The powerful combination of Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel were on full display at Turkey, in more than one way. Vettel cruised to his third Formula One win of the season Sunday, but it was in part thanks to a tireless effort from his crew. The team worked wonders to provide him with a remarkably quick car the very next day after his Friday accident, the second straight race in which mechanics were the sole reason the eventual winner was even on the grid.

Red Bull was so dominant that the team parked with time left in the final round of qualifying to avoid excessive tire wear. No other competitor could top the times, and the team's front-row starting spots proved pivotal, as Istanbul Park now has been won from the front row in all seven events there.

For Vettel, his career is becoming increasingly similar to that of another champion on the grid.

From a statistical perspective, it's very difficult to assess who has had the better career. Both Lewis Hamilton and Vettel have a championship at a very young age, and in nine more races, Hamilton has a winning percentage that's less than half a percent better than the defending champion. The two are also separated by just a single career pole.

Mark Webber's second-place result was promising, but after being overtaken early by Nico Rosberg, he struggled to keep pace with his teammate and ultimately finished well behind. Nevertheless, he ran the fastest lap of the race for the third straight event, a feat that had not been done since Kimi Raikkonen in 2008.

Fernando Alonso had a very strong day with a third-place result, and it certainly gives Ferrari reason for optimism over the remainder of the season. In reality, the two-time F1 champion's season has not been that much worse than his start last year. True, he had a victory at this point in 2010, but he's just eight points behind last year's pace through four races. It's more a factor of what Vettel has accomplished, earning a staggering 93 of the possible 100 points so far. Last year, leader Jenson Button had 60 at this point.

While there was not much of a contest for the lead in Turkey, the middle of the pack provided endless excitement. The added elements of DRS and KERS this season have paid off in the form of very close racing between drivers and even teammates. Istanbul Park saw the duos at Renault and McLaren battle for position, as well as Michael Schumacher driving Sauber's Kamui Kobayashi toward the grass while the young driver attempted to overtake.

The power of the adjustable rear wing was incredible at times in Istanbul, with several drivers making up considerable ground to complete the overtake in the designated DRS zone. If this continues for the rest of 2011, fans are in for some thrilling races.

Red Bull received another sizeable momentum swing when its closest rival, McLaren, ran into significant trouble. Hamilton's poor start, coupled with a disastrous third pit stop, meant he was out of contention for the race win. It likely did not matter very much anyways, as Vettel's on-track speed was unmatched throughout the day in the RB7. He also posted the quickest total time on pit road among drivers who made four stops.

One man who has gotten off to a considerably better start this season through four races is Vitaly Petrov. In his rookie year, the Renault driver retired three straight times to start the season and amassed just 27 points last season. In 2011, Petrov already has 21 points and is ahead of names like Rosberg and Schumacher in the driver standings. He already has a podium under his belt, and equally important, he's keeping pace with veteran teammate Nick Heidfeld. A good barometer for the remainder of the year is whether he can remain ahead of last year's Autosport Rookie of the Year, Kobayashi. So far, so good.

Looking ahead to Catalunya, what can be expected? The 82 pit stops made in Turkey likely will not be equaled, but perhaps Webber can earn his first win of the season there this year, just like in 2010.

A little under a year ago, Red Bull was looking good. Mark Webber was fresh off his first career Monaco victory, with teammate Sebastian Vettel right in tow. The drivers were tied atop the Formula One championship standings heading to Turkey, and the early laps at Istanbul suggested that it would be Red Bull's day yet again.

But midway through, everything went horribly wrong. In one of the most defining moments of last season, Webber and Vettel made contact while battling for the top spot, and as a result, Vettel was out of the race while Webber limped home in third behind both McLarens. The retirement would cost Vettel dearly, as it took the rest of the season for the eventual champion to make up the points he lost.

Turkey now serves as a strong reminder to teams and drivers that things can change in an instant in this sport.

