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2020 marks Sebastian Vettel’s final season with Ferrari and experts believe that now that the pressure’s off the four-time champion, it could unleash his competitive streak which has fared Vettel well in the past. He’ll want to prove that to the Maranello-outfit that they backed the wrong driver.

In contrast, this will be teammate Charles Leclerc’s first race since becoming Ferrari’s de facto number one so he will be under immense pressure to prove his spot, especially after last year’s Austrian Grand Prix performance where he almost secured his maiden win in Formula 1.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen could prove to be reigning champion Lewis Hamilton’s biggest challenger, at least for the first few races of the season. The season will open with two back-to-back races at Red Bull Ring - a track that Verstappen has won at for the past two years and a track where Mercedes has floundered - before moving to Hungaroring, where Verstappen scored his first pole last year only to be outmaneuvered by Hamilton.

A win in Austria this weekend would see Verstappen claim his third straight victory at the Red Bull Ring but the Dutchman is less confident. “I never consider myself the favourite,” he said in an interview, “because actually when you look at the track it’s not even our best track – but last year, of course, it was very warm. We were really good with keeping the engine cooling down. So I don’t expect it to be an easy win, I think Mercedes again will be very strong. Who knows where Ferrari will be as well, so no, it will be a very hard and tough battle again to win that race, but we’re going to try.”

The driver shake-up earlier this year (when it was announced that Sainz would be replacing Vettel at Ferrari next year and that Ricciardo would be replacing Sainz at McLaren) has created some interesting mid-field dynamics for when the season finally starts. Sainz will be keen to head the midfield for a second consecutive year while Ricciardo will be itching to prove to Ferrari that they chose the wrong driver.