As I write this the Formula 1 media circus is gathering in snowy Stuttgart for the launch of Mercedes GP Petronas, the team that will hopefully propel Michael Schumacher to his 8th world championship, not that I'm in any way biased or anything.
This is the new incarnation of the Brawn GP team which was in turn rose from the ashes of the Honda GP team, rescued by team principal and F1 legend. He never really wanted to own an F1 team - he's a strategy guy - so it's no surprise that he would sell the team to a larger company who could put it on a more secure finacial footing and protect the jobs of its 450 employees.
Over the last few days it's been quite sad to see the official Brawn GP website and Facebook and Twitter pages take on the black and silver of Mercedes rather than the yellow/green, black and white of Brawn. Hopefully we'll see more on the website today than a recorded message from Nico Rosberg. I'm kind of glad he's getting a look in. When the Twittar account changed to OfficialMGP, I'm sure I wasn't alone in thinking the M stood for Michael.
You can't really say that it's the end of an era for a team that was only in existence for 10 months, but Brawn GP gave us a really special season that united F1 fans in admiration. Who would have thought that a team that didn't exist a month before the start of the season could win both championships? Their spirit, effort and teamwork paid off in unprecedented and spectacular style.
The good news is that the heart of that team will still be beating in Mercedes GP Petronas. Ross Brawn remains at the helm and everything will be done his way. The colours may be more sleek steel than Summer cocktail but there's every reason to believe that the Brackley team can do just as well this year.
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