Welcome to part one of The Lowdown’s 2009 Formula One Season preview. Over the next three days, I’ll do a thorough breakdown of the upcoming F1 season.  Today, I take a look at the 10 teams and 20 drivers that will contest the world championship.

McLaren-Mercedes
#1 Lewis Hamilton (GBR)
#2 Heikki Kovalainen (FIN)

McLaren overcame scandal and seemingly biased officials to win last year’s World Drivers’ Championship. Lewis Hamilton won the title in the last turn of the final lap of the season in what is likely the most dramatic championship finish in the history of motorsports. This season looks to be decidedly different for the Silver Arrows brigade. The MP4-24 looked like it would be fast when the wraps came off but once it hit the track, it was biggest brick on the tarmac. While McLaren claim that they were using preseason testing to put miles on all their different equipment and setups for different tracks, they shouldn’t have spent most of their tests a couple of seconds off the pace. The best reason I read for this was that McLaren doesn’t have any of Ferrari’s secret documents to use to keep their car competitive with Ferrari. The Woking-based outfit are likely to find themselves celebrating when they get a top 5 this season rather than a win.

Ferrari
#3 Kimi Raikkonen (FIN)
#4 Filipe Massa (BRA)

Not much to say about what’s happening over at the Scuderia. There are some concerns over the reliability of their KERS system. Other than that, the F60 has been near the top of the time sheets at most tests, though not necessarily the quickest. A team that has strung together as much success over the last 10 years as Ferrari should stay up near the front of the pack. The big question is can Raikkonen bounce back from a relatively poor performance in ’08.

BMW Sauber
#5 Robert Kubica (POL)
#6 Nick Heidfeld (GER)

The German/Swiss operation looked like it would turn the corner last season with its first fully BMW developed car. However, the team decided to stop development on the 2008 car around the midpoint of the season. BMW still managed to pick up their first race win in Canada. With most of their focus last season on the 2009 car, the F1.09 should be at the sharp end of the field. They weren’t always the quickest car at tests but were always in the top half of cars running. At the very least, the Beemer boys should do well in the points standings like they were last year.

Renault
#7 Fernando Alonso (ESP)
#8 Nelson Piquet Jr. (BRA)

They were fast in the final test of the off-season but just hanging around the rest of the time. We know Alonso can make something out of nothing (see his two wins in 2008 for proof) so all hope is not lost. Piquet is more of a question mark. He showed moments of potential but more often than not seemed like an anchor tied to the Renault ship. The French effort is another team rumoured to be strongly considering pulling out of the sport despite the strong finish to last season. I’m not convinced the last test was anymore than a blip on the radar and while the development on last season’s car paid off then, it looks like it was money poorly spent in 2009.

Toyota
#9 Jarno Trulli (ITA)
#10 Timo Glock (GER)

Toyota has never been competitive since it came into F1 with much fanfare back in 200. They’ve picked up some podiums and some poles but have never really come close to winning a race despite having expenditures rumoured to be in the $500 million per year range. Now, it’s do or die time for the German-based Japanese squad. Toyota Motor Company is seriously contemplating pulling out of F1 after sinking billions of dollars with no return. With a complete rules overhaul and the introduction of the hybrid push-to-pass system (and hybrids are one of those things they are supposed to be very good at), Toyota finds itself with its best opportunity to pull to the head of the pack. Whether they can get the job done with the pressure on remains to be seen. In their defence, they are a fast half of the grid team in testing.

Scuderia Toro Rosso Ferrari
#11 Sebastien Buemi (SWI)
#12 Sebastien Bourdais (FRA)

The whole Red Bull world seems to have turned on its head. A superb drive by Sebastien Vettel last season secured the former Minardi team its first win. Unfortunately, Vettel has moved up to the Red Bull A-Team. It’s up to a pair of Sebastiens to fight for winged superiority. Rookie Buemi and just surviving Bourdais are not likely to make much noise this season, I think. The Red Bull car seems to be the faster of the two. Because the cars are essentially the same (the only difference being the engines and a couple of differences to suit the engine), it looks like the Ferrari engine and the drivers will keep the Italian mob at the back of the pack.

Red Bull Renault
#14 Mark Webber (AUS)
#15 Sebastian Vettel (GER)

Webber and Vettel will make for the most talented yet underachieving drivers in F1 this season. We know they both have loads of speed and talent. It’s just a matter of whether Adrian Newey’s design prowess is better than the rest of F1. While the RB5 is likely the best looking car on the grid, looks alone don’t win you races (see Patrick, Danica). Red Bull has always been a mid-pack team and the RB5 is driving like a mid-pack car.

Williams Toyota
#16 Nico Rosberg (GER)
#17 Kazuki Nakajima (JPN)

The Williams haven’t looked terribly impressive in testing but they have been doing mostly reliability testing which might get them points on attrition. Despite devoting quite some time on developing the ’09 car, the gap between them and their rivals seems to have grown. It’s not helped by the fact that I would rate this driver combo in the bottom three of F1. It pains me to say this, but look for Williams to be regulars in getting knocked out early in qualifying.

Brawn Mercedes
#18 Rubens Barrichello (BRA)
#19 Jenson Button (GBR)

The talk of the town in F1 for months has been “What’s going to happen to Honda?” Now it’s “I can’t believe they used to be Honda.” When ex-Ferrari boss, Ross Brawn, took over at Honda in late 2007, he didn’t have time to have any influence on that dog Honda ran last year. So Brawn made the smartest decision of anyone last year when he gave up on 2008 and focused on 2009. Too bad Honda had other plans. In the midst of a slightly overblown economic crisis, Honda pulled out of almost all of their racing efforts, including F1. It took Honda until two weeks before the season to find a buyer for their F1 team, which just happened to be the team’s managers.

When all that drama got sorted out and the team finally took to the track, the BGP001 immediately blitzed the field. In the final group test (which was Brawn’s first putting them three months behind the competition), the Brawn drivers were consistently at the top of the time sheets by a wide margin. This isn’t just simulated qualifying laps either. They are faster than the pack in race trim as well. A lot of time went into this car to make it quick and it looks to be paying off in spades. Even dropping the KERS system at the last second has only made Brawn faster. The ex-Honda brigade looks like strong contenders for the world title.

Force India Mercedes
#20 Adrian Sutil (GER)
#21 Giancarlo Fisichella (ITA)

The big change here is that the team has switched from Ferrari engines to Mercedes engines and gearboxes. Owner Vijay Mallya is also becoming more involved in the operations of the team. That’s never gone badly ever in the history of sports.

2009 F1 Preview:
Part 1: Teams
Part 2: Rules (March 24)
Part 3: Predictions (March 25)