Formula One: The cars and drivers for the 2018 season

The new Mercedes looks much as it did last year, the only big change is the addition of the "halo" that manufacturers have been forced to fit to the cockpit to better protect the driver's head. It's not popular with driver Lewis Hamilton (right) nor team boss Toto Wolff (second from right), who has said he'd like to take a chainsaw to it. Valtteri Bottas (left) is Mercedes' No. 2 driver.

Four-time drivers' champion Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikonnen don't seem nearly as bothered by the halo as their Mercedes' rivals. They and their Ferrari team are hoping that the new SF71H is the machine to help them bring the drivers' title back to Maranello for the first time since 2007 — when Raikkonen won it. Ferrari last won the constructors' title in 2008.

Although early test runs aren't the be all and end all, Red Bull's new car looks to be pretty fast. Daniel Ricciardo drove the RB14 to the best time on the first day of testing in Barcelona. Red Bull are hoping their new car can help the Australian and his Dutch teammate, Max Verstappen, close the gap on Mercedes in 2018. Verstappen will just be hoping that it is more reliable than in 2017.

The FW41 is the first Williams car designed under the guidance of their new technical director, Paddy Lowe. The British-based team have also recruited former Ferrari chief aerodynamicist Dirk de Beer. After former driver Felipe Massa retired from F1 at the end of last season, Williams have turned over their cockpits to 19-year-old Canadian Lance Stroll and Russia's Sergey Sirotkin, 22.

McLaren are going with the same drivers but a new engine this season. Fernando Alonso will be particularly pleased with the new Renault-powered MCL33, having struggled with unreliable Honda engines for the past three seasons. The Spaniard gave the new car the thumbs up after early testing sessions. Like last year, Belgium's Stoffel Vandoorne (left) will be in the other driver's seat.

The color scheme of Renault's new car is something of a throwback. The RS18's canary yellow on black harkens back to the way their cars looked in the 1970s and 80s. Germany's Nico Hülkenberg and Carlos Sainz Jr. of Spain, who signed on with the team last fall, will be in the drivers' seats. The French carmaker is hoping to move up from last year's sixth-place finish in the constructors' standings.

The Force India car is stil pink, but the team is planning to change its name in time for the Australian Grand Prix. To what, they haven't said. French driver Esteban Ocon (third from left) and Mexico's Sergio Perez (second from right) remain. Force India isn't happy about the halo either. They say it cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars to redesign the chassis just to accommodate the halo.

Sauber enter the new F1 season knowing they can't do any worse than they did in 2017, when they finished dead last in the constructors' standings. Alfa Romeo is on board as a new main sponsor and the 2018 Ferrari engine also promises better performance than a year ago. Their hopes are pegged on Swedish driver Marcus Ericsson, while F2 champion Charles Leclerc of France takes the No. 2 cockpit.

Red Bull's No. 2 team is to be powered by Honda engines in 2018. While with McLaren over the past three seasons, the Hondas were plagued by reliability issues and a performance deficit. In testing through, both Toro Rosso drivers — Frenchman Pierre Gasly (left) and Brendon Hartley (right) — stayed upbeat. Both are relatively inexperienced, with five and four F1 races to their names respectively.

The Haas team goes into 2018 looking to improve on it's eighth-place showings in both of its first two seasons on the Formula One circuit. The American-based outfit, which is based in North Carolina, has once again placed its trust in the experienced driving duo of Frenchman Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen of Denmark.