Although there has never been a season where both struggled terribly.

2004 - Where McLaren built a dog of a car and had to change it with an all new car mid-season.

2005 - Where although Ferrari finished 3rd among constructors, driving with the Bridgestone shod tires, the ferrari was no match for the Michelins after the rule banning tire changes. The only win Ferrari achieved was the infamous U.S. grand prix where only 6 cars ran and Tiago Monteiro got a podium.

Both teams have struggled in the past with regulation changes and it's not unforseeable that with such a dramatic change in the rules both teams have struggled and still may continue too.

I'm a die hard tifosi btw.

 

I'll concede that he has received more than his fair share of bad luck, but the maturation process isn't quite finished for Vettel, at least in my opinion. He needs to be less impetuous and remember that in order to finish first ... he must first take a deep breath and finish.

 

Now you're talking. I think Red Bull has probably been working on a similar rear diffuser, just like all the other teams. This ruling on the legality of the diffuser will play a large and widespread role in pretty much every team's strategies. You mentioned that only those teams with the financial capabilities to develop a wing would be able to do so and implement it effectively, but every team in the series has budgets that are several magnitudes larger than we could possibly imagine. I'm sure everyone will have a diffuser ready, or very damn close to being ready for China if the verdict is upheld. Some teams will have better diffusers than others of course, but I'm not so sure it's 100% certain that those teams will include both McLaren AND Ferrari.

Brawn GP already has a solid lead after doing so well in both of the first two races while the big dogs failed to score any points at all. It'll be VERY difficult for these McLaren and Ferrari to crawl their way back up to the top if the current wings are allowed to stay.

The series is still very much a crapshoot, and I predict it will still be very open for the next few races as other teams quickly (or not so quickly) catch up to Brawn GP, but I'd be a fool if I thought McLaren and Ferrari aren't poised and ready to make some HUGE strides towards the championship title. I have no doubt that Brawn GP is ready to hold their position for awhile and fight back.
That's just my $.02

 

Additional point that has gotten overlooked with all the diffuser madness is KERS. Apparantly Ferrari have been struggling with that also, and still many teams are struggling to get the distribution right.

In the case of Kubica in Melbourne we have seen that it might not make a difference, but that could have been due to the Albert Park Layout.

We saw how in Malaysia passing could be avoided using KERS and we have yet to see how this will pan out for the rest of the season.

Williams is working on a flywheel system that they have patented, which some people speculate that the whole field might adopt. Recently their technical director said they're working flat out to get it on the cars ASAP. Should this happen, Williams stands to gain a lot.

 

While I agree with Dana that Ferrari and Mclaren will hit the ground running by the Spanish GP; if Button manages to win the next two races (which he 's the favorite to do so) All Button has to do is sit happy at third through out the rest of the season and that'll be enough to secure the titles. Even though the Ferrari and Mclaren will be very competitive we will return to the format of races favoring Ferrari while others favor McLaren so both teams will manage 7-8 wins at best barring any collisions retirements ect. which is highly unlikely so I figure each team will manage about 5 wins... Also while the two arch rivals will eventually come back to their winning ways it is highly unlikely that the margin that they have over the current midfield ( RBR, Toyota, BMW and Williams) will be significant, I believe they'll be on par with BGP IF they can resolve the issues with KERS and tire deterioration. Furthermore Ferrari and Mclaren are not what they used to be Mclaren is currently highly uncompetitive with a mediocre driver (Kovalinen) so Lewis does not have a partner to depend on plus the team is currently marred in controversy. Ferrari are in worse shape than Mclaren with an extremely slow car that has reliability issues and a team that can seem to shake of strategic blunders of 08 (the fueling incident in Singapore) and continue to make stupid choices in 09
exhibit A- believing that Massa's three laps in Q1 will get him to Q2 when they know they are no longer the fastest car
exhibit B- To put Kimi on Full wets before a single drop of rain fell on the cicuit when Ferrari and every other team have the same weather forecasting system.

And one more thing Ross Brawn is a genius easily the smartest and most cunning person in F1 after all it was he who was the architect of Michael Schumacher's 7 WDC (94,95,00,01,02,03,04,05) Beneton's WCC in 95 and Ferrari's return to glory with six consecutive WCC from 1999. This shrewd guy has the fastest cars on grid and two consistent experienced drivers recall Sepang Button had 4 immaculate pit stops which were geniously timed by Ross .... The chink in BGP's armor is a weak gearbox that I bet is being worked on as we speak. I do realize its sacrilege to say this but considering the flying start BGP has had it'd be foolish write off Ross Brawn as not only a serious title contende rbut the favorite!

 

The balance of the first half of the season will be about Ferrari and Mclaren making up the stagger on BGP. Bias aside, I believe Mclaren is in a better position with the diffuser seemingly being their only achilles at the moment. While Ferrari seem to be struggling with quite a few more gremlins.

Overcoming the lead held by BGP (assuming their current form continues) will be a task both teams could accomplish if everything fell into place for them. Keep in mind that 1 dnf for Jense and Reubens and a win for Lewis or either Ferrari driver in the same race will put them less than 5 points behind Jenson so this thing is far from over. Don't expect that BGP won't continue to develop their car at or close to the rate of Ferrari and Mclaren.