Reflections on a New Season

The new season is about to start and, for a few days at least, the wonderful sound of unrestrained V10 engines on full song will echo around Albert Park's lakeside track. It also signals the end of the winter 'phoney' war, the time of the year when every team can spin a hopeful message to get an easy headline. But by Sunday afternoon there will be one only one winner and nineteen losers.

The sad part though, is that the opening race in Melbourne is taking part against an almost unprecedented level of disharmony within the sport. On the one hand, most of the teams except Ferrari are locked into an escalating dispute with commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone over the division of the considerable spoils that flow into F1's bulging coffers, whilst on the other hand all the teams seem united in their unhappiness of the way FIA president Max Mosley constantly changes the rules.