A new year and a new season of championship is all set to begin this weekend. The expectations are at an all time high and a high dose of excitement is guaranteed. There are many changes from last year both in terms of technicalities and personalities. We’ve witnessed quite a few rule changes announced by the FIA as well as a number of drivers switching teams. To add to it, there are also a few new drivers and a newly acquired team, Force India.

January has been a month of new launches and all the top contenders have come out with, what they believe is, the eventual race winning car. Fancy new colours and all new liveries are not in shortage either. This season promises to be as colourful as ever. The teams have been working hard during January and February to find that perfect winning setups for their cars. From what we’ve seen, its still too early to separate the likes of Ferrari and McLaren, which clearly are way ahead of the rest of the field.

They’ll be closely followed by a bunch of teams headed by BMW, Williams and Renault. Red Bull, Toyota and Honda will make sure that they don’t fall too behind and will maintain pressure upon the mid-field. Those teams will be tailed quite regularly by Toro Rosso, Super Aguri and Force India, the latest acquisition of Indian businessman Vijay Mallya. A number of changes to both the Sporting and Technical Regulations have been made by the FIA for the 2008 Formula One season.

Traction control and Launch control are no longer permitted. All teams must use a standardised FIA-approved ECU to control their car’s electronics. Drivers must use the same engine for two consecutive events. However, in an amendment for 2008, each driver is allowed one ‘free’ change per season, unless that change takes place at the final round. In a bid to further improve reliability and cut costs, gearboxes must now last for four consecutive Grand Prix meetings. The ‘fuel burn’ session in Q3 has been scraped among other things.

The scheduled calendar for this year’s championship is as follows -

• 16 Mar - ING AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX (Melbourne)
• 23 Mar - PETRONAS MALAYSIAN GRAND PRIX (Kuala Lumpur)
• 06 Apr - GULF AIR BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX (Bahrain)
• 27 Apr - GRAN PREMIO DE ESPANA TELEFONICA (Catalunya)
• 11 May - PETROL OFISI TURKISH GRAND PRIX (Istanbul)
• 25 May - GRAND PRIX DE MONACO (Monte Carlo)
• 08 Jun - GRAND PRIX DU CANADA (Montreal)
• 22 Jun - GRAND PRIX DE FRANCE (Magny-Cours)
• 06 Jul - SANTANDER BRITISH GRAND PRIX (Silverstone)
• 20 Jul - GROSSER PREIS SANTANDER VON DEUTSCHLAND (Hockenheim)
• 03 Aug - ING MAGYAR NAGYDIJ (Budapest)
• 24 Aug - GRAND PRIX OF EUROPE (Valencia)
• 07 Sep - ING BELGIAN GRAND PRIX (Spa-Francorchamps)
• 14 Sep - GRAN PREMIO SANTANDER D’ITALIA (Monza)
• 28 Sep - SINGTEL SINGAPORE GRAND PRIX (Singapore)
• 12 Oct - FUJI TELEVISION JAPANESE GRAND PRIX (Fuji Speedway)
• 19 Oct - SINOPEC CHINESE GRAND PRIX (Shanghai)
• 02 Nov - GRANDE PREMIO DO BRASIL (Sao Paulo)

As always, I’ll try my best to come up with race reviews after the conclusion of each round during the entire season. I’ll also add photographs in my Photo Gallery quite often. Signing off for now.