It is always during the endless yuletide season that Formula 1 is at its quietest, but if things have been pretty still these two weeks past, there have yet been talking points, the loudest of which came from Sergio Marchionne's pre-Christmas address to the world.
Little within it came as a surprise. The Ferrari president declared, for example, that Kimi Raikkonen was on his last warning, that if he didn't raise his game in 2018, Sebastian Vettel would have a new team-mate the following year.
This had the feel of old news. Short of Michael Schumacher, Raikkonen is the longest-serving Ferrari driver, about to begin his eighth season in the red overalls. If he narrowly won the world championship in 2007, his first year in the team, more often than not he was shaded by Felipe Massa, and by '09 Luca di Montezemolo opted to pay him off, so as to hasten Fernando Alonso's arrival.