This year's race likely will look very similar to the first half of last year, with Red Bull and McLaren dominating the top four positions. Before that accident on Lap 39, those two squads were the clear front-runners, having claimed the top four spots on the grid, and it will be very surprising if that is not the case again this year.

Istanbul Park is the second circuit this season where Red Bull enters without a victory. At Australia, the team had no troubles collecting its first win at the track, but Turkey is a very different venue. The circuit, on the calendar since 2005, features many elevation changes as well as one of the most harrowing corners on the schedule.

The infamous Turn 8 has multiple apexes and is taken at nearly full throttle. Norbert Haug, vice president of Mercedes, described it recently to reporters: "It is a demanding circuit for both cars and drivers, and Turn 8 is the longest corner of the entire season. Nearly 70 percent of the 5.338-kilometer lap is spent at wide-open throttle, which means that, in addition to the chassis and tires, the engine is under considerable load."

It could very well be the final race in Turkey for some time, as rising race fees threaten to cancel any prospect of future events there.

This is also a track that has the potential to reveal just how serious a problem Ferrari may have this year. The duo of Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa are the only active drivers to score three or more podium finishes at Istanbul Park, so if the team struggles here, it likely won't be the fault of the pilots.

Massa also has taken three of the six available poles at this track in addition to his three victories here, so this may be the place he turns his 2011 fortunes around.

Another driver seeking a good run will be Williams rookie Pastor Maldonado. Coming off his first race completion in Formula One, this could be a venue where he finishes among the top 15. He dominated the first GP2 race here last year, winning by nearly 20 seconds, and will no doubt have confidence heading in. The FW33 he'll be driving will have several upgrades, including new front and rear wings, so look for Williams to be far more competitive than it has been thus far. Nevertheless, it was recently announced that technical director Sam Michael and chief aerodynamicist Jon Tomlinson will step down at the end of this season.

One man can increase a personal streak before the race even begins. Vettel is seeking his fifth straight pole overall, a feat that has been accomplished only three times since the turn of the century, and hasn't been done since 2006 by Alonso. Michael Schumacher and Juan Pablo Montoya are the others to amass that many straight poles in that span, so it would make for impressive company.

Vettel is halfway to tying the record of eight, set by Ayrton Senna during his dominant days at McLaren in the late 1980s.

Heading to Turkey, one would think Lewis Hamilton had all the momentum on the planet behind him. Coming off one of his greatest career victories in Formula One, Hamilton displayed the ability of McLaren to compete with -- and best -- Red Bull. After a down offseason, the team has clearly made tremendous strides in a short amount of time.

The fact that Hamilton is the defending winner at Turkey would seem to make him a strong favorite on May 8, but in reality, the 2008 world champion will be fortunate to finish among the top 10.

Incredibly, of the 10 times Hamilton has entered a grand prix as the defending winner, he's finished 12th or worse a staggering eight times, including his disqualification at Australia in 2009. On the two occasions when he has finished better than 10th, he's still never made the podium.

It's hard to believe that a driver of Hamilton's caliber has had such little success defending a win from the previous year, and some of it can simply be attributed to bad fortune. In 2010 at Hungary, Hamilton retired with gearbox issues, while later that year in Singapore, his collision with Mark Webber sidelined him prematurely. Hard luck aside, Hamilton will have his work cut out for him.

The break between China and Turkey will provide teams some time to make adjustments for the coming European swing, as well as reflect on the season thus far. For a team like Force India, it's been a very mixed bag. The team scored points in Australia, but only because both Sauber cars were disqualified. Force India has just four points on the season, equal to Toro Rosso and fewer than Sauber. Considering that Vijay Mallya's squad scored more than five times as many points as Toro Rosso last season, this year thus far has to be considered a step back.

One positive has been the pace of rookie Paul di Resta, however. He's finished better than teammate and more experienced counterpart Adrian Sutil twice in three events and has outqualified the German in every race. The cousin of IndyCar star Dario Franchitti has gone the distance in each of his first three races, and he's the first rookie since Sebastien Buemi in 2009 to do so.

