Formula 1 2009 Season Preview

With the drama of last season's drivers championship still very much fresh in the memory, you would fooled into thinking this year's Formula 1 season could never live up to the previous season.

With various rules changes- concentrating on livening up the sport, and the introduction on a new team or two, this new Formula 1 season could prove to be one of the most exciting in living memory.

It's not like the sport needed this radical overhaul though was it?

With the Championship being decided on the 2nd to last corner of the final Grand Prix the sport was hardly in the need of an influx of excitement.

We've had three different champions in the past three years, and with the emergence of the BMW and Williams teams, who were gradually starting to catch up with their Ferrari and McLaren rivals, we had an exciting drivers championship.

This season sees the competition between every team become slightly more interesting, with several changes to the normal format.

With Bernie Eccleston's cost cutting solutions each team will have slightly smaller resources, which are set to boost reliability.

One of the more interesting changes are that information about tire and fuel changes are set to be shared throughout all teams, so everyone has the same information.

On the technical side plenty has been done to develop the sport with the most important being the introduction of KERS or Kinetic Energy Support System.

Basically the system is in place to store any lost energy built up by breaking and then for it to be used at any given time to give the car a slight boost during a race.

Not every team has gone for the idea, and it's unlikely to be used in every race as the teams get used to the new innovation.

The new look of the cars also changes the performance with overtaking set to become easier, and with slick tyres set to re-introduced it's sure to lead to faster laps and a more exciting season on the track.

A track that will no longer see the name of Honda after the team decided to pull out of racing altogether, only for Ross Brawn to come in with an 11th hour bid to save the team.

Brawn GP will bring a new edge to the season, and with a new car and team Jenson Button is sure to be keen to show what he can do.

Unreliability has hindered the progress of the Brit, who is starting to live in the ever-growing shadow of Lewis Hamilton, maybe this is his season to shine at last?

If there was ever a time to usurp Hamilton as the main man in Formula 1 it would be this season, with his team McLaren already admitting they are well off the pace at the beginning of the new season.

This will bring new vigour to his rivals, but with the new point system changed back to the original system Hamilton has been given time to reignite his title challenge.

Days before the new season was due to start a new system of attaining the winner of the drivers championship was decided, in which the driver with the most wins would take the title, only for it to be scrapped days later.

The change of decision didn't reflect on the Formula 1 too well, as confusion reined as too why the decision was made to change it in the first place, don't change what isn’t broke was the message from the drivers.

Ferrari are sure to want to regain there drivers champions crown, with Felipe Massa agonisingly missing out last year he will be keen to prove a point.

Picking a winner of this season’s drivers championship, is a task not many journalists have warmed to, but unlike any jolly fence sitter I’m going to pick out a few men who might make a break for it this season

The first of which is two-time champion Fernando Alonso, whose form at the back end of last season made plenty sit up and take notice.

His resurgence to form coincided with the car reliability issues, which resolved itself in the final third of the championship, too late for a title serge but enough time to remind the rest of the field he is still a force to be reckoned with.

The second if BMW’s Robert Kubica, who might be short with the media but his effort on the track do much of the talking.

After recording his first win in Canada last year Kubica showed the driving world his natural talent behind the wheel, and plenty of top eight finishes followed.

For me both these guys are contenders for the title, along with Massa of course who undoubtedly has plenty to make up for after last season disappointment.

For me these three have the quality to fight for the title all the way. Now you may ask why am I neglecting the world champion?

Well simply because of the time it may well take for the team to adapt to the new rules, it might be too late in the title race for the Brit to have any impact, but we will see.

It won't always read Hamilton-Massa on the front row, and Nakajima and Barricello on the 10th, things are sure to switch around in 2009.

Excitement and Formula 1 are terms never far apart, and this season especially things are bound to be close.