Every grand prix is special, and every new season an opportunity for teams and drivers to create history at the highest level of motorsport.
But the 2017 Australian Grand Prix is particularly fascinating as teams, drivers and spectators come to grips with new cars and fresh rules that threaten to shake up the sport.
The world's attention will be on Melbourne this Sunday afternoon to see how drivers handle what promise to be the fastest cars in F1 history, and whether Red Bull Racing and Ferrari can challenge the dominance of Mercedes-AMG.
The Cars
The new F1 grid represents something of a flashback to a bygone age, with much larger tyres and wider, more elegant wings than the sport used in recent years.
Photo: Getty Images
Pirelli's new rubber is 25 per cent wider than before - measuring a massive 405mm in width at the rear - and the tyres are slightly taller, too. The cars are wider too, stretching from 180 centimetres to a full two metres in width, giving them a much broader footprint on the road.
The wings at the front and rear are wider than before, there are new fins over the engine cover that direct air to the rear wing, and a diffuser between the rear wheels is more powerful and efficient.
Photo: Charles Coates
As a result, the new models are significantly faster than last year's cars, placing significantly more stress on drivers.
Australian sports performance director Dr Luke Bennett helped drivers from Red Bull, McLaren-Honda and Mercedes-AMG to prepare for this season. Bennett says "the cars will be much more physical to drive", and the drivers have dedicated a lot of lot of time into building neck and upper body strength to handle higher G-forces.
Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen topped pre-season testing in Barcelona with a 1m18.634s effort ahead of the 1m19.024s recorded by teammate Sebastian Vettel, times that are extraordinary when viewed in the context of last year's models.
Photo: Manu Fernandez
Raikkonen finished on top of the 2016 pre-season time sheets for Ferrari with a 1m22.765s lap, a margin well up on the 1m24.681s Nico Rosberg used to take pole in 2015.
In pre-season testing with minimal running to the new regulations, the 2017 cars are six seconds faster than the quickest lap of the circuit in 2015 and four seconds superior to last year's test day.
They will be even faster in Melbourne, as teams use lessons learned in Spain to hone their weapons ahead of Sunday's grand prix.
The Drivers
Nico Rosberg's champagne-soaked race suit was still damp when the Mercedes-AMG driver quit racing after securing the 2016 drivers' championship.
Photo: Lars Baron
A shattered Rosberg was fortunate to endure fewer mechanical issues throughout the year than team-mate Lewis Hamilton, who had his measure throughout 2014 and 2015.
His decision to leave prompted a flurry of changes throughout the grid that saw Finnish star Valtteri Bottas leave Williams F1 and join Hamilton at the dominant team in F1's hybrid era this year.
Photo: Getty Images
Bottas' place at Williams has been taken by teenage Canadian Lance Stroll, a promising young driver who enjoyed the financial backing of his billionaire father en route to success in junior categories.
Photo: Mark Thompson
Stroll - who crashed three times in testing - will drive alongside Brazilian veteran Felipe Massa who bid the sport an emotional farewell in 2016 only to be welcomed back once more.
There have been plenty of other changes - 2015 Le Mans winner Nico Hulkenberg heads up a revised Renault outfit, McLaren's Jenson Button has made way for rookie driver Stoffel Vandoorne and perennial strugglers Manor GP have departed, succumbing to financial strife.
Photo: Mark Thompson
The strongest challenge to Mercedes-AMG's recent dominance will come from two teams that weathered the silly season with minimal changes.
Ferrari promise to be strong in Melbourne, having topped the test times, and Vettel is well placed to rattle Hamilton's outfit at Albert Park and beyond. Vettel should have won last year's Australian Grand Prix, having led the field in early running before a poor pit stop strategy saw him lose ground to the all-conquering Mercedes team.
Photo: Dan Istitene
Raikkonen is a little harder to quantify - the enigmatic Finn has been inconsistent since winning the 2007 title.
While Hamilton and Vettel sit comfortably as the top dog in their respective teams, Australia's Daniel Ricciardo has a fight on his hands for Red Bull supremacy.
Photo: Mark Thompson
The highly-rated Australian was named F1's best driver by British magazine Autosport last year, when he secured victory at the Malaysian Grand Prix and kept Mercedes honest whenever they tripped up. Ricciardo's maturity shone through when he lost likely victories races to poor strategy in Spain and hopeless pit work in Monaco, and he responded well to the threat presented by teenage sensation Max Verstappen.
