And although there had been talk that the benefit of the concept could be large, Ferrari’s chief designer Nikolas Tombazis insists the impact is not that great.

However, Spain’s double world champion did say contracts were “very flexible” given his departure from McLaren last year.

Raikkonen, last year’s winner from pole position in Melbourne, topped the times in the morning session but could only be sixth in the afternoon.

Jarno Trulli has also been talking about how good the Toyota TF108 is this year. Given their budget, and the mandates coming from Japan, they need to do better. David Coulthard has also been discussing how good his Red Bull car is this year.

Given these discussions, here are my picks for 2008.

Drivers Championship

1. Lewis Hamilton
2. Kimi Raikkonen
3. Felipe Massa
4. Heikki Kovalainen
5. Nico Rosberg

Constructors Championship

1. McLaren
2. Ferrari
3. Williams
4. BMW Sauber
5. Renault

The 39-year-old German had not driven the F2008 before, but got back to action yesterday for the first of two days of testing at the Spanish circuit.

The seven-time world champion, who stopped racing at the end of 2006, will be in charge of developing cars for Gestione Sportiva – Ferrari’s motor racing division.

“The F2008? The car is promising, but it is not yet in its definitive configuration. To give a more grounded opinion we’ll have to see what our rivals have done.”

The design, codenamed internally as the 659, represents the Scuderia’s interpretation of the regulations in force in 2008. A major new element of these is the introduction of a new electronic system to be used by all teams, known as SECU (Standard Electronic Control Unit) and produced by MES (McLaren Electronic Systems.)

Speaking about why in the end the team did not reach agreement with Ross Brawn as well, Todt said: “Ross is a very good man. His successes with Ferrari speak for themselves.

“We spoke with each other for a long time – about what was best for Ferrari and what was best for him. But it was better for both parties, on a long-term basis, that he went to Honda and we occupied the team boss position internally.

Interesting.

“McLaren has written to the World Motor Sport Council to apologise that it has taken an FIA investigation to find this information and have expressed our deep regret that our understanding of the facts was improved as a result of the FIA inspection rather than our own investigations.”

A Ferrari statement said: “In the light of McLaren’s apology, and the guarantees it has presented, Ferrari respects the proposal of the FIA president to cancel the extraordinary general meeting of the WMSC scheduled for 14 February, thus bringing this incident to a close from a sporting point of view.

Formula1.com is reporting on the areas that McLaren will not continue development ‘quickshift, fast fill, and the use of CO2 as a tyre gas’ in order to ensure that there is no possibility of Ferrari information inspiring the design of their new car. In addition, it includes the complete statement from McLaren.

As reported at Autosport.com, the FIA has requested to cancel the February 14th meeting now that McLaren has apologized. Hopefully this is finally behind us now.