Six of the best: AUTOSPORT answers your Australian GP questions

There are always hundreds of questions amid the tingle of nervous excitement before the start of a grand prix.

The great unknowns only add to the sense of anticipation and hype - and with pre-season testing proving exceptionally tricky to read, we head into the 2012 season-opener with only a vague idea of what to expect.

To try and shed some light on the burning issues we asked you to send in your questions, and then posed them to our resident F1 editor Edd Straw on one of his rare breaks from touring the Melbourne paddock.

Gavin Owen asks: Do you think McLaren have a stepped nose designed, windtunnel tested and ready to be fitted in case they get trounced in the first race?

Edd Straw: I doubt it. The trend in recent years has been for teams to keep the front of the monocoque and the nose high to maximise the airflow under the car to generate downforce. As a very rough rule of thumb, the more high-speed airflow you can channel to the sidepods, the more overall downforce you can generate. If you look at last year's McLaren, you can see that it too had a lower front of the chassis than some of its rivals and it has continued this philosophy this year. This year's regulations, which lower the nose section by 75mm for safety reasons, have thrown into stark relief the fact that McLaren is a little out of kilter with its rivals.

In the final test, McLaren did modify its onboard camera positions and introduce aero parts with the purpose of better exploiting the airflow under the nose and front of the chassis. While that suggests it is keen to make gains in this area, it is all about getting the best out of the package it already has.

If the MP4-27 does have shortcomings, it would be a mistake to lay all the blame at the door of its nose concept. It's a very visible part, certainly, and the numbers suggest that most teams disagree with McLaren that this is the right way to go, but you have to look at the packaging of the car as a whole. So expect to see the McLaren nose stay around, especially given that it's likely the 2013 rules will eliminate the unsightly step.

Pre-season testing suggests that red Bull and its RB8 will be the benchmark © LAT

Matt Leary asks: Which teams do you think will be quick out of the blocks, and which will be slow starters in getting to grips with the new regulations?

ES: Testing suggests - and even suggests might be too strong a word - that it's once again Red Bull up front with McLaren snapping at its heels and Mercedes the potential wildcard thanks to a car that appears to be at least the third best. But to that you have to add the caveats that it's extremely close and things will almost certainly shift around a little bit once things get serious.

Ferrari is the obvious struggler. Testing suggests a tricky-to-drive car that can produce a reasonable time over a single lap but that takes a fair amount out of its tyres. By its own standards - namely going for the title - the car is some way off. The other team that has been a little disappointing is Caterham, which appears to still be at the back of that mid-pack and a couple of tenths off its nearest rival, just as hopes were high that it would definitively penetrate that group.

It's going to take a few races to see exactly how accurate the impressions from pre-season are. Perhaps the only conclusion that we can have faith in is that it's going to be close.

Rory Byrne was vital to the success Michael Schumacher enjoyed at Ferrari © LAT

ES: It's a good point you make about Rory Byrne. His success as a designer is too often criminally overlooked and he was vital to the success that both Benetton and Ferrari had with Michael Schumacher.

It's clear that Adrian Newey has re-emerged as the dominant force, although it would be over-simplifying it to say that it's merely a case of his design genius. He has been able to create a team in his own image since joining Red Bull and the whole operation is set up the way he believes that a modern F1 team needs to be structured; and in a way that gets the best out of the abilities of a chief technical officer who still gets involved with detail work and continues to work using a drawing board.

As for the emergence of a 'new' Newey or Byrne, you'd have to say that both are the product of a different age. Both had huge breadth of knowledge to fall back on and now the tendency is for people to be pushed into very tight specialities. Of course, the technical leaders will still emerge and there are some extremely good technical directors in F1 who work in a different way to Newey, but perhaps this view of the old-fashioned technical supremo who wants to get involved directly in every aspect of the car is becoming an anachronism.

As I say, there is no shortage of brilliant people working in F1 and who will come into the sport over the years. But as the top teams are now huge engineering groups, it's harder and harder for a Patrick Head, a Colin Chapman or an Adrian Newey to emerge in the same way.

Kurran Malhotra asks: There has been a lot of talk about exhaust configurations and rear wings. Is this normal fare, and can we expect another ongoing technical saga like last year's blown diffuser?

ES: F1 always takes place against a backdrop of lobbying and counter-lobbying about various designs, ideas and concepts. The exhaust situation appears to have calmed down, but only after a large number of technical directives had been issued by the FIA to complement the technical regulations. But that's not to say something won't flare up later in the year.

What has been more of a talking point in Melbourne is the so-called 'f-duct rear wing'. The FIA has deemed it legal and now the rest will have to push on with their clones of the design. Chances are there will still be complaints - there always are - but chances are it will be 'aero switch' ideas like this that make a lot of headlines. As Ross Brawn himself has said regularly, what engineers learn cannot be un-learned and there will always be an application for seemingly outlawed concepts. The exhaust arguments have proved that.

Martin Weltman asks: Surely the key question is whether Sebastian Vettel can get better? In your opinion does he still have the same appetite? And are you surprised he is the favourite, given the rarity of achieving three consecutive titles?

Sebastian Vettel starts the season as favourite after an imperious 2011 © LAT

ES: I'd be surprised if he wasn't the favourite. Winning three in a row would be an incredible achievement and history is against him, but right now there's nothing to say he can't do it. He's developed into the brilliant driver that he had the potential to be going all the way back to his first steps in car racing. Red Bull also appears still to have the car that will set the pace. Vettel couldn't fail to be favourite in those conditions. If Red Bull remains competitive and Vettel continues in the same style as last year, then there's a strong choice of a hat-trick.

As for getting better, the greats always improve. In this game, if you're standing still you are going backwards. That's one of the great strengths of Vettel, his ferocious appetite to improve himself and keep winning things.

Maybe one day that edge will be blunted, be it by sheer volume of success, age or the fact that it's difficult to maintain that level of intensity year after year. But maybe not. There's nothing to suggest Vettel will struggle to pick himself up for a run at a third title this year. Still only 24, he is a force of nature and I have no doubt that we are seeing not only an all-time great right now, but one of the top handful.

Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 world champion, returns this year with Lotus © LAT

Shane West asks: After the winter testing, it looks like Kimi Raikkonen and Lotus will be up in the mix for the world championship for 2012. Do you agree?

Kimi and Lotus should certain be in good shape this season, although I can't see a world championship challenge just yet. It takes a while to get a team to such heights, unless aided by a massive rule change, and Lotus should be happy if they can break back into the top four in the constructors' championship.

The more interesting question is whether Kimi and Lotus could be in the mix for the title a few years down the line. With a strong, consistent season of bagging points and a few podiums, as Robert Kubica did in 2010, the groundwork will have been laid.

The other fascinating question at Lotus is how Romain Grosjean will do. He's a seriously quick driver with the potential to emerge as a racewinner in the right car, and perhaps more than that. Don't rule out the possibility that Kimi won't be the top dog at Lotus this year.