Istanbul likely cannot come soon enough for Mercedes, as the team is fresh off its best showing of the season by far. The team began pit cycles before the majority of the front-runners, allowing for Nico Rosberg to lead over a dozen laps before finishing in fifth. He likely would have been competing for a podium had he not had to conserve fuel.

Teammate Michael Schumacher checked in eighth at China, his best result of the season. At this point in his comeback, however, much more was expected. Through 22 races with Mercedes, Schumacher has yet to lead a lap or score a podium result.

He's also yet to finish among the top five in consecutive races, something Nico Rosberg has done four times in that same span. While his first year in a Ferrari was trying as well, he was still able to find relative success, winning three times while finishing third in the 1996 world championship.

It's a bit bizarre to see the all-time F1 leader in wins, poles, fastest laps, podiums and laps led add to none of those totals so far in his stint with Mercedes, and few likely predicted that would be the case this far into his comeback.

Schumacher always has been very good at getting the most out of his car, and perhaps with the strong performance by Mercedes in China, fans will see a podium result in the near future.

Every desired element seemed to come together in Shanghai: a dramatic ending, overtaking at seemingly every corner, race strategies that shifted throughout and the underlying doubt of which driver would come out on top.

Lewis Hamilton ultimately exercised a fantastic drive, overtaking Sebastian Vettel in the waning laps to claim victory for the first time since August. And he very nearly didn't even make the starting grid.

Pre-race issues involving a fuel leak nearly sidelined Hamilton, but the team made the starting grid in time. It had no ill effects, as Hamilton and teammate Jenson Button rocketed past Vettel before the first turn.

It was a warning sign for Red Bull, as the only team that had challenged Vettel this season was finally out front.

Button led early, but it was Hamilton who passed defending champion Vettel on Lap 52 as the young German struggled on worn tires.

Hamilton's three-stop strategy looked like the winning formula, as Vettel was the only one of the top-five finishers to stop just twice. It was Hamilton's 15th Formula One victory, one shy of Sterling Moss for 14th all time.

Hamilton also continues to ascend the wins list within his storied team. Hamilton is still 20 wins shy of the most by a McLaren driver (Ayrton Senna), and while that may seem like a distant milestone, consider that he is just 26.

In addition, Hamilton's collected his 15 wins in just over four full seasons. If he remains with the team, that record could be his well before his career is over.

Most importantly, his victory Sunday signaled a true challenger for Red Bull in 2011.

The defending constructors' champions still had an impressive day despite not taking a victory back to Austria, however. Vettel posted the fastest times in each practice and captured the pole, while Mark Webber fought valiantly throughout the day, turning a dreadful 18th-place start on the grid into an incredible podium drive.

Of his previous 20 podium results, Webber had never started worse than sixth.

As for Vettel, he finished a strong second and extended his run of five straight podiums, the longest streak of his young F1 career.

He leads Hamilton by 21 points in the World Championship, and considering that he entered with a 24-point lead, he did not lose much ground in the end.

As thrilling as the racing was, China was also a bit of an interesting race from an historical perspective.

The event featured the most classified finishers in F1 history (23), and the six race leaders are the most since Japan in 2008. Jaime Alguersuari was the only man who failed to finish, but through no fault of his own, as his wheel came loose after a mishandled pit stop.

While McLaren was busy picking up its 170th F1 win, second-most all time, the teams first and third on that list continue to struggle.

Williams -- third all time with 113 victories -- is enduring the longest winless drought in team history and has yet to score a point this season. Rookie Pastor Maldonado has run just 42 percent of the possible laps, while veteran Rubens Barrichello has not finished better than 13th.

It's the first time since 2002 that Barrichello has not finished better than 13th in any of his first three races of the season, and it's certainly put Williams technical director Sam Michael on the hot seat.

Ferrari -- first all time with 215 victories -- has also proved to be relatively uncompetitive compared to last year and is already 55 points shy of Red Bull in the race for the constructors' title.

