F1 2012 kicks off this weekend in Australia with no sights of a dominant team

During the past three practice sessions which ended just 10 days ago, the top teams of Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren faced different problems. Two time champion Sebastian Vettel suffered from reliability issues in his Red Bull RB8, McLaren cars weren’t quick enough and Ferrari was in crisis trying to understand their car.

The mid fielders of Force India, Lotus and Sauber, set impressive lap times with Mercedes-Benz breaking even with the old car but with little luck with its 2012 challenger.

Despite the uncertainty, the odds of this year’s champion favourites are Vettel at the top followed by Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button. Besides Jenson Button, the others are 2 time world champions.

While Red Bull and Ferrari feature No. 1 drivers, Vettel and Alonso respectively, McLaren is open to an all-out battle between Hamilton and Button. Back in 2007, Hamilton, in his rookie year, battled Alonso all year long. He enjoyed preferential treatment from the team and because of costly mistakes, lost the championship at the end of the season.

Now certainly more experienced but not fool proof Hamilton will have to reduce his errors stats in order to battle Button, who has the coolest head on the track.

Another driver to look out for is Kimi Raikkonen. With a more extravagant driving style he will make a huge difference and might plant Lotus firmly at the top.

Come Sunday, it will be a great year to follow with technical rule changes, six world champions and 14 driver championship titles lined up on the grid for the first race of the hectic 20 track season.