F1 – or “The Lewis Hamilton Show” as it should probably be called now - zooms back into action this weekend. Will it be exciting this year?

Despite being a huge F1 fan, even I can see that it’s been, well... kind of dull the last couple of years.

In 2014 it looked like a good battle was on the cards, and Mercedes drivers Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg did just that for most of the season, before Brit Hamilton took his second title. Everyone else was left looking like they’d turned up for a heavy drinking session with a thimble-full of shandy.

Last year it was closer, with Ferrari’s Sebastien Vettel taking a few wins, but Lewis bagged title number three even earlier, with the entertaining Merc boys conflict better suppressed by the team.

So will the 2016 season, featuring a whopping 21 races, be another one dominated by Hamilton?

The all-too-brief winter testing sessions suggest that Mercedes are again very strong, but Ferrari seem closer. If it were a one driver per team championship it could be a ding-dong scrap, but even if Hamilton has a problem, Vettel will be left battling permanent bridesmaid, Rosberg, for the win.

Perhaps the only things preventing Hamilton’s fourth championship trophy could be a tumble from his trendy motorised unicycle, or getting lost backstage at a fashion show.

Lotus are finally Renault, with mobile disaster zone Maldonado dropped, not because of his inability to stay out of trouble, but because his Venezuelan backers failed to stump up the cash required.

Red Bull spent last year complaining bitterly about their engine partner, only to discover no-one else wanted to supply them with one. They look set for another average year, along with the wonderfully British Williams team.

Toro Rosso might pull a surprise, thanks to their Ferrari engine and two young chargers, whilst Force India looked improved in testing. Expect another year of lower midfield invisibility for Sauber.

Manor Marussia couldn’t have been more last if they’d stayed at home last year, but big changes at the team might see them pull a few surprises.

Newbies Haas have built a Frankenstein’s Monster of a car, using Ferrari and Williams bits they’ve dug up in the middle of the night, so could be interesting to watch.

McLaren bombed last year, as a new partnership with Honda saw them tootling around near the back most of the time. It seems unlikely they’ll be more than midfield this year too.

This season sees a channel switch for terrestrial TV coverage from the BBC to Channel 4, with some of the presenting team following the smell of burning rubber to the sport’s new home. They have helped reduce unemployment figures significantly too - there seems to be dozens of them.

One thing, happily, is unchanged. For millions of armchair F1 fans, Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain” heralds a couple of hours of shouting at the screen and wondering if it’ll be the crisps or excitement that runs out first.