F1 2015: From Mercedes to Manor Marussia - team-by-team analysis and preview

The new season begins this weekend with the Australian Grand Prix

File photo of Lewis Hamilton celebrating becoming World Champion after victory in the 2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix as he was made favourite to become the first motor racing winner of Sports Personality of the Year since Damon Hill

(PA)

The grid for the 2015 Formula One season has at last been finalised after Manor Marussia confirmed Roberto Merhi as their second driver.

It means that 20 drivers will line-up to compete for the 2015 F1 World Championship, although the top honours are likely to come down to a straight shootout between Mercedes teammates Nico Rosberg and defending champion Lewis Hamilton, just like last season.

Sebastian Vettel has severed his hugely successful ties with Red Bull to start a new chapter of his F1 career at Ferrari, where he partners Kimi Raikkonen in what could be the Finn's final season in the sport if he doesn't show a marked improvement on last season.

With Daniel Ricciardo stepping up to take on the responsibility as Red Bull's lead driver, Daniil Kvyat makes the jump up from Toro Rosso to partner the Australian, who won three races last time out and was the only non-Mercedes driver to stand on top of the podium in 2014.

Williams retain their talented line-up that make a marked improvement on the recent outings last season, with Felipe Massa and Valterri Bottas returning to the cockpit.

Force India have also named an unchanged line-up in the form of Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg, while Lotus will give another chance to Romain Grosjean and Pastor Maldonado in the hope of a far more successful 2015.

With Kvyat departing Toro Rosso and Jean-Eric Vergne given the boot, an all-new line-up of Carlos Sainz Jr and 17-year-old Max Verstappen. Sauber will hope for a better year and have shown good pace in pre-season testing, and they will come armed with a new partnership of Felipe Nasr and Marcuss Ericsson, who returns to the grid after leaving Caterham when they went bust.

And just this week, Manor Marussia confirmed they will be on the grid in 2015 after passing the FIA's crash tests, and Tuesday's announcement of Merhi's appointment