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After McLaren's rather innovative unveiling of the MP4-26 at Berlin, all the major championship contenders now know how the other's car looks like. But because of the secrecy that is inherent to Formula 1, no one quite knows how fast the other will eventually go because it's too early to tell if all the bells and whistles that make up an F1 car will work properly.

Testing at Valencia gave the world a small glimpse of what the future promises but every fan would agree that topping practice at this stage of the season is most likely down to the top teams playing their cards close to their chest rather than an indication of the real world order.

What is apparent however is that teams have chosen radical paths in the design of their cars to make up for the change in regulations. The FIA's attempts at preventing teams from using the Aerodynamic tricks from last year seems to have only encouraged them to think even more radically as the Renault R31 and McLaren MP4 -26 have revealed.

Renault's 'Front Exiting Exhaust' is the most striking technical development so far, and understandably so, because even a road car with exhausts pointing the wrong way would turn heads, let alone a Formula 1 car. The principle behind it is similar to that of an Exhaust Blown diffuser (EBD) seen first in the Red Bull RB6 last year.

In an EBD the exhaust gases exited into the diffusers to 'suck' more air out from beneath the car and increase downforce. As EBDs are banned this year, Renault decided to turn the exhaust on its head, quite literally.

The new Renault channels the exhaust below the car from the bottom of the front end of the sidepods, so that the exhaust fumes travel all the way to the diffuser and eventually do what a normal EBD would do. While the idea is undoubtedly clever, a question mark still hangs heavy over the car's reliability. After all, exhausts exit from the back for several reasons, convenience and simplicity being among them.

The other development that has made heads turn is McLaren's 'L shaped' sidepod which make the MP4 26 visibly stand out from the rest of the grid. The side pod enables air to be channeled to the 'beam wing' that sits between the main rear wing and the brake light. This according to McLaren should help their downforce cause more.

It however complicates the cooling of the MP4-26 as the air that the McLaren will collect this year for cooling will be a lot more turbulent than that of a conventional sidepod and questions will hence linger over the reliability of the car till the first few races of the season.

McLaren also have an innovative looking 'Airbox', which is the air intake above the driver's helmet. McLaren have two intakes, one sitting behind the other. The second looks to be for gearbox and hydraulic cooling, an attempt to probably make up for the problems caused by their new sidepod.

Innovations are not restricted to the usual suspects alone. The Williams FW 33 has its own specialty, an ultra small gearbox, the smallest in their history according to them. Williams has done this to make the rear end of the car as low as possible and get the maximum out of the rear wing. The Williams' rear end is visibly slender compared to other teams but they will be hoping that their gear box holds good as the new rules permit only one gear box for every five races.

Torro Rosso meanwhile have gone back to the past for inspiration with the STR 06. They have resurrected an idea from the early 90s pioneered by Ferrari - The double floor. It was first introduced in 1992 in the Ferrari F92A but abandoned later after reliability issues . The double floor is basically the creation of a gap between the floor and the lower sidepod for air to pass uninhibited to the top of the rear diffusers.  This flow over the diffuser increases its capacity to draw more air from underneath the car and hence improves downforce.

However the gap freed up for air to flow also causes the sidepods to become smaller and as a result leaves lesser space for the radiators and KERS cooling. Torro Rosso have found a way to package their cooling system in the smaller sidepods but the verdict on reliability will be known a few races into the season. Irrespective of the eventual results, Torro Rosso takes the cake for the most interesting car at the back end of the grid.

Compared to some of their compatriots The Ferrari F150 and the Red Bull RB7 look rather generic, but ultimately that could well be their strength as their designs seem to have taken less circuitous paths and as a result look simpler. The Red Bull in particular has deviated very little from its predecessor.

But as the F-duct showed last year, a well designed and reliable innovation goes a long way in chopping off those extra tenths of a second and it will be interesting to see which cars come out on top this season, the complex or the relatively simple.