How Formula 1 race strategy will be different in 2010

Dominic Harlow, chief engineer at Force India, says: "We'll be working hard on saving fuel during the race.

"Even 1% too much fuel could end up costing you a position so it will be critical to carry exactly the right amount. If you finish a race with 5kg excess fuel in the tank, it will have cost you 10 seconds during the race."

So with very tight safety margins and even the temptation to under-fuel their cars in order to be quicker, potentially the biggest embarrassment for the teams will be running out of petrol.

There will be moments when drivers need to conserve fuel to make sure they finish the race - they'll have to slow down as much as they dare, while trying to keep others behind.

Engine mixture settings will be critical: Drivers will be leaning out their fuel mix when they can, for instance stuck in traffic or behind a safety car. This will allow them to enrich it when needed for more speed.

In this regard, Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello may be at an advantage, being the only two drivers in the field who drove in the last non-refuelling season, 1993.

HOW MANY PIT STOPS?

With no refuelling, pit stops will be for tyres only. Remember that rule about having to use both compounds of Bridgestone tyre during the race? That's still in the regulations, so drivers must make at least one pit stop.

Ahead of a meeting of the F1 Commission on 1 February, there is currently a lot of discussion between the teams and the FIA about how many stops cars have to make.

The desire seems to be for two mandatory stops.

This might spice up the show and introduce scope for mistakes, but would remove the intriguing prospect of a driver such as Jenson Button who is easy on his tyres making just one stop, while racing against someone who needs to make two stops because they work their tyres harder.

The opportunity for the tortoise to beat the hare would be lost.

WHEN TO STOP - AND FOR HOW LONG?

Obviously teams want the fastest tyre on the car as much as possible, so there's a lot to be learned over the forthcoming tests about which tyre to run and when.

A basic approach is to run the harder compound first, when the car is heavy with fuel, then the softer tyre later on in the race when the car is lighter and the track has more rubber on it, which will not punish the tyre as much.