Out of the winter gloom comes something a little bit special...

Winter is generally rubbish for several reasons, notably the freezing weather, increased erraticness of the national rail network and the general emptiness of most wallets post-Christmas. But, even more depressingly, it is a time when Formula 1 goes into complete hibernation. Drivers seem to disappear off the face of the earth and, with the exception of the mutterings about who'll fill the last few race seats at the back of the grid, there's not exactly a torrent of gossip to keep us going until that moment at the end of January finally arrives... the moment when we discover what the new cars look like.

This year, for the first time ever in F1 Racing, we're proud to be able to show you exactly what the new cars will look like, with the world's first pictures of the brand new Caterham CT01. As with all the 2012 F1 cars, it's a project that began about nine months ago; Caterham had their first discussions about the CT01 around the time that Sebastian Vettel was winning last year's Turkish Grand Prix - his third win from the first four races of 2011. Such is the relentlessness of this sport, teams can never stand still - and that meant working on the new car in tandem with producing updates to maximise the 2011 car. As the team told us, by early December 2011 they'd already signed off the front wing updates they'll be taking to Melbourne this year - two months ahead of initial testing.

So enjoy both the issue and the usual intrigue, sandbagging and mind games of the February testing schedule, as the first race of the 2012 season in Australia on 18 March draws ever closer. And don't forget to keep an eye out for our comprehensive season preview issue, on sale on 24 February.

HANS SEEBERG
EDITOR