F1 2018: Everything you need to know

Mercedes Lewis Hamilton — Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton

Melbourne, March 19: The new Formula One season kicks off in Australia, with the sport preparing to enter a new era.

Here we run through the key changes, driver line-ups, dates for your diary and the best Opta facts ahead of lights out at Albert Park.

KEY CHANGES

- The most visible change will be the addition of the Halo head protection system to every car on the grid - a contraption that has split opinion, with Mercedes boss Toto Wolff jokingly threatening to remove his with a chainsaw.

- All of the tyres supplied by Pirelli in 2018 will be softer, with two new compounds added to the line-up - hypersoft and superhard.

- The number of power units available to teams has been reduced from four complete units to three each of a number of different components.

- The French Grand Prix and German Grand Prix are back on the calendar, while Malaysia drops off.

- McLaren's woeful spell using Honda power is over and they will be supplied by Renault in 2018, with Toro Rosso now utilising Honda engines.

- Races will begin at 10 past the hour, rather than on the hour.

THE DRIVERS

Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton (GBR)

Valtteri Bottas (FIN)

Ferrari

Sebastian Vettel (GER)

Kimi Raikkonen (FIN)

Red Bull

Daniel Ricciardo (AUS)

Max Verstappen (NED)

Force India

Sergio Perez (MEX)

Esteban Ocon (FRA)

Williams

Lance Stroll (CAN)

Sergey Sirotkin (RUS)

Renault

Nico Hulkenberg (GER)

Carlos Sainz (ESP)

Toro Rosso

Pierre Gasly (FRA)

Brendon Hartley (NZL)

Haas

Romain Grosjean (FRA)

Kevin Magnussen (DEN)

McLaren

Fernando Alonso (ESP)

Stoffel Vandoorne (BEL)

Sauber

Marcus Ericsson (SWE)

Charles Leclerc (MON)

More of this in 2018 please 😍

Battle commences in just ONE WEEK! Are you ready?#F1 #Unleash2018 pic.twitter.com/XSgrE5tMcy
— Formula 1 (@F1) March 18, 2018