Very interesting start to the season with the defunct Honda team (now Brawn GP) coming out of no where to win pole position, and finish 1st and 2nd in the Australian GP.

Also, the new aero restrictions have stripped much of the aero bits off the cars which allows the cars to run closer together, creating more passing opportunities.

Another interesting twist to this season are the new KERS rules which allow KERS-equipped cars to get an 80 BHP boost for 6 seconds a lap.

McLaren and Ferrari appear to be playing catchup to Brawn, Toyota and Williams. This may be partly because the 2008 McLaren and Ferrari battle wasn't settled until the last corner of the last race of the season last year (with Lewis Hamilton beating Felipe Massa for the driver's championship by 1 pt). Ferrari and McLaren were so focused on developing the 2008 chassis throughout last season, while the other teams seemed to focus more on the development of the 2009 chassis.

The start of each season showcases F1 engineering talent. Each year's chassis must be designed and built from scratch. Also, they are basically running the same spec engines this year as last year, except they are now rev-limited at 18,000 rpms (last year it was 19,000 rpms) and the new aero restrictions are designed to greatly reduce aerodynamic downforce. Nevertheless, the drivers are already putting up faster lap times than last year.