Melbourne GP: what you need to know

Many of last year's F1 cars had noses that would have looked more at home in the 50 Shades of Grey movie. But new regulations for 2015 state that the nose must now taper back to the front bulkhead, therefore encouraging a more gradual, less lumpy shape.

The new noses must also be symmetrical about the centre line, so we won't be seeing anything like the 'tusks' on last year's Lotus any time soon. Thank goodness.

Wondering who on earth new team ‘Manor' are? Well, they're last year's Marussia team, who have produced a spirited comeback from administration to make it to Melbourne.

The team begins 2015 with new investors, and a new driver line-up of Britain's Will Stevens (pictured), who drove in last year's season finale for Caterham, and Formula Renault 3.5 Series runner-up Roberto Merhi.

Speaking of new drivers, they don't come much fresher than Toro Rosso's 17-year-old Max Verstappen, who will make his debut in Melbourne as the youngest driver in F1 history.

This time last year, Verstappen had barely started his single-seater racing career. But ten Formula 3 wins in his rookie year was enough to impress the Red Bull driver program, Toro Rosso offering the son of Dutch legend ‘Jos the Boss' a full-time F1 drive.

After returning to Woking from Ferrari, Fernando Alonso's return to McLaren will have to wait a little longer. An unusual crash during pre-season testing in Barcelona has left the Spaniard concussed and out of the season opener on doctor's orders.

The crash generated more conspiracy theories than a sci-fi convention in Roswell. All we know for sure is that McLaren is back to its 2014 line-up of Kevin Magnussen and Jenson Button. For the first race at least.

Even worse news for Alonso is the fact that his old Ferrari team might at last be returning to some semblance of form. After impressing their rivals during pre-season testing and finally getting to grips with F1's new hybrid era, the Scuderia reckon their updated power unit is now on track to recover as much energy as its rivals, something they admitted was a reason behind last year's struggles.

The S-F15T is also the first Ferrari to be fully designed by technical whizz James Allison, who joined the team mid-2013 from rivals Lotus. With four-time champ Sebastian Vettel alongside Kimi Raikkonen, could the Scuderia be heading back to their former dominance?

If you thought Marussia had left things late, only announcing second driver Roberto Merhi this week, Sauber are in even more of a pickle. A pickle that's gone to court, no less.

Sauber caused controversy earlier this year, announcing Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson as their driver line-up when Adrian Sutil and Giedo van der Garde both believed they had contracts to race for the team in 2015.

Both drivers have taken legal action, with Sutil aiming for compensation and van der Garde trying to get his drive back. Unbelievable as it may seem, the court has now ordered Sauber to let van der Garde race in Melbourne, so Sauber are now stuck with three drivers and only two race seats. Oops.

Despite the leaps made by rivals during preseason, it looks more than likely that Mercedes will once again be almost unbeatable, with the new W06 Hybrid topping the timesheets as well as clocking up a huge amount of mileage with just one engine.

To rub salt in rivals' wounds, the new Merc drove straight out of the garage on day one without any issues, seemingly fixing the team's reliability troubles from last year. Whether Mercedes have fixed the more-than-a-little-strained relationship between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg remains to be seen. Who's your tip for the 2015 title?