New driver, new rules, but how are the teams shaping up for start of the season?

A record-breaking 21 races lie ahead of the 22 drivers. But which teams are ready for the new season? Keith Collantine, editor of Formula One blog F1 Fanatic, takes a look...

Pre-season testing revealed little about whether any of Mercedes' rivals have closed the gap. The first race weekend will give the best indication yet of whether Ferrari or any of their other competitors are going to be able to mount a serious title challenge.

But be wary of reading too much into a single weekend. The Albert Park circuit is dissimilar to many others on the calendar, and can produce unusual results.

Last year Mercedes had a much larger performance advantage in Australia than they did at any other track. After their phenomenal showing in testing, where they covered over 1,000 kilometres more than any other team, it wouldn't be a surprise if the same happened this year. But don't discount their rivals' ability to catch up.

Three rules changes could catch teams out. Drivers now have greater freedom over their tyre choices but will receive less assistance during the races on their radios. And a late change to qualifying will see drivers eliminated every 90 seconds.

Drivers have mostly selected softer tyre compounds. Most will probably pit twice during Sunday's race but they will find it harder to manage their tyres without the supply of information from the pit wall they previously enjoyed. The changes to qualifying, however, are widely expected to have little consequence.

There is a lot of buzz around Toro Rosso. The midfield team produced a highly effective chassis last year but it was mated to Renault's unreliable and gutless power unit. This year's chassis looks the business again but this time they have a much stronger Ferrari engine.

Granted, this is a 2015-specification motor. However that should still bring major gains in terms of power and reliability. The car outperformed their expectations in testing and team boss Franz Tost believes they can bag a podium this year. Their best chance for that will come at the start of the season before the others hone their new designs.

There's no doubt McLaren and Honda performed much better during pre-season testing than they did 12 months ago. But nor did it run entirely to plan, and as a result they arrive at the first race still needing to test some parts.

"We didn’t manage to complete our final configuration and set-up work for the first race, so we go to Melbourne with a number of unknowns," admitted racing director Eric Boullier. That leaves them with a lot of set-up work to do during practice.

For the first time in six years there's a new name on the grid. American team Haas impressed during testing but know they face a huge challenge just to reach the chequered flag on Sunday.