The Maranello outfit showed good pace at times in China but ultimately finished over 15 seconds behind Hamilton. Twice this season, the fastest Ferrari driver has finished over 30 seconds shy of the winner.

Ferrari's Fernando Alonso has also run among the top three positions for roughly just 13 percent of the time this season. Quite a disparity when you consider that he did not leave the top three for the entire season-opening win last year in Bahrain.

It was all shaping up to be a dream weekend for Mark Webber. He breezed through the first two practices, and was looking to make a statement after a tough weekend in Australia.

But right off the line, Webber's troubles began, as his KERS was inoperable, causing him to fall back to ninth after the opening lap. The Australian rallied, however, and put in a phenomenal effort in order to check in fourth when the final flag waved.

But it was again Sebastian Vettel's weekend, his fourth consecutive win dating back to last season.

It's the 16th time a driver has won the first two races of the season, and of the previous 15 occurrences, that driver has gone on to claim the World Championship 11 times. An even better omen for Vettel; the last nine have all converted it into a title that same season.

After starting from pole yet again, the defending champion put in another dominant effort to claim his second straight win in Malaysia. To date, he's paced the field for 109 laps, while the rest of the drivers combined have led a total of five.

Despite cruising to victory, it was a tense day overall. The rain stayed away, but there were times when it appeared as if a downpour was imminent. Midway through the event, Vettel's KERS failed as well, but it did not prove lethal.

McLaren again displayed its speed early this season, splitting the Red Bull machines on the grid. Lewis Hamilton was quick early but contact with Fernando Alonso as well as a post-race penalty really hurt his day.

Teammate Jenson Button shined however, finishing second. It matches his best position since Monza last September, and because of his excellent day, he finds himself runner-up in the standings, just ahead of Hamilton and Webber.

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Hoch Zwei/Getty ImagesJenson Button, center, and his McLaren crew may be on the verge of a breakthrough.

The team that stole the show early on was Lotus Renault, which saw its drivers gain a combined seven positions after the initial few turns. Sunday ended in heartbreak for Vitaly Petrov, but Nick Heidfeld made the podium in only his second start with the team after holding off Webber in the late stages.

It's an impressive accomplishment when you consider it took drivers such as Rene Arnoux and Alain Prost longer to reach their first podium with Renault.

The rear wing and KERS certainly came into play this time around in F1, especially at the end of the parallel straights. It made for some exciting overtaking, and there's reason to believe it will become a prominent part of upcoming tracks that share similar features with Sepang.

It's now on to Shanghai, and like Sepang, it was a track designed by Hermann Tilke. The two tracks are fairly different, however. China features a first turn like no other, one with a decreasing radius. Drivers enter at nearly top speed, before shifting all the way down to second gear by the end. It could be a very challenging start to the race, as the full field will be fighting for the same real estate.

Ferrari has not yet scored a podium finish this season, which was also the case during the team's down season in 2009. China has not been the ideal track for the team lately, either, as the team has missed on a podium finish there in each of the past two years.

Ferrari also left China with a black eye last year, as Fernando Alonso barged past teammate Felipe Massa entering the pits during the race. In addition, Alonso had to serve a penalty for jumping the start.

Ownrship of the 16-turn circuit recently signed a seven-year extension with F1, and this will be the eighth edition of the race. Remarkably, no driver has won this race twice, but six of those winners will be competing this weekend.

China was the site of Button's last win nearly a year ago, but he's finished runner-up four times since then, including last weekend in Malaysia.

Malaysia always seems to bring with it certain challenges that are unmatched anywhere else on the Formula One schedule. Drivers, crew and personnel alike must battle the oppressive humidity and the lingering threat of a sudden storm, not to mention the actual track layout.

It's a mix of nearly everything, as the circuit features two very long straights coupled with some slow left- and right-handers. Nico Rosberg, who finished on the podium there last year, recently told reporters, "To be honest, Sepang is my favorite circuit on the Formula One calendar. It's fast and challenging with a nice layout and a real variation of corners, which make it an exciting track to drive."

