F1’s back. Yeah some of us aren’t F1 fans, well boo-hoo to you. For me, ingrained in motorsports the way I am, I can’t not be interested in F1. It’s after all the biggest motorsports circus in the world, and when the circus starts I get all hyped up.

So what’s new for 2012?

Iceman is back. Kimi Raikkonen will be in the #9 Lotus-Renault, partnering another returnee Romain Grosjean. Their form in the Winter Championship has been impressive. Kimi being fastest on the first and last day of Testing. This despite missing the 2nd test. But winter testing can be misleading ( remember Williams in 2011 was impressive in testing, but a farce once season began). Kimi himself says he doesn’t know what to expect. But all I care is Mr Monosyllabus is back, and that means 6 World Champions will be on the grid in Melbourne.

The second thing that is new in 2012 is Ugly Cars. All bar McLaren has adopted the high nose with a step just rear of the front wheels. I have never been a fan of raised nose cars since Benneton introduced them back in 93, and that the FIA will be implementing further “nose lowering” regs in the years to come is good news to me.

Williams will be Renault powered this year, and Bruno Senna will be driving one of the cars. Midfield battles aplenty for Bruno. The cars are reminiscent of the old Rothman Williams Renault as well.

There will also be some new drivers, in the back of the grid, but none of them excite me. It’s not like back in 2007 when we had the Hamilton kid making his debut, or when Kimi himself made his debut after a scant 22 races in lower formulae.

The Malaysian owner 1MF1 will be running as Caterham F1 this year, after 2 years in several Lotus guise. You won’t be able to miss them on track as they have one of the ugliest car in 2012.

Less than 24 hours to the first race weekend of the year. Can’t wait