Predictability has long blighted Formula 1 as a sport in which engineering and budgets play such a crucial part in determining success. This season’s mammoth regulation changes have helped throw away the traditional formbook giving the year an amazing start.

The new force in the sport, Brawn GP, born so late in the day out of the remains of Honda’s, typifies this shake up but it is more widespread than that.

The performance and rise of the likes of Red Bull and Toyota along with the tightness of the mid pack and struggles of Ferrari has been sensational and it has helped to revitalise the sport.

It’s allowing new faces to shine.

Such a phenomenon is incredibly rare in modern F1 considering constant evolutions combined with financial might have meant a select few have been able to dominate for a sustained period.

Only four teams have won championships in the past two and half decades. That stranglehold will come to an end this season.

These regulation changes have caused such a widespread shake up due to their scale and unpredictability.

While some teams chose to focus their development on the much disliked KERS believing it could give the most advantage, they have lost significant ground on aerodynamic advances, most notably the controversial diffuser design which has been the biggest area of gain.

Now that the diffuser design has been approved by the FIA, the onus turns to the rest of the grid to seek gains on the ‘diffuser gang’ and in this area there is huge potential for gains, demonstrated by the improved pace of both Renault and McLaren when the pair fitted interim diffusers.

But with in season testing now banned teams face greater challenges to develop.

The result of this disparity with diffuser and non-diffuser teams and KERS and non-KERS teams, combined with the soft tyre options has helped shuffle the pack and improve the racing and strategic options.

This imbalance is helped by KERS, a system that gives drivers a certain allocation of power boost from used energy within the car.

Rubens Barrichello was substantially held up behind the slower Nelson Piquet Jnr in Bahrain, the latter running KERS.

The irony is that all these variables were not intended in the regulation changes.

It has simply worked out this way as the amount of regulation changes enabled the teams to focus individually on different aspects and go down very different paths.

When KERS is universally adopted next season and teams maximise use of the diffuser and other aerodynamic devices expect the typical hierarchy to re-emerge.

This season could therefore be a one off, a glorious gap year while the natural order takes time to adapt to F1’s new rules and parity is restored, perhaps too as the politics of the shake up and a clear direction for future regulation change is agreed upon.

The question now is how long it will take for the traditional powerhouses, the likes of McLaren and Ferrari to work their way back into winning contention this season and if anyone will be able to haul in Jenson Button and Brawn.

Amazingly Ferrari avoided their worst ever championship start with a 6th place in Bahrain.

The days of Michael Schumacher and Ferrari predictable domination seems like a long time ago, in more ways than one.

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