Formula 1: All you need to know before the season begins

The start of the 2018 Formula 1 Season is just 36 days away and the fans around the world are preparing for the long awaited start to the season since the 2017 campaign ended in November. It's been a long three months for all fans and the excitement is only growing as March 25th draws closer and closer. The drivers for the ten teams were confirmed and announced months ago, and they are as follows Ferrari

Sebastian Vettel #5 (Germany)

Kimi Räikkönen #7 (Finland)

McLaren

Fernando Alonso #14 (Spain)

Stoffel Vandoorne #2 (Belgium)

Mercedes

Valtteri Bottas #77 (Finland)

Lewis Hamilton #44 (Britain)

Red Bull

Max Verstappen #33 (Netherlands)

Daniel Ricciardo #3 (Australia)

Renault

Nico Hulkenberk #27 (Germany)

Corlos Sainz #55 (Spain)

Williams-Maritini

Lance Stroll #18 (Canada)

Sergey Sirotkin #35 (Russia)

Force India

Sergio Perez #11 (Mexico)

Esteban Ocon #31 (France)

Haas

Romain Grosjean #8 (France)

Kevin Magnussen #20 (Denmark)

Toro Rosso

Pierre Gasly #10 (France)

Brendon Hartley #28 (Australia)

Sauber

Marcus Ericsson #9 (Swistzerland)

Charles Leclerc #16 (Monaco)

Between now & March 25

Being just about a month before the season start means two things.

1. Engine Manufacturers releasing the first engine fire-up videos

2. Teams are releasing the first images of their 2018 challengers

Engine Fire-ups

Thus far, all engine manufacturers have released their fire-up videos. McLaren firing up the new Renault engine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRA3woRhKBA Scuderia Ferrari

Fire it up #ForzaFerrari pic.twitter.com/CFQasnu2b8

— Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) February 9, 2018

Mercedes AMG-F1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4i1cmaHACr4 Toro Rosso firing up the new Honda engine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKI32W4yJTQ

Car reveals

Though all engine manufacturuers have released their new 2018 power units, only two teams out of ten teams have released the images of their 2018 challengers, as of February 18.

Haas F1 Team: VF-18

Williams Martini F1: FW41

Following are the car reveal dates of other teams:

Red Bull - February 19

Renault - February 20

Sauber - February 20

Ferrari - February 22

Mercedes - February 22

McLaren - February 23

Toro Rosso - February 26

Force India F1 - Yet to announce

Testing

Following the car reveals come the instrumental pre-season testing. This is where teams find out the improvements they have made over the winter after 2017. This is where teams will learn how strong their 2018 campaign will turn out. Pre-Season Testing is the place where all teams experiment, fine-tune and improve their Power Units and Aerodynamics to suit their car & driver. Most importantly the latter. Testing is also the place where fans get the first taste of their F1 craving for 2018, having starved of it for the past four months.

When & Where?

The Pre-Season Testing will begin in Barcelona, Spain at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on the following dates:

February 26 to March 1st

March 6 to 9th

[caption id="attachment_186063" align="aligncenter" width="422"] Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya[/caption] After these tests are concluded and the teams given the chance to understand & fine-tune their challengers, the fans will see these monsters again at the Australian Grand Prix on March 25th. [caption id="attachment_186066" align="aligncenter" width="360"] Formula 1 2018 Race Calander[/caption]