Of all the teams that struggled in 2009, McLaren were clearly the ones who made the best of a difficult season, picking up as they did, two wins for Hamilton. Free from the pressures of fighting for the championship, they should be able to bounce back from the slump and if pre-season testing is anything to go by (using today as the only metric), they certainly have some pace.

But it’s too difficult to know what that means, wet conditions and fuel levels rendering any real comparisons between teams largely meaningless.

The biggest change this year isn’t really a change at all. With Mercedes selling their 40% of the team to fund the purchase of Brawn GP, this leaves them again as an independent outfit; Mercedes will supply engines until 2015.

It’s the driver line-up that has most people talking. With two British champions, it’s suddenly quite the national team, and the general consensus is that Button will struggle against Hamilton. In qualifying, Jenson’s clear problem area with last year’s car, this may well be the case but Lewis is much harder on the tyres and starting the race on the same tyres as used in Q3, on a full tank of fuel, may well give a certain advantage to Button’s more delicate touch.