TWO weeks from now, the F1 season will be up and running. Three weeks and you will hear, again, the big noise from across the Causeway.

But come September, whether or not you want to smell the petrol and feel the buzz, it will be all around you.

Singapore is six months away from history - it will host the first night-time Grand Prix around the first street circuit in Asia.

Nobody is going to sleep around Marina Bay. The excitement is palpable, however far away we stand.

Right now, Ron Dennis, the head of the McLaren team, is feeling the heat. It is no coincidence that Spygate is being revisited - just as the cars are being fine-tuned for the new season.

The fact that the FIA, motor racing's supreme body, fined the British firm ?50 million (S$138 million) for allegedly stealing the secrets of Ferrari has not ended the matter.

The case goes on in Modena, where Ferrari is based in Italy, and a magistrate still wants to bring Dennis and his key officials to court.

Italian investigators, accompanied by the British police, raided the McLaren factory and the homes of Dennis and his team members this week.

The detectives probably left empty-handed, unless you can imagine men living such hi-tech lives leaving incriminating evidence of industrial espionage under their pillows.

The activity, however, ratchets up the pressure on McLaren. So much so that some insiders say that Mercedes, the team's largest investor, might force Dennis to stand down.

I feel it is last season's bad odour, and best buried.

This season's has already begun with the despicable racism directed at McLaren's No 1 driver Lewis Hamilton in Spain.

But let us try to move on, to get as close as we mere bystanders can to what goes on in the cockpit.

Formula One's big money is on Ferrari staying ahead of McLaren on the track.

Testing does not tell us everything. But after Michael Schumacher, the retired seven-time world champion, drove the new Ferrari F2008 this week, he said the machine is good enough to win from race one.

Maybe he would say that. Schumacher is still a paid adviser to Ferrari and would paint the future red.

However, others say it too. From the garages of most contenders, the perception is of the Ferraris being quickest, followed by McLaren, BMW, Williams, Renault and Red Bull.

Same again, then? Not exactly. Formula One is a constantly evolving testing ground for new technology but, thank goodness, there are rule changes this season that put the winning somewhat back into the hands of the drivers.

"The driver shall drive the car alone and unaided," say the rulers.

They have introduced a Standardised Electronic Control Unit to eliminate driver aids such as traction control and engine braking systems.

That is as technical as I intend to get, but it is great news if it makes the drivers less dependent on programmed devises.
It is high time motor racing was rolled back towards the essence of man controlling machine - and not being controlled by electronics from the pit lane.

After his drive, Schumacher observed: "You have to pay attention because without the electronic aides everything depends on you. It is all in your hands, and in your head."

You or I might struggle to see the difference because we are talking about minuscule margins and fractions of seconds.

Fernando Alonso, who has quit McLaren for Renault, believes "it is in the low speed (second gear) corners that the traction control would have kicked in''.

He said: "We have to change the driving style quite dramatically because last year we used to go straight to full throttle, now we need to be gentler and feather the throttle."

Nelson Piquet Jr, the other Renault driver, believes the rule forbidding engine braking system has even more effect.

"With EBS," he says, "you could brake much harder. If you do that without the electronics, you will simply lock up your wheels."

It is elementary, apparently. Some drivers are going to miss electronic controls that corrected their errors, others cannot wait to have the control back in their hands, their feet and, like Schumacher said, their head.

No doubt the control freaks in the paddock are working right now on new ways to tweak back some control over their drivers.
Some mechanics will be spluttering like engines running on dodgy fuel - but to those of us who merely stand and watch, this is a good day.

It gives us back a little humanity.

And, by Sept 28, when the men and the machines come roaring around Marina Bay, we may all have forgotten about industrial espionage and be able to concentrate on young men throwing fast cars around the bends.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on Mar 1, 2008.