Well, there’s a lot going on – but not a lot to report about, as everyone rushes to get their new cars ready for the start of testing. There have been a few muttering a about a rescue package for Manor with word of a last minute deal being on the cards, but I hear that if it doesn’t happen today (Friday), the team will be liquidated.

There is one person constantly banging on about how the sale of the Formula One group is illegal and should be stopped, with his articles referencing earlier articles he has written to try to stack up a story that is just not there. Why he is doing this is open to discussion, but it will probably continue until the people publishing this tosh finally work out that it is not happening. I know “fake news” is all the rage these days, but F1 really doesn’t need more than it already has. The sale is done and dusted and the competition people in the various countries have other more important things to worry about than trying to stop a deal that is likely to be a good thing for the sport.

There has been some shuffling of race team management at Williams and McLaren with the most significant thing being the move to Williams of Dave “Otis” Redding, who has been a McLaren stalwart for many years. He will take over some of the role that Steve Nielsen has been doing at Williams, but as I understand it Steve will be staying on at Williams but travelling less.

There’s a lot excitement about McLaren switching to a papaya orange colour scheme and a new numbering system for the cars, underlining that the Ron Dennis era really is over.

Elsewhere, Vijay Mallya’s position remains slightly nervous as the Indian government has now officially asked the British govrrnment to extradite him to face charges in India. The team is ticking on merrily, but it is not entirely clear what will happen if Mallya cannot go on funding at least some of the budget.

Beyond that Sebastian Vettel crashed a Ferrari while testing Pirelli tyres… which is probably not the start to the year that he would have wanted. Let’s hope things get better from here on… Having a strong Ferrari never hurt the sport – just not too strong politically…