The Australian Grand Prix kicks off on Thursday 24th March – but who are the drivers for this year’s big event in Australia?

The Red Bull team have Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber as their main drivers this year. Mark Webber is back on top form after an injury in 2008 following a crash, but he is now fully recovered. Their reserve driver this year will be Daniel Ricciardo.

Vodafone’s McLaren Mercedes sees two very strong drivers take the seat in Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button with Gary Paffett on reserve. Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa are the top drivers for Scuderia Ferrari Marlborough, and this year there they have three reserve drivers: Giancarlo Fisichella, Jules Bianchi and Marc Gené.

The Mercedes GP Petronas F1 Team is led by drivers Michael Schumacher and Nico Rosberg. Schumacher rarely fails to impress and this year in unlikely to be an exception. The reserves have not yet been announced.

Lotus Renault GP has Nick Heidfeld and Vitality Petrov  with five reserve drivers including Bruno Senna, Romain Grosjean, Fairuz Fauzy, Ho-Pin Tung and Jan Charouz. Williams have Rubens Barrichella and Pastor Maldonado in the driving seat – this should also be a good one to watch as Maldonado is doing extremely well at the moment. The Williams reserve is Valterri Bottas.

Adrian Sutil and Paul di Resta are driving for the Force India F1 Team and Nico Hulkenberg is the reserve driver. For Sauber Team, Kamui Krobayashi and Sergio Pérez are the top drivers with Esteban Gutiérrez as the reserve driver. For Scuderia Toro Rosso, Sébastien Buemi and Jaime Alguesuari are driving and Danial Ricciardo is the reserve again.

The final three teams are Team Lotus with Jarno Trulli and Heikki Kovalainen as the top drivers, Hispania Racing Team sees Narain Karthikeyan with the second driver to be confirmed, and Marussia Virgin Racing teams has Timo Glock and Jérome d’Ambrosio leading the team. All three of these teams are yet to announce their reserve drivers.

Robert Kubica was due to participate in the 2011 Australia Grand Prix but after a terrifying accident on 6th February this year, he is out of play. He almost completely severed his hand off and suffered several bone fractures, and has been in hospital ever since. Kubica was released from intensive care this week and was reported to be doing well with rehabilitation after beginning finger exercises.

The drivers to watch out for are Jenson Button who never disappoints – he is one of the favourites with the bookies at the moment. Mark Webber is another of the favourites after his recent top class performances, as well as Sebastian Vettel, Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso. All of these drivers are extremely talented and hungry for the win. Mark Webber is especially one to watch as he drives in such a ‘fearless’ way.

The time to watch out is when they begin running the Formula One practice runs the day before the big event, as this is when we’ll start to see who is leading the game.