21. Pedro de la Rosa

Pedro de la Rosa is back in a fulltime race seat this year after seven long years as McLaren’s test driver. His loyalty to the British team was rewarded when he occasionally had a chance to race – notably after Juan Pablo Montoya left in the middle of 2006 – but he has long hankered after a ‘proper’ job. The Spaniard has a huge amount of experience, and that will obviously benefit his new team. At 39 he is now the second oldest driver in the field, but there’s no doubting his commitment, as he showed when he finished a brilliant second in the rain in Hungary four years ago. The car has impressed in testing, so Pedro could be something of a dark horse.

22. Kamui Kobayashi

Like countryman Kazuki Nakajima, Kobayashi was a protégé of Toyota, fulfilling the team’s third driver role last year. His patience paid off when he got the chance to race in Brazil after Timo Glock was injured. He stunned the F1 world with a great drive, during which he held off Jenson Button. He had a second outing in Abu Dhabi, where he again raced with Button, and eventually finished sixth. It looked like he might earn a Toyota race seat for 2010, but the company closed its team. Having liked what he saw in those two races, Peter Sauber quickly snapped him up. Now he has to prove all over again that he’s worthy of the role.

23. Timo Glock

Timo Glock has had a strange career. The German showed well on his brief appearance with Jordan way back in 2004, but he then stepped back to Champcar and subsequently GP2 as he tried to find a decent F1 seat. His chance came with Toyota, and over the last two seasons he has put in some great race drives, often scoring points in unlikely situations, such as after starting from the pit lane. There are still some question marks over his ultimate qualifying pace, but nevertheless he is a wise choice for the Virgin team, where his input will prove invaluable.

24. Lucas di Grassi

Lucas di Grassi was picked up by the Renault Driver Development scheme early in his career, and after winning the Macau GP F3 race for the Manor team in 2005 he spent the past four seasons in GP2. A regular race winner, he has amassed a huge amount of experience, although he never quite won the title. He also logged a lot of F1 testing miles with Renault. However he couldn’t find an F1 opening until his former F3 team Manor made the move, and invited him to join. A smart guy with strong technical knowledge, he could surprise a few people this year, but life won’t be easy in a new team.

Adam Cooper notched up his 25th season as a racing journalist in 2009. Born in London, England, he saw his first F1 race at age 10 in 1976. He began freelancing for Autosport magazine in 1985 and was on the fulltime staff from 1987-92. He then went freelance again, initially spending two years in Japan before following the 1994 Champcar series from a base in Indianapolis. He has not missed a Grand Prix since Suzuka ‘94, a run that has extended to Abu Dhabi ’09. Adam has written books about Eddie Irvine, Piers Courage and Michael Schumacher and hosts a race preview show on Sirius XM. He has written about F1 for SPEEDtv.com since 2005. Check out Adam's Blog or follow him on Twitter