Now, finally, the pre season comes to life. I'm getting excited because the first of the car launches takes place tomorrow. The Lotus challenger gets revealed tomorrow at 19.15. Like many of the teams, Lotus have decided to launch their car online, with the car being revealed live on the Lotus YouTube channel and on Sky Sports News.
Gone are the days when we fans had to wait for surreptitious pictures to appear on dodgy websites before the mainstream guys got back from whatever expensive, glitzy, junket launch location had been chosen.
It is great to be able to "attend" the event and see everything as it happens.
Last year it was the Caterham that launched first and the step nose caused a lot of controversy when it was revealed. When the majority of the other challengers exhibited the same design approach the discussion centred upon whether it was a better approach than the McLaren.
That question still remains to be answered given that last year McLaren imploded in mid-season with a series of mistakes when the car was clearly dominant that probably cost them the WDC in the shape of Lewis Hamilton. Jenson Button's challenge was scuppered by a series of poor drives in the early part of the season when he couldn't get his tyres to work properly. McLaren are to launch online on Thursday.
The cars are likely to sport a relatively homologous nose design this season given that the "step nose" teams will be putting vanity panels over the nose to hide the step. It must be the first time in F1 history that a design element has been introduced solely for the purpose of making the cars look better - a case of "fibreglass" surgery? I couldn't resist!
