The wait is almost over with just three weeks to go until it’s ‘LIGHTS OUT AND AWAY WE GO’ for the 2020 Formula 1 season.

The pre-season nerdery of testing is under way, the cars have been launched, with swanky new liveries, new ways of saving weight, beating drag and even steering have been developed and the teams and drivers are all preparing for a fight with one goal in mind…

…how to stop Lewis Hamilton.

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Getty Images – Getty

Mercedes dominated the early stages last year, finishing one-two in the first five races and winning the first eight last year, with the Brit eventually storming to his sixth championship with two races to spare.

F1 fans will be hoping for a more competitive start this time around – nobody wants another one-horse race – and Ferrari and Red Bull engineers will be working their overalls off to make sure that happens in the coming weeks.

In fact, Red Bull boss Christian Horner recently said that he believes this season is promising to be a classic for Formula 1.

After Red Bull’s strong end to 2019 and Ferrari’s promise that they finally have a car to knock Mercedes off their perch, there is genuine excitement among the sport’s die-hard support ahead of the new campaign.

And it’s a special one, too, as the world championship celebrates its 70th anniversary, with new logos to boot.

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So, will it be title number seven for Hamilton, equalling the great Michael Schumacher, or will somebody – anybody – be able to stop this era of silver arrow dominance?

Here’s all you need to know before the opening race Down Under on March 15, in association with F1 TV.

THE SCHEDULE

For the first time, this year’s Grand Prix world tour features 22 races – the most ever held in one season.

Among them is the new Vietnam Grand Prix, in Hanoi, which is F1’s fourth street circuit.

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Meanwhile, the Dutch Grand Prix returns after a 35-year absence and there will be no race in Germany, who have lost their place in the schedule.

The Chinese Grand Prix has been postponed due to the Coronavirus outbreak and has not yet been rescheduled, and for the same reason there are also concerns over the new Vietnam GP, but for the moment that is still going ahead.

THE TEAMS

So, will the fastest car win the title? Not necessarily.

Ferrari topped the charts in testing 12 months ago, and so were expected to mount an immediate challenge.

Instead? Well, we know about Mercedes’ dominance. It took the Italian team 13 races to record their first win, and they only ended up winning three races all season – two for Charles Leclerc and one for Sebastian Vettel.

So we’ll have to wait to see who begins the season on top, but until then here’s the lowdown on all the teams and drivers, with a couple of newcomers.

This is also the final season of the current car regulations, which means from 2021 they are likely to change quite dramatically. And while Mercedes were first to really grips with the current regs and develop the best car early on, their rivals have had to time to catch up, which means this season could be the most competitive at the top in quite some time.

MERCEDES (Germany)

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Drivers: Lewis Hamilton (GB, age 35), Valtteri Bottas (Finland, age 30)

Where they finished last season: Hamilton – 1st, Bottas – 2nd, Constructors – 1^st

What’s new: Mercedes’ latest Silver Arrow boasts their new ‘DAS’ steering innovation that has baffled their competitors. The ‘dual-axis steering’ gives drivers the ability to straighten the front wheels, which are designed to be angled slightly outwards – ‘toe-out’ – to give better grip through corners. This holds the cars back slightly on the straights, though, and when Hamilton and Bottas give their steering wheels a pull it straightens the tires out, which is expected to give them an added edge over their rivals. Neat, huh However, the design is so innovative that it will be banned from 2021. It’s been given the okay for this season, though, so it be a boost for Hamilton as he aims to make history and beat Schumacher’s all-time race win record of 91.

FERRARI (Italy)

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Drivers: Charles Leclerc (Monaco, age 22), Sebastian Vettel (Germany, age 32)

Where they finished last season: Leclerc – 4^th, Vettel – 5^th, Constructors – 2^nd

What’s new: Ferrari have launched the SF1000 – their new car they hope will end Mercedes’ dominance. Last season the Prancing Horse boasted the fastest machine in the F1 fleet, but it had considerably less cornering ability than their German rivals. Their goal for the SF1000, then, was to increase downforce. “It’s definitely a step up from last year,” said Vettel after his first testing session. “Enough? We will see.” Arguably, as big a story as their car this season is the battle between their drivers. Last season was littered with team order controversy surrounding Vettel and Leclerc and it culminated in a crash in Brazil. Ferrari have given an indication who they think their lead drivers is, they recently handed Leclerc a new contract, but Vettel is not going to go down without a fight. This could be interesting!

RED BULL (Austria)

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Drivers: Max Verstappen (Netherlands, age 22), Alexander Albon (GB/Thailand, age 23)

Where they finished last season: Verstappen – 3rd, Albon – 8^th, Constructors – 3^rd

What’s new: Red Bull’s quest this year was to match the slower speed performance of the Mercs, according to Horner, especially their cornering ability. And so their RB16 car features new multi-link front suspension arrangement, which has made the car look super agile through the corners during testing. Mercedes and Red Bull were the top two performers in the first testing sessions, so it seems to have done the trick.

MCLAREN (Great Britain)

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Drivers: Carlos Saintz (Spain, age 25), Lando Norris (GB, age 20)

Where they finished last season: Saintz – 6^th, Norris – 11^th, Constructors – 4^th

What’s new: For a starters, it’s orange, very orange, possibly more orange than it’s ever been. McLaren are hoping to build on their success of last year, which saw them end fourth in the constructor’s championship. It’ll be their last car with a Renault engine before switching back to Mercedes in 2021 and they are aiming to lead the midfield battle once again, and perhaps go one better.

