The winter period when F1 is on a race sabbatical is a frustrating time for most fans, however with car launches and pre-season testing etched into February on their calendars they know the season isn't far around the corner. But what can we all expect to see in Melbourne now the cars have been unveiled at their respective launches and stomped around Jerez and Barcelona collecting data for their designers and engineers?

Well as any self respecting journalist will tell you the teams hide their true performance until they reach Melbourne, with many of the top teams only revealing their true aerodynamic configurations on the last couple of days of testing, if at all before the first race.

So what can we learn from the outside looking in? Well we can look at the long and short run data and extrapolate to a certain degree the pecking order. We can also look at the aerodynamic packages on the cars and surmise the type of performance advantage that may be being gleaned from the different setups. But essentially the litmus test is when qualifying begins in Melbourne and the teams show their true hand, throughout the rest of the article I'll look at some of the interesting elements used up and down the grid and hopefully go some way to establishing a pecking order for the first few races.

Before we look at what the teams have to offer in more detail I'd just like to mention one of the control factors in F1 the Pirelli tyres:

Pirelli's offering this season has seen the construction of the tyre altered to alleviate the shoulder wearing issues the teams faced in 2012. Furthermore, to increase the strategy window Pirelli have also raised the degradation levels by adjusting the compounds. Each tyre moves down a level with an all new Super-Soft compound fulfilling the quota at the fast end of the scale. (i.e. This year's Hard compound is equivalent to last year's Medium) This should result in more pit stops as the drivers struggle for grip later into their stint. Furthermore Pirelli has adjusted the rear tyres on its Intermediate and Full Wet offerings meaning there is a larger delta for the tyres to operate within. The teams were afforded some time to test these tyres out at the last test in Barcelona, undoubtedly gleaning some important information for any wet and partially wet races that may occur throughout the year.

The working temperature ranges of the slicks tyres are as follows: Super Soft (85°-110°), Soft (105°-125°), Medium (90°-115°), Hard (110°-135°C) but due to the low temperatures seen at Barcelona the tyres were falling short of their operating window with the tyres only getting to around 75% of their correct operating temperature. With the tyres not operating in the correct heat range the chemical reaction that takes place when the tyres are in use doesn't happen correctly and forces the driver and team to make changes in setup to try and compensate. Due to the low track temperature in Barcelona we saw that the tyres were tending to shred, this is caused when the core of the tyre doesn't react in the same way as the tyre's surface and is something we are unlikely to see at races during the season. Degradation was obviously a concern for a lot of the drivers but this will be rectified come Free Practice in Melbourne when I'm sure the teams will be anxious to get out on track to assess the true representation of Pirelli's 2013 Tyre range having concluded they're still a little in the dark after the conclusion of testing.

Note: All pictures can be found in higher resolution here.

Red Bull

The RB9 continues to be an evolution of the original 2009 RB5 concept and uses the foundations laid down by the championship winning RB8. From the outset the '9' appears to have had little more than a lick of paint and a dash of additional Infiniti logo's placed on the car but although it shares the same DNA the team have once again pushed the car's development forward.

Above: Red Bull's old nose (left) is overlayed with their new one (right) showing the differences in chamfered and none chamfered edges of their Step Nose. You'll also notice on the new nose the shoulder of the bulkhead has been laid bare.

The FIA's offer of the use of a 'Vanity Panel' to hide the ungainly noses people detested in 2012 was taken up by the team and on penultimate day of testing with Mark Webber at the helm the team offered up a new design losing the chamfered edge of the nose's step. Whilst testing the new nose it also became apparent the team had re-designed the Front Wing's Endplate adding additional holes in the forward section of the element.