After a break of several months, the start of the new Formula One season dawns upon us once again, with less than a fortnight remaining until the first race of the year in Australia.
Last season was, without a doubt, one of the most riveting few months of Formula One in recent history, giving the upcoming 2013 season a lot to live up to. The first seven races were won by seven different drivers, from usual suspects like Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso to first-time victors such as Nico Rosberg and Pastor Maldonado. It wasnt until June that Alonso became the first driver his second race, and began to take a lead in the drivers championship. Alonso maintained his lead until race sixteen, when defending champion Vettel, after a poor start to the season, took advantage of his rivals retirements in Belgium and Japan to usurp him, ultimately remaining on top for the rest of the season to secure his third successive title. Former world champion Kimi Raikkonen returned to the sport, becoming one of six former world champions on the grid by doing so. An impressive season saw him finish third behind Vettel and Alonso, ahead of the McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, who finished fourth and fifth respectively. Elsewhere, the Williams team recovered somewhat from their disastrous 2011 season, scoring 76 points as opposed to the 5 they finished with the year before, whilst all three of the new teams, Marussia, HRT and Caterham, failed to achieve a single points finish between them for the third successive season. The upcoming 2013 season will be the last time that the cars on the grid will utilise 2.4 litre V12 engines, which will be replaced with more efficient (albeit less powerful) 1.6 V6 engines in 2014. There are concerns that this may make the cars too slow, with reductions in speed of up to five seconds per lap. This, however, is something to worry about in twelve months time, rather than now. But enough of the past and the future, let us move on to the present, and the essential preview of the 2013 season.