Former Formula One driver and leading pundit David Coulthard gives us his no-nonsense appraisal of the F1 season to come.
A lot of people have been asking me who’s going to win this year’s championship, and my stock response has been, “Are you kidding?” You’d need a crystal ball at this stage. This could be the most competitive season since we had the likes of Nelson Piquet, Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna on the grid.

The big story, of course, is that Michael Schumacher is back for Mercedes. I don’t think Michael would’ve come back to drive for anyone other than Ross Brawn, and I think he will still be fast, though he is now 41.

Red Bull’s highly-competitive Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber will be in the shake-up again. Mark has his best chance yet of glory this year without the problem of the broken leg that hampered last year’s start, and I know from personal experience of when he was my team-mate that he’s a no-nonsense guy who will get on with the job in hand. Vettel will have learned from the mistakes he made last year that sometimes cost him the chance of victory. I think both Red Bull drivers have a great shot at winning the title.

'To quote my old team-mate Mark Webber: "F1 is not a finishing school"'

Then you add Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa together at Ferrari, not to mention the last two world champions Jenson Button and Lewis Hamilton both at McLaren, which I think is a terrific story. One thing for sure is that it will be the most exciting driver title battle in years.

After last year’s wholesale changes with the cars, the big change this season is the ban on refuelling, and the drivers will need time to get used to qualifying with mere vapour in the fuel tank and then starting the race the next day with cold tyres and brakes but 160kg of fuel loading the car down. And when the tyres and brakes get hot, wear could be an issue, and that kind of thing will take looking after. The front tyres are now narrower than before, so managing them through periods of the race where they are less efficient will be crucial – though testing will have taken all of that into account.

Which brings me to the new teams on the grid this year. I don’t want to pick on the new boys, but common sense says that turning up to the first race of the year without even having tested, as Hispania Racing will do in Bahrain, is a recipe for disaster. There are many unknown quantities when developing a race car, even for established teams evolving last year’s model, and the notion that we just let the new teams develop as the season progresses, as some of my colleagues at UK broadcaster the BBC have suggested, is not something I buy into. To quote my old team-mate Mark Webber: “F1 is not a finishing school.” If you’re not ready, you shouldn’t be there in my opinion.
But whatever happens, I cannot wait for the season to start!

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