With the first week of testing completed at Valencia, Formula 1 is well on its way to eventually start the 2010 season at Bahrain in March. There’s a lot of changes to the team and driver line-up, especially when compared to the strangely static grid in 2008 - 2009. Given this, I shall be running down the grid, starting with last year’s champions, Mercedes GP, nee Brawn.

When Honda decided to sell up, it was touch and go whether the team that would eventually win both driver and constructor’s championship would even be on the grid last year, but with Ross Brawn in charge, a head-start on 2009 development and a fancy-pants diffuser everything fell into place.

It’s a shame, then, that this year shows little sign of the Brawn success story. The team’s been sold, this time to Mercedes, and world champ Button has sought the challenge of joining McLaren.

So where does this leave Mercedes? With none other than Michael Schumacher, pulled out of retirement for one last job with fellow Germans Nico Rosberg and Nick Heidfeld as team-mate and test driver respectably. With the most successful driver in the history of the sport and Rosberg, who has never had a winning car to show off what he can really do, and without the concerns of budget worried that were facing the team as an independent, they could quite possibly repeat the successes they had in the first part of last season.

It’s just a shame there’s no Brawn car with the number 1 this year.