And yes, I know, practice has started in Australia: it just doesn’t feel like the start of the season yet.

Reading the print version of Autosport yesterday, it seemed to me that most of the pre-season chatter has focused on a) Lewis Hamilton, b) whether rows over customer cars will mire us in a year of protests, c) Lewis Hamilton, d) when Fisi will cock it up, e) *how* Ralf Schumacher manages to extract that kind of money from Toyota, f) Lewis Hamilton, and g) whether there’ll be tears before bedtime at Ferrari.

Let’s deal with a), c) and f) first: F1 is the acid test. Previous form, even pre-season testing, means nothing. If it gets to mid-season and Lewis is holding his own against Alonso, he’ll be fine. I think he will be.

b): Yes, we all know certain teams are taking the piss. Where would F1 be without threats of legal action, protests, counter-protests, whining etc? Expect Max to step in with threats of sanctions for bringing the sport into disrepute if it all gets too silly.

d): Fisi’s career at Renault was over the day Nelsinho Piquet signed a management contract with Flav, and I suspect Fisi knows it.

e): An enduring mystery to anyone who follows F1, I suspect.

g): And this is the thing that has me excited about this season - Massa v Raikkonen at Ferrari. It’s going to be fascinating watching the battle for dominance at that team. It’s also going to be fascinating to see how Ferrari function without Michael Schumacher and Ross Brawn, and whether they can maintain that superb reliability record.