Throughout the winter and the early races, there has been talk of a 'new world order' in Formula 1 and of the form book being turned inside out as Brawn, Toyota and Red Bull usurped the formerly dominant McLaren and Ferrari.
But just as everyone was getting used to plain white cars being at the front and silver and scarlet ones being in the midfield, the reset button is being hit again at this weekend's Spanish Grand Prix.
The testing ban , the massive winter rules changes and the late clarification of exactly how far the diffuser regulations could be pushed have meant a return to the days when the first European round marked the 'real' start of the season.
In the past, many teams waited until returning to Europe to introduce new cars, having taken the previous year's models to the early flyaways.
In 2009, the situation is slightly different - as Barcelona marks the first chance that many teams will have to introduce their responses to the diffuser verdict, and a big opportunity for those who were already ahead of the game with their diffusers to bring their first big upgrades of the year.
The teams who hope they will gain the most amid the flurry of developments are Ferrari and BMW Sauber.
Amid all the talk of McLaren's dire winter, few expected that the Woking squad's 2008 title rivals would turn out to be in a similar predicament when the racing started - or that it would be McLaren that showed signs of recovery first.
BMW at least has solid points on the board thanks to Nick Heidfeld's slightly lucky strategic podium in Malaysia, while Ferrari got off the zero mark in Bahrain but remains a dismal ninth in the constructors' championship (which it has won for eight of the past 10 years).
Both teams are praying that the swathes of new parts they are bolting on for Spain will transform their fortunes.


Conversely, McLaren has warned that it might take a step back - relatively speaking - at Barcelona.
Unlike Ferrari and BMW, McLaren (and indeed Renault) started its rush of new parts in the middle of the flyaway rounds, which means it has fewer fresh tricks up its sleeve for Spain, plus it expects the MP4-24's fundamental lack of downforce to prove especially costly at this track.
Renault might not be making any great strides either, having produced its leap forward with Fernando Alonso's fuel-assisted but still superb second on the grid in China.
But whatever technical package Renault turns up with, expect some Alonso magic in front of his adoring home crowd to thrust the team into contention.
It will surely be tempting to opt for an ultra-aggressive fuel load to get the former champion near the front of the grid, then let his KERS button and tenacity do the rest...
While last year's big guns hope to regain respectability this weekend, those that have usurped them will try to cling on to their new-found dominance.
If the usual suspects are charging back to the front, it could be particularly bad news for Williams, which has a far quicker car than its desultory tally of 3.5 points in 2009 suggests.
Operational gaffes are mainly to blame for that dearth of points, although the car looked like it was starting to get out-classed by improving rivals at Sakhir, despite several new components being fitted.
Red Bull's Adrian Newey has proved that you don't need a fancy diffuser to go quickly in 2009, and although one such diffuser is on the way, even without one Sebastian Vettel looks like the man most likely to prevent a fairytale Brawn title.
Newey and his colleagues have been flat-out on upgrades for the RB5, but with a substantial redesign required to accommodate the double diffuser, these may arrive in a clump for Monaco or Turkey rather than Barcelona.
The improving Toyota team is confident that it has the resources and the ideas to stay ahead in the development race, while championship leader Jenson Button is starting to lose his wide-eyed surprise at being ahead and is instead showing the healthy paranoia of the unexpected front-runner - constantly worrying that the pack is about to swallow him.
On pure pace, he's probably right, for either Red Bull or Toyota could have (should have?) won in Bahrain had their strategies and starts worked out better.
But Button and Brawn beat them on operational sharpness and opening lap boldness, and those skills are worth just as much as a massive upgrade programme.
So with some determined to vault forward, others warning they will slide backwards, and the remainder utterly baffled as to where they might end up when the music stops at Catalunya, this weekend's race could reveal how the remarkable story of the 2009 title battle will develop in the final three quarters of the season.
However, while the unknown pecking order makes the Spanish GP a mouth-watering prospect, few anticipate that the on-track action will live up to this intrigue.
Even with the new, in theory overtaking-friendly, regulations, Barcelona is expected to remain a very tough venue for overtaking.
Indeed some sceptics suggested that the true test of any rules designed to improve the action would be whether the changes made the Spanish GP worth watching!
At least the shake-up means that while passing might be in short supply, the result remains utterly unpredictable going into the weekend.
And given how astonishingly wet this season has turned out to be so far, don't bet against a repeat of 1996's shock Spanish GP downpour - which would be the last thing the teams need with new parts to evaluate and the anomalous Monte Carlo next on the calendar.

source[www.itv-f1.com]

 

Thanks for posting that, Hamad! I'm so excited for the race now! I can't wait!