hamilton secured the drivers championship but only by a few points, will the guys at McLaren manage to get Lewis on the top of the leader board again or have there testing problems not been sorted out. I don't think we will see McLaren do well this season but as always with F1 you just never know what is going to happen.

Williams are always a team that can do well no matter what and last year I thought was a sucessful year for them and I think they will build on it. They are the only team in this years competition to be using a non electrical version of the KERS system, now will this be a good idea or not and will it be reliable. I wouldn't like to trust it these mechanical systems may not be as effective as there electrical cousins.

Ferrari I use to be a big fan of the boys in red but all that sort of went away when Micheal Shumacher retired, he may still be with them as an advisor but it just isn't the same. I have never been a fan of Fillipe Massa don't know why but he just isn't that intresting to me. I do however like Kimi Raikkonen and would like to see the Fin do well. But it is Ferrari and they like to complain about everything just now. They are a team who just can not handle loseing. Ferrari were good last year but I think this year they are going to have some problems adjusting to life without all the fancy stuff they had on their cars over the last few years.

Well there you go the first five teams this year and a wee bit about what I think about them.