It's a locale that no one team has dominated lately, as evidence by five makes claiming the past five victories there. Of all the tracks on this year's schedule, that's the longest such streak. Last year, it was Red Bull that cleaned up there, but the year before Brawn GP won a rain-drenched race that saw half points awarded. Between 2006 and 2008, Renault, McLaren and Ferrari all saw the top step.

The combination of the adjustable rear wing and KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems) weren't a huge force in Australia, but they could be in Malaysia, as the track has some good overtaking opportunities, especially heading into the first turn. After all, that straight last year showcased the classic battle between Lewis Hamilton and Vitaly Petrov, with Hamilton making several moves to block the Russian from overtaking.

Defending winner Sebastian Vettel is no doubt the favorite heading in, but only once has a defending winner made it back-to-back victories (Michael Schumacher in 2000 and 2001). Of the others who have tried, only two have finished on the podium the next year, with Fernando Alonso in 2006 the last man to do so. Six others finished between fourth and eighth, while Kimi Raikkonen struggled the most, retiring in 2004 and checking in 14th in 2009 in the years immediately following his victories.

One team certainly looking for an excellent showing here will be Mercedes. This is the home nation of backer Petronas, and the team faired very poorly in Australia. Rosberg's retirement was uncharacteristic, while Schumacher was counting on a strong start this year to silence the doubters. His three wins at Sepang are the most among all drivers, but those were earned in quite a different situation.

Vettel's biggest challenger in Australia could easily play that role again in Malaysia. Although he's never won at Sepang, Hamilton staged a solid race there last year, finishing sixth after starting the race in 20th. It matched a personal best for the most positions gained in a race, and in each of his past three trips there, Hamilton has gained at least four spots in relation to his starting position. If he can qualify well this time around, he'll save himself a considerable amount of effort during the race.

It would be something if Hamilton were to score his first Malaysia win Sunday, as it would come on the birthday of Great Britain's first F1 champion, Mike Hawthorn.

A prominent question heading into this race is whether Petrov can shine again. It had been well over two years since a driver earned his first race podium (Vettel with his 2008 win in Italy), and remarkably, four drivers found themselves on the podium for the first time in their careers that season (Vettel, Glock, Piquet Jr. and Rosberg). None were able to follow it up with another podium result in the next race, however, and all finished fifth or worse.

Petrov should take heart in the fact that Lotus Renault is bringing with it a few upgrades for Malaysia, including changes to the front and rear wings.

Sebastian Vettel has clearly fired the initial warning shot this season.

The first 30 laps at Bahrain last year looked very similar, with Vettel establishing a significant lead, but unlike 2010, Red Bull's newest car stood the test of a full race and Vettel took the checkered flag first after capturing yet another pole in Australia.

Vettel's victory was rarely in doubt, as Lewis Hamilton appeared to be his only challenger. But Hamilton's McLaren suffered damage after an off-track excursion, and following that, Hamilton was merely in damage-control mode.

In the end, the young German won by more than 22 seconds, the second-largest margin of victory in an F1 race at Albert Park behind only Damon Hill's 38-second win in the inaugural event back in 1996.

That year, Hill was challenged only by newcomer and teammate Jacques Villeneuve en route to the title.

That could very well be the same story for Vettel this season. Fernando Alonso, who finished one step off the podium, quite possibly summed it up best to reporters postrace, "Once again today, Vettel seemed to be on another planet."

Hamilton's runner-up result displayed the effectiveness of McLaren's last-minute upgrades, and the team looks poised for a strong run in 2011.

But Vettel and Hamilton's teammates did not fair particularly well, thanks in part to Mark Webber's three-stop strategy for Red Bull as well as a penalty imposed on McLaren's Jenson Button for cutting a corner.

It has to be particularly hard to swallow for Webber, who in front of his hometown crowd was seeking his first podium finish at the track. After all, this is the track where Webber made his Formula One debut, and he even managed to score points in that event while driving for Minardi. The Australian checked in fifth while Button finished sixth.

