The wait is nearly over...

I'll warn you now, this is going to a long, fairly unstructured ramble about the upcoming Formula 1 season for the benefit of the few readers I have who may be interested. If you are not one of them, then feel free to move along; there's nothing to see here.

Anyway - Formula 1 is back this weekend! Woohoo!

I have genuinely never been this excited about the start of a new season of F1, for a variety of reasons, the most important of which is undoubtedly the new regulations which have resulted in radically different looking cars, as demonstrated to the left. With no silly aerodynamic winglets or turn-ups, the cars now look much cleaner and sleeker. I'll admit that the disproportionate front and rear wings aren't exactly the most elegant things in the world, but I have to say that I'm getting quite used to them now. In fact, some of the cars, including the Brawn (left), Red Bull and Williams actually look pretty damn good. On the other hand, the BMW and Renault are both butt-ugly... either way, if it actually results in the much-fabled increase in overtaking, then I'm all for it.

Because of the radical rules shake-up, all ten teams have effectively started from scratch with a blank sheet of paper, which with any luck will completely re-arrange the grid. Even better is the fact that everyone has had remarkably close testing times - there is a genuine chance for at least 7 teams to win races this season and just as many drivers could have a shot at the championship. Sounds good to me!

It is interesting to note that the last time there was a major set of regulation changes (2005), Ferrari plummeted from a hugely dominant run the year before to failing to win a race (I'm not counting the US race fiasco for obvious reasons), and Renault went from occasional race winners to world champions. Much the same could happen this year, although it would appear that McLaren are looking a lot more suspect than Ferrari based on their lacklustre testing times. And fascinatingly the eventual champions may not be Renault, but Brawn GP, a team that didn't even officially exist until about a month ago.

Honda must be kicking themselves now. After spending literally all of last season developing this year's car, they pull the plug at the last minute and nearly cause the team to collapse, only for them to rise from the ashes at the last possible moment and proceed to trouce everyone else in testing to the tune of 1 second per lap, despite very little mileage. It's an amazing story, but not that odd when you consider that it is still effectively the Honda team, just with a new name and new management. Still, the fact that Jenson Button is now favourite to win the Australian GP on Sunday seems utterly bizarre. I just wish that I'd placed a bet on him to do that a month ago, I could have made a fortune with such long odds...

Ordinarily I would be very concerned with McLaren's lack of pace, but crucially, Lewis Hamilton has already won the title, so that particular anxiety is over. And with my previous favourite David Coulthard retired, for the first time in memory I can actually watch the races and have genuinely no preference for who wins (as long as it's not Räikkönen!). In fact, I'd be quite happy to see Massa take the title this year, I actually feel that he deserves it after his performances last year.

Normally I would offer some kind of pre-season predictions, but in all honesty, I haven't got a clue. The Brawn cars could lap the field at every race and run away with the title, or there could be a different winner every time, and the uncertainty is truly exciting. I'm sure that after a while a general pattern for the season will emerge, but until the first couple of races are over at least, no-one will know anything for sure.

Other random thoughts:

• F1 is on the BBC again! No adverts! The Chain! DC as a pundit! No James Allen or Louise Goodman!
• The Australasian races are actually on at quite civilised times. It'll be odd watching the Australian GP with daylight outside.
• Toyota has better bloody win some races - they look quick and if they don't then the bosses in Japan could follow Honda's lead. Still, their best season ever was 2005... see my earlier comments.
• How lucky is Rubens Barrichello? It was all but certain that he had lost his seat to Bruno Senna and was facing an ignominious retirement before Honda waved bye-bye. Now he has a half-plausible shot at the title!
• I'm really glad that Sebastian Bourdais has been given another chance in the Torro Rosso, he was deperately unlucky last year. Although it would have been cool to see Takuma Sato on the grid again.
• The first corner this weekend will be carnage - those front wings are actually wider than the wheels!
• And of course, no season is complete without political nonsense. Although the ridiculous winner-takes-all system I ranted about has been hastily revoked, there are protests about the legality of the Brawn, Toyota and Williams cars which will not get sorted out until after the second race. Sigh... you can't have everything, I suppose.

So, in short... hooray! Who'd have thought that someone would be so happy to lose their freedom every second weekend for 7 months?