F1 2017: What's new and can Hamilton be stopped?

This weekend sees the 2017 F1 season get underway in Australia and hopes are high that a series of rule changes will make for a more compelling campaign than in recent years.

With new-look cars and the sport under new ownership following Liberty Media's £6.4bn buyout, there is little doubt this will be a pivotal year. So far, the signs are encouraging.

"After three years in which the sport agonised over declining television audiences, a lack of competition on the track, uninspiring cars and an apparently large number of disgruntled fans, F1 seems to be back on track," says Andrew Benson of the BBC.

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So what is different this year?

The cars:

The most obvious change is to the machines the drivers will pilot this year. There have been "big changes to bodywork and tyres for this season with both elements becoming wider to improve grip and downforce", says the Daily Mirror. "This is supposed to speed up the cars but also makes them more of a physical challenge to drive - expect lap times to improve by more than three seconds on most courses."

They look good, adds The Guardian: "Pointier noses, lower rear wings and fat, more durable Pirelli rubber have combined to finally make the 2017 F1 cars look like real racers. A focus on aerodynamics means the proliferation of vanes and protuberances remain but the overall impact, especially when cornering, is far more dramatic."

However, concerns have been raised about overtaking, says Benson of the BBC. Drivers say "the huge increase in aerodynamic downforce will inevitably make passing more difficult... An F1 car needs clean airflow to work at its best. Put it in turbulent air - such as that created by another car - and the finely tuned airflow that starts at the front wing and cascades backwards over all those pieces of bodywork along the sides of the cars is disturbed."

Other rule changes:

There have been tweaks governing aspects of the sport such as the use of power units and safety cars, says the Mirror.

"Now if a driver uses more than one of a power unit element at an event that is subject to a grid penalty. And only the element last used can be used at subsequent events. There have also been moves to reduce the gap in spending power between teams by regulating the cost and supply of power units. There will also now be standing starts from the grid if a safety car is required before the start of a race," it adds.

The drivers:

Mercedes remain favourites, but could face competition for the first time in a while.

"Ferrari emerged from pre-season testing with the quickest times, although the Mercedes pairing of triple champion Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas did the most laps with impressive reliability," says the Daily Telegraph.

Hamilton is odds-on to win the drivers' title, with Ferrari's Vettel second favourite and Bottas third.

"[Max] Verstappen, [Daniel] Ricciardo and [Kimi] Raikkonen are the only other drivers given a hope at between 8 and 10-1 with all other drivers in the hundreds and even thousands," adds the Mirror.

The new owners:

Bernie Ecclestone's absence after 40 years in charge will be the biggest difference here.

"The ringmaster for so long has been removed by F1's new owners, Liberty Media," says the Guardian. "Expect instead to see more of Ross Brawn, now the sporting director and who is in the process of deciding on how F1 will look in the future."

New Formula 1 chairman Chase Carey has plans to change the way the sport is seen. "The top line view I've heard multiple times is that the racing needs to be more exciting and less predictable," he told The Times. "The rules have become very complicated. Engineers have overtaken the drivers, so we need to push the drivers back to the forefront."

It could also mean new ways of following the action. "Ecclestone openly shunned digital platforms and social media, something that the new owners are keen to change as they view those platforms as a key way of engaging with fans," adds the Times. "At pre-season testing in Barcelona, Liberty relaxed the rules around social media, allowing the teams and drivers to publish pictures and stream footage live from the pits. Red Bull's website crashed due to the demand of people logging on to view the footage."

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