The pair found themselves chasing Vitaly Petrov throughout the day, who quickly jumped into fourth after starting sixth on the grid.

The Lotus Renault driver ran an incredible race, finishing third, his best career result. It's the second straight year that Lotus Renault finished on the podium at Albert Park, and Petrov never lapped worse than fifth, which happened to be his highest finish last season (Hungary). He could very well be looked upon to be the leader of that team in the absence of Robert Kubica, a tall order for a sophomore driver.

The speculation before the season was that races this year would feature a considerable number of pit stops due to the high degradation rate of the new Pirelli tires, and that became evident quickly in the race. Last year, the frontrunners typically utilized a one-stop strategy, but that has now become two stops.

A year ago in this race, there were 28 pit stops made. This year, there were a total of 46.

Remarkably, Sergio Perez, in his maiden F1 race, was the only finisher that visited the pits only once Sunday. He crossed the line an impressive seventh, one place ahead of teammate Kamui Kobayashi. But it was all washed away when Sauber was disqualified following the event after it was discovered that the rear end violated specified dimensions. Both young drivers can take much from their impressive performances, however.

The same cannot be said for several other teams. Williams and Mercedes both had disastrous showings, with all four cars failing to finish. Both Nico Rosberg and Michael Schumacher were victims of collisions for Mercedes, while Rubens Barrichello's retirement was considerably more self-inflicted; he ran wide at the start and then collided into Rosberg later in the race.

The black eye of the weekend was undoubtedly HRT, which relied on Australia as the testing grounds for its new car. After missing the first two practice sessions completely, the team failed to qualify for the race, posting times outside the allotted 107 percent of the polesitter's.

Red Bull's competitors will likely not be happy to see Malaysia on the calendar next.

Red Bull cruised to a 1-2 finish there last year, with Vettel taking home the victory. This year, Red Bull should be equipped with KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems), which should really benefit drivers on the long straights by the start/finish line.

But wild weather is a central theme of the track, and monsoon-like conditions can threaten to shake up the grid completely.

If all had gone as planned so far this year, we would have seen cars in Bahrain this past weekend, but instead, all fans had was testing from Barcelona.

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AP Photo/Manu FernandezWill the door to a second championship open for Sebastian Vettel this season?

But with the new start to the season only a week away, it is as good a time as any to size up the title contenders for this coming year.

First and foremost is defending champion Sebastian Vettel. The second German to win an F1 title, Vettel is only 23, and there's little reason to think he won't win several more championships before his career is final. Last year's journey was anything but smooth, and Vettel never held an outright lead in the championship until after the season finale.

Nevertheless, Vettel had the fastest car on the grid more often than not, claiming a staggering 10 pole positions. Since the new millennium, it's the second-highest total in a season, behind only Michael Schumacher's 11 in 2001.

Vettel converted a pole into a win just three times in 2010, and had only one victory off his first seven pole positions of the season.

In fact, his 30 percent conversion rate was the second-worst in F1 history in a season among drivers who claimed at least 10 poles, ahead of only Mika Hakkinen's 1999 title campaign.

If he can capitalize on the top starting spot more often this year, watch out.

Teammate Mark Webber is also well in the mix.

The Australian was atop the standings (or shared the lead) six times following a race last year, more than any other driver, so he is certainly no stranger to being in the thick of the championship hunt.

Webber was arguably the most consistent driver last year, earning points in 17 of the 19 events, best among the five title contenders from 2010. A disastrous day at Korea was the prime reason he didn't win the championship.

Until last season, Webber had never truly been involved in a championship pursuit, so the experience he gained last year could prove invaluable in 2011.

Fernando Alonso looked to be in great shape as last season wound down, but poor strategy in Abu Dhabi sealed his fate. The man trying to become the 10th driver to win an F1 title with multiple teams will have another chance this season as he continues to ascend the wins list.

