Fantastic work, Frostie! Thanks a million!
After several days of intense rumination over the first round of the 2013 season, I think I have come up with a few ideas that could be of considerable merit.
First off, I think Red Bull will have to be thinking hard about how to approach this round. They should realize they came too close for comfort in winning the driver's title last year (albeit, not so close in the manufacturer's championship), and that blowing this round could cost Vettel the championship. They can't simply rest on their laurels until what I like to call "Red Bull domination time", the Singapore-Korea-Japan-India-UAE-USA stretch, although I'm sure this is irrelevant because they know how to win championships better than probably anyone else out there today. I think Perez will be faster than most will have expected, although it is a big gamble to say he'll eclipse Button in the championship, especially in Melbourne, where Button won last year. Nevertheless, I have no doubts about Perez. I think he will be a big contender and win at least one race this year, which could be Melbourne, but I don't think so.
I wonder how Webber will do. I'd consider him the big unknown (well, that and Lewis Hamilton, of course). I'd expect he'll do fairly well. Ferrari is another big talking point from over the winter. They could've and should've won the constructors title and the championship title. If it wasn't for their terrible start to the season and Massa's bad driving in the first half of the season, they would have won. Red Bull, especially with Vettel, maimed Ferrari in Singapore, Korea, India, and Japan, and Ferrari, despite a gallant effort, couldn't make it up. I believe Ferrari will have realized their mistake and will have put forward a big effort to make sure their car is up to par at the beginning of this season. I think Lotus will be very good this year, as well.
In conclusion, I think we'll have four teams/manufacturer's vying for the win at Melbourne and the championship in November, and those would be Red Bull, Ferrari, McLaren, and Lotus. I think this year will be closer than ever before, and I'm extremely optimistic about this season.
It looks like we could be getting some rain on Saturday and Sunday:
http://www.bom.gov.au/vic/forecasts/melbourne.shtml