Photo: Getty Images
Touted by many as a future champion, Verstappen will look to usurp Ricciardo in what promises to be the fiercest inter-team battle on the grid - particularly if Red Bull's design team gives them a car capable of challenging for the world title.
The Rules
Not content with new cars and a reworked driving roster, F1 organisers have introduced new rules intended to make racing a little less predictable than before.
Though the "elimination qualifying" process introduced in Melbourne is long gone, changes to the cars' clutch control mechanism will make it easier to stall at the start of the race, when full fuel tanks make it difficult to launch a car off the line.
Photo: Mark Thompson
Drivers will no longer benefit from a safer "rolling start" procedure in wet conditions, and the chunky new tyres represent an unknown in terms of degradation during extended stint.
Crucially, each driver is now limited to a maximum of four engines per season, with harsh grid penalties in place for every additional unit.
Though there were limits to how much teams could develop their motors in previous years, this year's competition allows them to introduce heavily redesigned versions of the mandated 1.6-litre V6 turbo layout should they choose to refine their concept, which will penalise teams that can't make motors last the distance.
The form guide
Mercedes has won all but eight races in the last three seasons, making them the firm favourites to secure fourth successive drivers' and constructors' titles.
Hamilton remains the man to beat, particularly if he can harness the frustration of last year's failure. We don't know quite what Bottas will bring to the team, as he hasn't had a race-winning car or world-class teammate to put his talent into context.
Photo: Mark Thompson, Getty Images.
While it's possible he will push Hamilton over the edge, Bottas is more likely to serve as a solid number two to the freakishly talented Brit.
Traditional contenders McLaren won't feature at the front end - it's car was desperately slow and unreliable in testing - and it's a little too soon for Renault to fire.
Instead, bookies have thrown support behind the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel, partially because his team went quickest in early testing.
Don't read too much into that, as Mercedes has already hinted it left plenty of pace on the table.
There's no point revealing your true pace to the competition, and Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff has already suggested teams may be toying with their weight, fuel load and power output to outfox each other.
Photo: Mark Thompson
Nevertheless, a rejuvenated Ferrari with four-time champion Vettel at the wheel promises to be explosive, and Raikkonen proved last year he is capable of upstaging his more fancied teammate when the mood takes him.
Ricciardo has played down Red Bull's chances in Melbourne, saying Mercedes and Ferrari have an advantage. While that's probably true, the Australian Grand Prix always has the potential to spring a surprise, and no driver is thirstier for local success than "our Dan".
Photo: Mark Thompson
Like millions of race fans around the world, we'll be on the edge of our seats this Sunday.
They said it: Pre-season views
"It's a beast!" - Mercedes pilot Lewis Hamilton is a fan of his ride for 2017.
"There is no reliability and no power." - McLaren-Honda driver Fernando Alonso is less enamoured with his machine.
"I can't do anything." - Former F1 tsar Bernie Ecclestone, who has been relegated to the sidelines by new owners Liberty Media.
"They all took significantly less time off... and added time in the gym." - Sports performance expert Dr Luke Bennett, who helps train Le Mans drivers.
"Are you shaving yet?" - Australia's Daniel Ricciardo to 19-year-old teammate Max Verstappen.
2017 F1 teams and drivers:
Mercedes-AMG
44 - Lewis Hamilton
77 - Valtteri Bottas
Ferrari
5 - Sebastian Vettel
7 - Kimi Raikkonen
Red Bull Racing-Tag Heuer (Renault)
3 - Daniel Ricciardo
33 - Max Verstappen
Williams-Mercedes
18 - Lance Stroll
19 - Felipe Massa
Toro Rosso-Renault
26 - Daniil Kvyat
55 - Carlos Sainz
Renault
27 - Nico Hulkenberg
30 - Jolyon Palmer
Force India-Mercedes
11 - Sergio Perez
31 - Esteban Ocon
Haas-Ferrari
8 - Romain Grosjean
20 - Kevin Magnussen
McLaren-Honda
2 - Stoffel Vandoorne
14 - Fernando Alonso
Sauber-Ferrari
9 - Marcus Ericsson
94 - Pascal Wehrlein
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