The race weekends come again to fascinate

NEW DELHI: It's that time of the year again. Certain weekends and Sundays will once again be known as race weekends and racedays. The smell of burnt rubber and high octane fuel will fill 17 tracks around the world and petrol heads will be glued to their television screens elsewhere.
The passionate will don team colours to show their support and the ear-shattering roar of 2.4 litre V8s will echo through the minds of every fan on the planet.It's that time of the year again. It's time for the 2009 Formula 1 season to begin.
If you thought 2008 was exciting, 2009 promises to be even better. All-new cars with lesser downforce owing to the new FIA regulations to promote more overtaking, KERS and slick tyres - all promising to contribute towards an intensely fought 17 rounds of the Formula 1 calendar.
It's the dawn of a new era in F1 with the FIA in a major drive to make Formula 1 go green and affordable. The 10 teams that lined up last year will be lining up again in 2009 - with the former Honda team now being confirmed an entry as Brawn GP as late as the first week of March. It doesn't get any more nail biting than this.
So the teams have had their share of group testing, have shown off their 2009 colours and are all set to hit Melbourne with or without KERS.
Three teams will be running Mercedes-Benz engines this year - McLaren of course, and freshly signed engine deals for Force India F1 and Brawn GP. Scuderia Toro Rosso continues with Ferrari power while sister team Red Bull Racing sticks to Renault engines.
There are three Sebastians in F1 now, though two of them (both from STR-Ferrari) are spelt Sebastien. Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello are relieved to stay in F1 in their Brawn GP racing seats. But all eyes will be on 2008 World Champion Lewis Hamilton and close rivals and Ferrari drivers Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen. But you'd be really ignorant to rule Sebastian Vettel or Fernando Alonso out of contention.
It's been a long time since there was so much tension before the start of a season in Formula 1. In all these years, there have been big changes to F1, but never so many in one particular season.
Fans have made pilgrimages to circuits year after year, but there was always a certain team that everyone knew would perform better than the others. There was always a fixed distinction between the front runners, mid-field and the back markers. But 2009 promises to be different.
With the season opener just a few days away, no one can predict who will emerge on top of the new regulation changes - especially with the cars being so different than last year's contenders. And then there's also the controversial FIA decision to decide the drivers' title based on race wins and not total points that has sparked quite a debate in the penultimate week in the countdown to the season opener.