Everything You Need To Know About F1 2013

Red Bull RB9

Last year's champions return without any personnel changes and largely what appears to be the same car. Other than the fact Nissan have made themselves a bit more prominent with Infiniti logos and the car's now a bit more purple, we're expecting another season of boring predictability from Vettel, Webber, Horner, Newey and co - and indeed they ran a mundane 4 day test at Jerez to get the car 0.6s ahead of last year. Woo.

Ferrari F138

Ferrari had a miserable start to 2012, with a slow, ugly and tricky car, surprisingly wrestled onto the podium repeatedly by Fernando Alonso. Later developments put the Ferrari up as probably the best all-round car in the field, scoring good points for both drivers - and the F138 is a continuation of that car.

The most obvious external change is that the stepped nose has disappeared - covered by a "modesty panel" teams have been permitted to use to disguise the hideousness. During testing at Jerez, the F138 was both figuratively and literally on fire, as Massa managed to beat last season's Ferrari by a clear second to be fastest overall, while Pedro de la Rosa... didn't.

McLaren MP4-28

Like Red Bull, McLaren's car has barely changed from the outside - and as the only top team not to run the hideous platypus nose last season, we have reason to be thankful. Of course McLaren has changed behind the scenes significantly, with Lewis Hamilton leaving for Mercedes and Sergio Perez coming in from Sauber to fill his boots. Like their Austrian competitors, McLaren managed to beat their 2012 Jerez times by 0.6s.

Lotus-Renault E21

Everyone fell in love with Lotus last year. From Grosjean's schoolboy antics to Kimi Raikkonen's expeditions and maiden return win, the car was the underdog that was a competitor every race.

Lotus have kept the step and, like the Red Bull, is barely distinguishable from last year's car aside from sidepod colourings - and barely went any quicker in testing than Grosjean's 2012 fastest. Still, Lotus's newly adopted ethos seems to be "Leave us alone, we know what we're doing." And lest we forget that hilarious steering wheel...

Mercedes W04

Mercedes didn't have a great 2012 either. Though Nico Rosberg managed to grab a maiden win for the team (at least this version of the team), the season was marked by poor reliability and very poor driving as their expensive former world champion put it into all kinds of scenery.

Though the car itself has changed significantly, their 2013 has not gone well either. The car's online launch was delayed by technical errors and then the Jerez test saw reliability come to the fore again as Rosberg's car retired from the session by setting itself on fire again. However, in the other car Mercedes have an all new expensive former world champion to put it into the scenery. Oh dear.

Sauber C32

2012's Sauber pairing of Sergio Perez and Kamui Kobayashi was exciting to watch, even managing podium finishes, but with Perez going to McLaren and Kobayashi's contract not being renewed, the team has changed more significantly than any other points-scoring team. They bring in Nico Hulkenberg from Force India and talented GP2 driver Esteban Guttierez to drive the newer, greyer C32 - complete with nose-mounted cat litter tray scoop - and with a second shaved off in the Jerez testing, the Sauber looks like the dark horse of the field again.

Force India VJM06

Force India finished as many races as any other team in 2012, but with very few big points finishes they found themselves a long way down the teams' championship. 2013 isn't going well - they have yet to name a driver to accompany Paul di Resta.

The car itself is another unremarkable affair, largely resembling the previous car with a modesty panel over the duckbill, though test driver Jules Bianchi managed an incredible 1'18.1 lap in Jerez testing to put the car third fastest overall and 1.7s ahead of last year's model. Look out for the orange, green and white car this season, particularly at Spa.

Williams FW35

With a single flash of what Pastor Maldonado can do when he's not swathed in red mist (he even crashed in a demo run on the streets of Caracas) Williams had a season of nothingness and they've extended that into 2013 by not even having a car yet. Bruno Senna's poor qualifying record from 2012 has seen him dumped for GP3, with Williams test driver Valtteri Bottas confirmed as his replacement. Other than the updated FW34 above at Jerez, however, they have nothing to drive until the Barcelona test at the end of the month.

Toro Rosso STR8

Probably the least anticipated car on the grid, the "straight" as it's likely to become known is almost completely indistinguishable from last year's car save for the badly disguised modesty panel. To add to the complete lack of change, the team retains the same driver pairing that largely did their job last year of failing to reach Q2 half of the time. However the drivers have managed to shave 0.8s off the 2012 car's Jerez test times and there's a fair chance we could see the Red Bull "B" Team stretching themselves back to midfield.

Caterham CT03

The fastest of the "new" teams has seen significant change behind the scenes but very little in design. The Caterham remains just as shockingly ugly as the first car unveiled in 2012, with no attempts to change the face whatsoever. In fact other than being a slightly different green and there being more of it, we wouldn't have noticed the difference.

Caterham have ditched the experienced driver pairing that brought them so many finishes last year in favour of 2012 Marussia man Charles Pic and Dutch GP2 driver Giedo van der Garde. Giedo's long been knocking at the door of F1, through McLaren development, Spyker and Super Aguri so could be the man to get Caterham's first points.

Marussia MR02

With the liquidation of Hispania, the Marussia team becomes the worst team on the grid. Despite this, the Banbury outfit has, somehow, managed to build one of the prettiest cars of the 2013 season. With the thrilling GP2 pairing of Luiz Razia and Max Chilton in the driving seat, the MR02 has had the pace of the Caterhams in Jerez testing despite limited running after Chilton's crash and, if they can maintain reliability, should be serious challengers for the first "new team" point.