Brundle: 2009 very hard to predict

"It's going to be difficult to predict," Brundle said on stage at the Autosport International Show on Saturday.

"We've had a period of time where Formula One regulations have been very stable and the grid has closed up and up and up and is very competitive. So we are losing that, and I am a little bit concerned about that. In its place is uncertainty, and maybe that's a good thing.

"I don't think you're going to switch your TV on this year and know who is going to win each and every race, that's for sure. It's not back to the 'Michael Schumacher dominates another grand prix' season.

"Who is going to get the car right with the new aerodynamics, with the KERS system, who can make the new slick tyres work best.

"You have got to assume that the usual suspects with the most money, the biggest budget, the most resources, are going to get there first; the Ferraris and McLarens.

"But there could be some great surprises this year; people who just hit the sweet spot with the new aerodynamics and get the job done," added the Briton.

Apart from a radical change to aerodynamic rules, Formula One cars will be fitted with slick tyres and Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS).

Brundle is hoping that all the changes made to allow cars to run closer to each other will pay off and there will be better racing.

"Well, I hope so," Brundle added. "Some quite clever people have been changing the cars so that they follow each other better.

"The problem is that we all love to see these pictures of Jim Clark and Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart drifting their cars, and I have driven those older cars and it is a pleasure to drive them like that.

"But that was on cross-ply tyres, with cars that had lift instead of downforce, and the engineers can't forget what they know. They can't unlearn these things, if that's a word, and make cars slide around and follow each other better. It's really quite complex to change the cars enough to make them just follow each other, but they'd better have got it right.

"Even if they were five seconds a lap slower... a MotoGP bike is half a minute a lap slower around Barcelona. It's an amazing amount of time, isn't it? But if they are three or four abreast, and the bikes are sliding around it looks very exciting. And that's what we want from Formula One.

"I can't speak for all of you, but I don't care if they are doing 20,000 revs, or 17,000 or 15,000. Or if their gearboxes last two years, or two minutes. As long as they are side by side and we're seeing the best drivers in the world, wheel-to-wheel, exciting us, and we see who comes out best."

Brundle also admitted he is concerned about the KERS situation, with some teams likely to decide not to run the system.

"My concern is that some teams will have it working and others won't, especially early on in the season," the BBC commentator added.

"You'll see a driver flashing past another down the straight and you'll think, well, is that the engineers doing that overtake or is it the driver? It will be quite difficult to gauge who is really getting the job done.

"I think in the end the teams will end up with roughly the same package and use it the same way because the strategy will force them to do that. Formula One has to stay relevant to the world that we live in, and I applaud the green issues of it. But I am concerned as to whether it will really add anything to the racing.

"But I am open-minded on it. I'm not against change, I'm just a bit concerned that in the first six or eight races, when some systems are working and others are not, we're going to get false racing."