This past year was the third time in Alonso's career that he's tied for the most wins in a season, and the other previous times (2005 and 2006), he won the championship.

What proved to be the difference from those seasons? Consistency.

In 2005, Alonso finished on the podium steps 15 times, and he followed it up with 14 podium appearances the next year. In 2010, he had just 10, and Ferrari's midseason lull meant he needed a considerable comeback to be among the contenders at the end.

No driver was hotter than Alonso over the second half of the season; he amassed 154 points in the final nine races, nearly 20 more than any other driver. Perhaps that momentum will transfer to this season.

The McLaren duo of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button are the other two logical title hopefuls.

Button reminded reporters last week, "You can't underestimate a team as determined as Vodafone McLaren Mercedes: We're all pulling together and we've got some interesting developments in the pipeline."

Through four full seasons, Hamilton has not finished worse than fifth in the standings, and he's the only driver in F1 history to win multiple races in each of his first four seasons (although Damon Hill can be added to that list if his two-start inaugural season with Brabham is tossed out).

Indeed, Hamilton is supremely skilled at keeping himself consistently among the front-runners, and if McLaren's bold design proves successful, he may just be the man who benefits most.

Button is in the prime of his career, one which dates to 2000, with eight of his nine victories coming in the past two seasons. If he can improve his qualifying results (only one front-row start last season), he should be in a much better position for 2011.

There are certainly others who should not be counted out, such as Schumacher, Felipe Massa and Nico Rosberg, but all would need to show marked improvement over last season in order to compete for the top spot.

Rubens Barrichello is not a name garnering much attention entering the 2011 Formula One season. Barrichello's name fell to the back burner as he finished 10th in the standings last year with his new team, Williams, following a 2009 year rife with success. His pairing then with surprise squad Brawn GP resulted in a third-place finish in the world championship and two victories, but as is the story of his career, he often played second fiddle to teammate Jenson Button.

But from a statistics standpoint, he's a bit of an F1 wonder. After becoming the first driver in series history to reach 300 grand prix starts last season, Barrichello will set another record in longevity this year. The 2011 season will be his 19th, breaking a tie with Graham Hill for the most Formula One seasons.

Hill's career spanned from 1958 through 1975 and included two world championships in 1962 and 1968. Barrichello has not been as fortunate, finishing a distant runner-up twice in the standings to teammate Michael Schumacher at Ferrari but never claiming the title. The two drivers did share some similarities, however.

In their expansive careers, both drove for six different teams, and neither immediately found success when he first broke into the sport. Hill did not muster a victory until his fifth season, but it propelled him to a world championship. That year saw another British driver, Jim Clark, also earn his first F1 victory, and the title race came down to the final event of the season.

Barrichello did not see his first F1 win until 2000, his eighth season in the sport and first with Ferrari. The two competed in vastly different eras (Barrichello saw Hill's son, Damon, win an F1 title during his career), and although Hill certainly had a more impressive tenure, Barrichello has found considerable success throughout his time in F1.

Meanwhile, a man whom Barrichello has competed against for the better part of five seasons, Robert Kubica, will be on the sideline for the foreseeable future after his severe rally accident.

It's a shame, as Kubica is in the prime of his career. He scored podium finishes at Monaco, Spa and Australia last season and certainly was capable of adding a second win to his résumé this year with Renault, as he has come very close to victory several times. After all, his 12 career podiums are the fourth-most among the 31 drivers who have a single F1 victory to their name, so he is quite familiar with finishing near the front. He trails Jean Alesi by a wide margin, however. Alesi, a familiar face during the 1990s, had just one F1 win but a remarkable 32 podium finishes.

One story to watch as the season approaches is McLaren's reliability issues. Both Lewis Hamilton and Button have voiced their concerns, as the pair have found themselves in the garage far too often during preseason testing. Button is traditionally a fast starter, but without a solid car, it might be for naught.

