Teams: Toro Rosso, Virgin Racing, Williams

Sebastien Buemi and Jaime Alguersauri remain with the team for a second year. The young drivers, whose combined age of 40 is still younger than Michael Schumacher, both looked good in glimpses last season, but made too many costly errors. On testing times they should be a solid mid-table team, occasionally capable of challenging the hierarchy at the front when things fall right for them and they get their set-up right.

New to the sport for 2010, the team sponsored by Richard Branson look set for a tough opening year. Largely slow in testing, what has really been a concern for the team has been reliability problems, with numerous failures limiting their running last month. Timo Glock has joined from Toyota, and the German will need to be patient in the early races. He is partnered by the Brazilian rookie Lucas di Grassi.

After playing second fiddle to Michael Schumacher at Ferrari and then Jenson Button at Brawn GP, Rubens Barrichello gets the chance to prove he can lead a team after joining Williams. The team haven't won in five years but have produced a solid package and were champions in 1993, the last time there was no refuelling in Formula One. Barrichello's teammate is the German Nico Hulkenberg, who won the GP2 Series last year.