For two of the newest pilots expectations are high, as they will be stepping into cars that should be battling it out for the Constructors Championship in 2007.

Heikki Kovalainen has been given a seat in Renault, effectively replacing the current World Champion, and it will be interesting to see how he handles the pressure. Team boss Flavio Briatore has been a bit of a genius in the past at spotting future world champions, having poached the young Michael Schumacher from Jordan to Benetton, and also giving Alonso his first seat. Although Renault have made the more experienced Fisichella their number one driver, it was Kovalainen who impressed most in pre-season testing, out performing his team mate on almost every occasion. The young Finn has proven himself in GP2 where just two seasons ago he was battling with Scott Speed and Nico Rosberg for the title, and he has shown himself capable of getting the best out of the car in practice.

Over at McLaren another brand new face has arrived, amid a blanket of media coverage. Long the McLaren protégé, Lewis Hamilton started the season alongside the current world champion, Fernando Alonso, and his appointment has caused a stir for a couple of reasons. Firstly, he is the first rookie ever hired by McLaren, a team which has always recruited drivers with a proven record in Formula 1 until now. Secondly, Hamilton is the first black driver in Formula 1 history, and has been quite predictably dubbed "the Tiger Woods of F1" by an unimaginative press. Last year he swept all before him in GP2, winning the title at his first attempt, and his times in pre-season testing in the new MP4-22 have shown that he is not in awe of his new team mate.

2007 will be the first full season for Robert Kubica who moved into the seat vacated by Jacques Villeneuve for the final six races of last season. He managed a podium finish in Italy, achieving the highest position for BMW Sauber for the year, and has been retained for 2007. Kubica, who was the first Pole to start a Formula 1 race, could be the surprise package, as the BMW Sauber has shown huge improvement over last season in the winter tests and many fans are expecting them to challenge last years top three constructors in the coming season.

The other two newbies are Adrian Sutil in the Spyker, and Anthony Davidson with team Super Aguri, and it is probably easier to predict their impact on the forthcoming championship - none. Not that either driver lacks talent, but simply that we can't expect either of the cars to be really competitive. Spyker simply does not have the money, and although Super Aguri is backed by Honda they still lack F1 experience. Davidson will have Sato to measure himself against, and if he doesn't manage to achieve better results in the coming season than his unpredictable team mate he is unlikely to get a seat with any of the bigger teams. Sutil will be racing alongside Christijan Albers, who has had a pretty undistinguished two years in Formula 1 to date, and should also be hoping to out perform his team mate over the course of the coming season.

And so to the drivers who are beginning their second season in F1, Scott Speed and Nico Rosberg. Of these two, perhaps Nico has the best chance of improving on last year's performance, when he could only manage to finish 14th in the championship. Insiders expect the Williams car to perform a lot better than it did last year, which shouldn't be hard considering they only managed to accumulate 11 points all year, but there will still be reliability issues, and how the new Toyota engine will hold up is anyone's guess. Over in Toro Rosso, Formula 1 big-wigs will be hoping that Scott Speed can make a bigger impact, as his future success is their best way of increasing their American television marketshare. And improve he must, last year he managed to rack up exactly no points and finished 20th in the drivers rankings.