It was only when I bumped into Murray Walker the other day that I became aware of the fevered imminence of the new Formula One season. Walker will be 93 this year but there is still that excited urgency in his voice, the same fervour.

When a man ages his voice can become as thin as Oliver Twist’s gruel, or as croaky as a frog with laryngitis. With Walker, though, the exhilaration is still there. He has changed very little, and because in his broadcasting pomp he took the precaution of sprinkling his commentaries with some inimitable blunders he doesn’t sound old when he does so now. His is still the most famous voice in Formula One.

Walker will again be on our TV screens on race weekends, not commentating but doing interviews with drivers for Channel 4. “Last year I watched every second of every race on both channels,” he said, eyes gleaming. “And practice too.

“It’s been my life all my life, because my father was a racer. I’m still working at my hobby. If you’re lucky enough to be part of this circus, you’re working with enormously talented, young and ambitious people who are the best at what they do, even if it’s the chap who blows up the tyres. And it’s a very challenging and satisfying environment to work in. And hopefully it keeps you young,” he added, pausing in the hope of a compliment.

He is bemused when other people are critical of the sport, including the F1 chief executive, Bernie Ecclestone, a stripling of 85. “It’s very sad and unnecessary,” Walker said. “Bernie has some agenda of his own – maybe he’s trying to talk it down so he can buy the sport from CVC. It’s incumbent on people to be positive rather than negative about Formula One, especially when you realise what a colossal audience it has.

“I must be the only person in Britain who doesn’t follow football but how many football matches attract crowds of 100,000? Formula One gets that number many times a year. It’s a great sport, enormously spectacular and gigantically exciting. It is to me, anyway, and always has been.”

Murray forecasts another strong year for Mercedes. “F1 last year wasn’t any more boring than it was in the early 1950s when Alfas were winning everything, or in the middle 1950s when Mercedes were winning once more. What about 2000-05, when you knew Michael Schumacher and Ferrari were going to win?

“Something will happen to stop Mercedes winning. I don’t know what it is and I don’t know when it will be. But they can’t go on winning for ever. I hope Ferrari are going to give them a run for their money this year.”

We are all hoping for that. At testing in Barcelona there were signs Ferrari may have closed the gap on the German giants. OK, so Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen looked really quick when on the new ultra-soft tyres from Pirelli, while Mercedes were happy to pound away, lap after lap, on the harder compounds. But there is a real optimism within Ferrari that progress has been made, even though there were a few glitches at the beginning of the second testing session.

Vettel said: “All I can say is that the first impression was good and everything that we’ve built during these two weeks felt very positive. I am very happy with the feeling in the car. It is difficult speaking about performance and comparing it to the others. But in terms of our own performance we are very happy with the step we’ve made.”

Ferrari won the first of their 16 constructors’ championships in 1961, when Walker was a mere 37 years old. They may narrow the gap this season but the smart money is still on Mercedes to secure a hat-trick.