RENAULT (France)

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Drivers: Daniel Ricciardo (Australia, age 30), Esteban Ocon (France, age 23)

Where they finished last season: Ricciardo – 9^th, Ocon – N/A, Constructors – 5^th

What’s new: After a disappointing performance in 2019, Renault have completely resigned their entire front end, which has a quite aggressively dipped nose, which they hope will sort out a lot of the problems which ultimately held them back last year. They also have a new driver in Ocon, the team’s former reserve driver, who returns after stints with Manor Racing and Force India to replace Nico Hulkenberg.

ALPHATAURI – formerly Toro Rosso (Italy)

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Drivers: Pierre Gasly (France, age 24), Daniil Kvyat (Russia, age 24)

Where they finished last season: Gasly – 7^th, Kvyat – 13^th, Constructors – 6^th

What’s new: The only team change in the off-season saw Red Bull’s sister team get a rebrand. It’s the same line-up, just with a new name and livery design which, with a mix of metallic and matte finishes, is one of the best-looking out there this season. Given the fact it’s now based on Red Bull’s fashion house, that’s not a surprise.

RACING POINT (Great Britain)

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Drivers: Sergio Perez (Mexico, age 30), Lance Stroll (Canada, 21)

Where they finished last season: Perez – 10^th, Stroll – 15^th, Constructors – 7^th

What’s new: The British team only unveiled their new car a week ago, and already they’ve been forced to defend its design, amid accusations of ripping off Mercedes.To be fair, they do look very similar, especially the nose and, well, the entire front end but for the pink livery. But technical director Andrew Green has insisted the car was ‘absolutely, categorically designed from scratch’, although in the same breath admitted the designs were ‘drawn from looking at pictures of Mercedes’. Hmm. Also, from 2021 the team will be rebranded ‘Aston Martin’, so will be hoping to make that transition as the ‘best of the rest’ in a competitive midfield this term.

ALFA ROMEO (Switzerland)

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Drivers: Kimi Raikkonen (Finland, age 40), Antonio Giovinazzi (Italy, age 26)

Where they finished last season: Raikkonen – 12^th, Giovinazzi – 17^th, Constructors – 8^th

What’s new: Not a lot, apparently. F1 veteran Raikkonen, who could break Rubens Barrichello’s record for Grand Prix starts this season, has been very frank about the size of the team and their limited resources compared to the pack, and said they will basically do the best they can after ‘learning lessons’ from last season’s poor campaign. “It’s obviously not as big a team as where I used to be,” said the ex-Ferrari man. “We know we have some areas where we can’t match the big teams but we try to do the best with what we have. We can learn from last year’s difficulties and hopefully we don’t repeat it this year.” Wow, calm down, Kimi…

HAAS F1 (United States)

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Drivers: Romain Grosjean (France, age 33), Kevin Magnussen (Denmark, age 27)

Where they finished last year: Grosjean – 18^th, Magnussen – 16^th, Constructors – 9^th

What’s new: The American team were the first to reveal their new car this winter, with the VF-20 dumping the gold that adored their cars last season and returning to their original colours of grey, red and black. Haas say they have learned from what was a dreadful campaign last year, following up their fifth place finish in 2018 by coming second-last. Grosjean even seem the car was ‘not even good enough for a museum’. The VF-20 features no radical changes from their previous machine, but the team hope to have addressed all the issues that made Grosjean so grumpy. Only time will tell if it works.

WILLIAMS (Great Britian)

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Drivers: George Russell (GB, age 22), Nicholas Latifi (Canada, age 24)

Where they finished last season: Russell – 20^th, Latifi – N/A, Constructors – 10^th

What’s new: Another driver change has seen Williams sign Latifi as a replacement for Robert Kubica, who joined Alfa Romeo as a reserve driver. Latifi is making his debut in F1 after finishing as runner-up in the 2019 Formula 2 championship.

ONES TO WATCH

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Leclerc vs Verstappen: While Leclerc has team-mate Vettel to face in a battle for Red Bull supremacy, and all the alpha drivers will be looking to have a crack at Hamilton, of course, the Frenchman has another familiar rival this year which could make for an intriguing watch. F1 fans will be eagerly awaiting the next edition of Leclerc’s rivalry with Red Bull’s Verstappen, with the 2019 season the first time the old adversaries battled on the track since their karting days together. They didn’t disappoint, with both drivers enjoying success and multiple wins, while there were real flashlights in Silverstone, Japan and Austria. Fans will be hoping for more of the same as they get another look at the men who look set to control the sport for the next decade.

CONTRACT TALKS

Bizarrely, this could also be a season dominate by ‘transfer gossip’, with a number of big drivers up for grabs with their contracts coming to an end.

Leclerc and Verstappen – two future F1 superstars – signed new deals with their teams over the winter break, but Hamilton, Vettel and Ricciardo are all out of contract in 2021.

Gossip has already been rampant, and there has been talk of Lewis making the switch to Ferrari as Vettel’s replacement.

Going into the new campaign, the futures of those drivers are still massively up in the air – could the speculation affect their performances on the track? We can only wait and see…

CHAMPIONSHIP ODDS

• Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) – 4/6
• Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) – 11/2
• Max Verstappen (Red Bull) – 6/1
• Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari) – 10/1
• Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) – 15/2
• Alexander Albon (Red Bull) – 125/1
• Daniel Ricciardo (Renault) – 1000/1
• Carlos Sainz (McLaren) – 1000/1
• Sergio Perez – 1000/1
• Kimi Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo) – 1500/1

*From oddschecker.com – correct at time of writing

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Source: TalkSport.com Motorsport