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Ooooooh! Shiny!

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It hath begun.

New Formula 1 cars will be rolled out almost every day over the next couple of weeks, whilst some slightly embarrassed and awkward looking peddlars smile politely for the cameras in their new race suits.

First up - Ferrari. And wow - is that a nice looking car.

And now (fanfare!) the inaugural Grumpy F1 pre-season team preview!!

With that grumpier-even-than-me Finnish bloke having gone off in a huff having been dropped by the team (and probably trying to grumpily figure out what to do with his huge pay-off), Ferrari are looking to regain their more-usual crown of bestest team in Formula 1. Strange, then, that the last person to prove this point was none other than Kimi Raikkonen.

Poor old Fisi (who has bags of experience and can usually get a half-decent performance out of most cars) proved in 09 that the red car was a bitch to drive, so hopefully they've fixed that. New boy Alonso has two titles to his name (3, if you count the title of "Mr like to have the team how I want it") so should be able to make a good run for the title assuming the car if fundamentally OK and he doesn't wind up falling out with the team big-time and ejecting his playthings from the perambulator. Massa seems to be fully recovered from his horrible accident last year, and will badly want to prove he's at least as good as 'Nando, and that he still has the skill that nearly bagged him the title in 08.

As for team morale... their old boss is now in charge of the FIA, which probably doesn't hurt, but their old driver Schumi (the man who we all thought probably had prancing horse grundies too) is now heading up a rival team. That's going to smart (him being in a different team, not the grundies... unless maybe he has them on back to front...) and should make them all the more keen to prove they can still do it.

(Aural delights tonight - Fleetwood Mac's "Selections from 25 Years - The Chain" and a wacky live version of "Not That Funny")
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