Revved up for new Formula 1 season

F1 – or “The Lewis Hamilton Show” as it should probably be called now - zooms back into action this weekend. Will it be exciting this year?

Despite being a huge F1 fan, even I can see that it’s been, well... kind of dull the last couple of years.

In 2014 it looked like a good battle was on the cards, and fellow Mecedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg did just that for most of the season, at times acrimoniously, before Brit Hamilton took his second title. Everyone else was left looking like they’d turned up for a heavy drinking session with a thimble-full of shandy.

Last year it was a bit closer, with Ferrari’s Sebastien Vettel taking a few wins, but it was again the Hamilton & Rosberg show most of the time, with the blinged-up Lewis tying up title number three much earlier, and the entertaining personal conflict better suppressed by the team.

So will the 2016 season, featuring a whopping 21 races, be another one dominated by Hamilton?

The all-too-brief winter testing sessions suggest that Mercedes are once again very strong, but Ferrari are closer. Whilst Vettel’s team mate, the monosyllabic Finn, Kimi Raikkonen, might not be the one to take the battle to Lewis, Seb could be. If it were a one driver per team championship, it could be a ding-dong scrap, but the chances are that even if Hamilton has a problem, Vetel will be left battling the permanent bridesmaid, Rosberg, for the win.

The only thing that could prevent Hamilton’s fourth championship trophy could be a tumble from his motorised unicycle, or getting lost backstage at a fashion show, as his increasingly glamorous lifestyle continues to hit the showbiz pages with increasingly irritating regularity.

Elsewhere, there have been changes, but not many of significance. Lotus are finally Renault, and have new drivers, with mobile disaster zone Pastor Maldonado dropped, not because of his inability to stay out of trouble, but because his Venezuelan backers failed to stump up the cash required.

The Red Bull team seemed to spend most of last year complaining bitterly about their engine supplier, only to discover no-one else wanted to supply them with one. With their title-winning run becoming a fond memory, they look set for another average year, along with the wonderfully British Williams team.

Toro Rosso might pull a surprise, thanks to their Ferrari engine and two young chargers in Verstappen and Sainz, whilst Force India continue to be almost there, and looked improved in testing. Expect another year of lower midfield invisibility for Sauber.

Manor Marussia were lucky to make it onto the grid last year, and couldn’t have been more last if they’d stayed at home, but big changes at the team might see them pull a few surprises this season.

Newbies Haas appear to have built a Frankenstein’s Monster of a car, using Ferrari and Williams bits they’ve dug up in the middle of the night, so could be interesting to watch.

The mighty McLaren bombed last year, as a new partnership with Honda saw them tootling around at the back most of the time. It seems unlikely they’ll be more than midfield this year too.

For the armchair fan it’s all change too. This season sees a channel switch for terrestrial coverage from the BBC to Channel 4, with some, of the presenting team following the smell of petrol to a new home too.

The presenting team, fronted by Steve Jones, will have helped reduce unemployment figures significantly, as there seems to be dozens of them.

One thing, happily, will be unchanged. For millions of F1 fans, Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain” heralds a couple of hours of sitting in front of the TV, shouting at the screen and wondering if it’ll be the crisps or excitement that run out first.

Altogether now: Dun, Dun Dun Dun, Dun Dun Dun Dun Dun, DUNNNN...

This post (hopefully) first appeared as my "Thank grumpy it's Friday" column, in the North West Evening Mail, on the 18th of March 2016. It hasn't appeared on their website yet, but updates on there are somewhat sporadic...

Bit of a bonus for you this week. When I originally wrote this one, it was over 700 words, against my request from the NWEM for 500. After an initial tidy-up, I got it down to about 650, but then spent nearly as long editing it down to the required length as I did writing it in the first place.

So what you have above is that longer version. I hope you enjoyed it.

I've managed to arrange it that I'll be on a train for most of tomorrow, so will have to miss qualifying and C4's first coverage as the new terrestrial channel in the UK. Sunday's race highlights may also be tricky for me to catch, as we'll be away with friends. 

Brilliant planning, huh? Let's hope the first race sets the scene for an exciting season. Even if I don't get to see it.

For the first time in 4 years, I've advised the paper that I won't be able to supply a column next week as I'm away. Feels strangely liberating - I've forgotten what it's like not to have the need to write anything, although I did get a couple of weeks off over Christmas and the New Year.

See you in a couple of weeks, then!

(Yup. Still on those Argentinian ELO radio shows. Programme 16 now!)