Thursday 28 February 2013

Waiting with bated breath...

We've seen out another one. Another winter of discontent. Whilst the teams slog away creating, testing and redesigning their machines, we wait in the wings, ready to savour the gladiatorial battle that commences in Australia. The annual break is a difficult time for the fans, twiddling our thumbs and counting down the days, the hours, the minutes.

But, the time is almost upon us again. The engines are revving up, the flags are being unfurled and we're ready. We're ready to climb in to our dressing gowns and hunker down in to the individually moulded spaces in our sofas. Race control are communicating with us from the other room, asking if we want a tea or a coffee, a bacon or sausage sandwich. The remote has launch control switched on and the TV is turned up so we can push to pass.

Lewis Hamilton will hear more than just his race engineer in his earphones, as thousands of English fans bark their own orders, guidance and criticism at their television sets. Thousands of us will tell Martin Brundle, and the rest of our living rooms, exactly what we think of his verdict on driver of the day and whether Fernando Alonso should have attempted this pass or that move. Many of us will concede that on a second look, we did indeed exaggerate a little, the incident wasn't quite as bad as we first thought, and we may just have been wrong.

One thing is for certain. The passion will spill over again, from both sides of the camera, from drivers, teams and fans alike. Sleepy heads will stumble out of bed in the early hours, barbecues will be arranged around race weekends, and shopping trips will be rushed, just to be home for the Saturday qualifying session. The green flag will drop, the lights will go out and we'll all be in it together, wrapped up in our own little world, for those two glorious hours.

It's time to go racing.