F1: New year, new set up, old rivalries.

So now we know that we are not going to have the proposed combined launch where all teams revealed their cars - and liveries - in a super-sized ceremony, we have the round of releases to look forward to. Some teams may well wait until the first test next month before wheeling out their new designs.

More important is that the drivers won't get to sit in the car - at least not while it's moving until then.

For the big teams, that's important, but for the new teams it's vital. It is perhaps surprising that no one has moved, lock, stock and smoking exhausts, into the Former Arrows / Super Aguri factory at Leafield, near Whitney in Oxfordshire: in one of F1's twists, Aguri Suziki was an Arrows driver in 1992/3 seasons. Arrows was wound up on a creditors' petition with driver Heinz-Harald Frentzen listed as the leading applicant. The chassis went to Minardi, and the plant was mothballed until Super Aguri took it over. It was put up for sale in mid 2008 after Honda pulled the plug on the team, owed substantial sums for engines. The plant is part of what is known as the Leafield Technical Centre, where a number of high-performance specialist companies are based. But no F1 teams.

The British government issued a press-release warning journalists that stories about Jenson Button's MBE were embargoed until 1 January. But that ignored the fact that leaks from government sources had already been widely reported as early as the 21 December. So he now goes to McLaren with the same MBE and World Championship as Hamilton.

F1 will be dominated by fawning over the return of Michael Schumacher. Indeed, right now, aside from a puke-inducing headline "happy holidays from Formula1.com," five of the six news headlines on the official F1 site are about Schumacher.

But as much as the changes in the cars are important, there are other changes that are of deeper significance for the sport.

First, although the departure of Honda is seen as the first manufacturer to leave F1, it was in fact Ford who bought the Stewart team, called it Jaguar and managed little success who first decided that their brand was not achieving the successes their investment demanded. As the 2010 season starts, the only manufacturers still in play are Fiat (with their Ferrari marque) and Renault (who have recently sold the majority of the team and so, arguably, don't count). The arrival of Honda, Toyota and BMW have all proved that having the money is not the same as having the ability.

And so the first major landmark for the 2010 series is that it is returning to a sport in which motor-racing companies compete against each other, as distinct from being a marketing tool with some R&D benefits thrown in.

Second is the arrival of new teams: new, big, fields will mean more racing - and less big gaps as the leading cars scream around the track, leaving it empty for a minute or so before they come around again. Unlike previously when larger fields were common, there will be no "pre-qualifying" nor disqualification for cars that don't come up to the pace; so no return to the old 107% rule in qualifying. However, if the new teams, who bring an extra six cars to the grid, are way off the pace, then one can foresee some risk of this return. In total, then, 26 cars will start each race.

Third is the change in fuel regulations, which will have a knock on effect on qualifying. The qualifying format will remain the same, but the way teams deal with it will be very different. For 2010, there will be no pit-lane refuelling allowed during the race. So cars will start with enough fuel (they hope - something of a challenge with no testing) to finish the race. That means that the 2009 rule that cars must qualify in Q3 with their race fuel load is abolished. So the strategic playing with fuel loads - and the result that Q2 was a better guide to comparisons of absolute pace - has gone. Now everyone will be racing flat out in every qualifying session, with lighter loads, to get into the best grid spot. But the cars will go into parc ferme when the qualifying session ends, so there is no chance to adjust aero or suspension from a set up for super-light to a compromise setting that will suit at least part of the race.

Fourth: making the qualifying on a light load more challenging, is that the tyres will be different: narrower front tyres will reduce front grip: the FIA felt that the removal of the grooves had increased front end grip proportionately more than rear-end grip. By making the cars less front-end grippy, a balance will be created.

These changes will benefit Jenson Button the most of the front-running drivers: he is very economical on fuel, largely due to his very smooth driving style. And his smooth driving style requires the rear of the car to be more "planted" than others who prefer tail-happy cars.

Other, technical changes, will affect all the drivers in more or less the same ways.

KERS, although still in the rule book, has been abandoned by all teams. Even so, the weight limit of the cars has been increased by an additional 15kg.

Testing will be allowed for any driver who has not driven in a Formula One race in the previous two seasons, but only for one day and only at a track not in the F1 2010 calendar. And this allowance is only for those drivers who are officially substituting for a current driver, of which each team has two.

The number of straight-line aero testing days is to be reduced from 8 to 6 during the season - but any one day may be substituted for four hours wind-tunnel testing in a full-scale tunnel (the current maximum size wind tunnel is 60% scale).

Wheel fairings - the disks that appeared in recent seasons are banned.

The biggest change affecting the championships will, as we have previously reported, be the new points system. This will favour teams who get a "flyer" at the beginning of the season, making catching up later in the season almost impossible for other teams and will greatly favour the established teams creating an unbridgeable gap for the smaller teams by around half-way through the season, creating in effect a first and second division by the mid point.

2010 will be a long season, with the first race in Bahrain on 14th March and the last, the 19th of the season, on 14th November in Abu Dhabi. Silverstone is back in the series, Donnington having suffered catastrophic financial problems and having had the race taken off them. South Korea is a new addition.