New safety bar above drivers heads, I think designed to prevent head injury if the car rolls. pic attached below.
If it's a roll bar I'm not sure why they have to have a pillar right in the centre of the driver's field of view - very, very, ugly design and not far away from an enclosed cockpit.
EDIT:
So the front pillar seems to be there to prevent frontal impact from debris, like a bouncing tyre - still very ugly.
EDIT 2:
After watching the Australian GP they're not as distracting as I expected.