Formula 1 is back.
Pre-season testing begins on Thursday with 10 teams and 20 drivers getting their first chance to see if months of hard work resulted in a competitive car.
The four-month break has not been without news and drama.
If you were focused on the summer of cricket or the A-Leagues, here are the three stories you need to know from F1's off-season.
Frederic Vasseur takes over Ferrari
After falling well behind Red Bull at the end of last season, thanks in part to several strategic errors, Ferrari dismissed Mattia Binotto as team principal.
The Italian team then chose a successor from outside their ranks, bringing in the now-former team principal at Sauber (Alfa Romeo), Frederic Vasseur.
Vasseur is a seasoned veteran of motor racing. He was in charge of Sauber from 2017 to last season and was Renault's racing director in 2016.
He started his motor racing team ASM in 1991 and was competing in the French and British Formula 3 series in 1997.
The team then became ART Grand Prix and was a force in the lower formula categories.
ART won the F3 championship in five consecutive seasons between 2005-2009, with Lewis Hamilton, Paul di Resta, Romain Grosjean, Nico Hülkenberg and Jules Bianchi winning each title respectively.
The Frenchman has set large targets for his first season with F1's most storied team.
"Our objective is to win the championship, which will not be an easy task as our competitors will have exactly the same target in mind," he said.
"We have to bring the right mindset with us and always work on being better tomorrow than we are today."
Relationships strain between F1 and governing body
One of the off-season's more peculiar stories centred around governance and management.
The sport, commercially called Formula One Management, is owned by mass media giant Liberty Media.
Liberty took control of F1 in January 2017 and owns the commercial rights to the product.
The sport operates under the governance of motorsport's main body, the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile)
FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem caused a storm when he endorsed a collaboration between US racing stalwart Michael Andretti and General Motors as a new F1 team.
Any new team requires the approval of both the FIA and F1, and many in F1 are sceptical of an 11th team on the grid.
This prompted Ben Sulayem to send a tweet calling the hesitancy of F1 for a new team "surprising".
Another issue between the two surfaced when it was reported that F1 could be worth $US20 billion ($29 billion) to a potential buyer, most notably Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund.
This again drew criticism from the FIA president, seemingly directed at F1 management.
"As the custodians of motorsport, the FIA, as a non-profit organisation, is cautious about alleged inflated price tags of $[US]20bn being put on F1," he wrote.
"Any potential buyer is advised to apply common sense, consider the greater good of the sport and come with a clear, sustainable plan – not just a lot of money.
"It is our duty to consider what the future impact will be for promoters in terms of increased hosting fees and other commercial costs, and any adverse impact that it could have on fans."
This, understandably, did not go down well with F1's top brass, who felt the FIA was overstepping its boundary when it came to F1 business.
Ben Sulayem tried to ease tensions when he announced he would no longer be involved in the day-to-day governance of F1.
How the relationship between the two entities fairs throughout the season will be closely watched.
Australian Grand Prix contract gets extension
Albert Park in Melbourne will be the home of the Australian Grand Prix until at least 2037.
An extension of two years to the previous contract was announced in December.
Melbourne will host the first race of the season on four occasions under the new deal.
The first race of the 2023 season will be held in Bahrain.
"To have secured what is now 15 years of further tenure for the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne is an outstanding outcome," Australian Grand Prix Corporation chief executive Andrew Westacott said in December.