The 2009 champion expressed his doubts recently in an interview with media: "It's tricky because we haven't had enough testing in the car to do proper setup work, which is disappointing. When you're limited on parts and you have reliability issues, you don't get the testing done. You need to really develop the car. It's been bitty in testing. We have had some good runs, but the problem is we have not done enough to see our pace compared with others. We've improved but not enough. The next test [at Barcelona] is really important. If we went racing now, we wouldn't be quite ready."

In the past few seasons, McLaren has found early-season success for the most part. That was certainly true last year, when the squad won four of the initial eight events. The 2009 season was an exception for all, as Brawn GP dominated, but the previous year, the team from Woking (United Kingdom) claimed five of the first 11 races. The same rang true for 2007 (four wins in the first seven dates on the calendar).

The MP4-26 is one of the more radical designs on the grid, with a unique, L-shaped sidepod design, and if the team is slow off the block this year, it may prove extremely difficult to catch up to the likes of Ferrari and Red Bull.

The countdown timer has been reset, but that cannot stop the inevitability of a new Formula One season on the horizon.

Bahrain has been postponed, and rightly so. Now, all eyes shift to Albert Park, which has had its share of hosting the inaugural event of the season, including in 1996, its first year on the schedule. It held that honor all the way through 2005, when Bahrain took over for a lone season (Bahrain got the honors again in 2010 after a return to Australia for 2007-09).

In a sense, the F1 calendar is returning to a sense of normalcy by Australia opening the season, as 13 of the past 15 openers have taken place on the temporary circuit. It's a relatively narrow track, which often means collisions.

Look no further than last year, when damp conditions accelerated the attrition rate. Fernando Alonso and Michael Schumacher failed to make it out of Turn 1 without incident, but managed to continue on, then Kamui Kobayashi collected several cars in a huge shunt only moments later. No doubt it was one of the most eventful opening laps of the season, especially when compared with the relatively dull procession that took place in Bahrain only two weeks prior.

Thanks in part to a problem with Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull, Jenson Button was the winner of that race, and he ended up taking two of the first four events of the season. It certainly looked as if Button would have a great chance at defending his 2009 title when he left China in April, but his success ran cold, and he failed to win again for the remainder of the year.

That pattern also was characteristic of his championship season with Brawn GP, when he stormed out of the gate with six wins in the first seven events but then did not win again for the rest of the season. In reality, it's a testament to Button's pure skill that he was mathematically in the title hunt so late this past year despite a subpar second frame to the season.

Over the past two seasons, Button has eight wins in the first half of the year and none in the second. In that span, he also has 12 podiums in the first half compared with just four in the second. This is even with an extra race included in the second half of both years, as each had an odd number of events. If Button can put on a stronger late-season surge in 2011, he might just be the favorite to win it all.

An intriguing recent headline centered on Button's teammate, Lewis Hamilton, and NASCAR Sprint Cup owner/driver Tony Stewart. ESPN's Marty Smith reported that the two will swap machines later this year in an exhibition event at Watkins Glen, the famed New York track that once hosted F1 events. The news is that these cars will be race-ready, which should make for a fascinating event. Both drivers are among the best in their disciplines, and it goes at least part of the way in realizing many motorsports fans' dreams, which is seeing their favorite driver try their hand at another series.

A man who participated in a similar exhibition has shown that it can be done, and done well. Former F1 pilot Juan Pablo Montoya lent four-time Sprint Cup champion Jeff Gordon his Williams-BMW back in 2003 at Indianapolis, and Gordon did not disappoint, turning some very quick lap times.

But it was Montoya who went on to be successful in two completely different series. In fewer than 100 F1 starts, Montoya claimed seven victories before leaving for the NASCAR circuit in 2006. Since then, he has won twice on road courses in Sprint Cup and has come very close to victory on several ovals, as well. Few find desired results when swapping series, but Montoya certainly has been a shining example that it is possible.

A more distant reference would be 1964 Formula One champion John Surtees, who had previously won titles riding motorcycles. He was certainly one of the pioneers of F1, in more than one way.