A new Formula One season is knocking on the door as launch week is coming to an end, and winter testing just around the corner.

Scheduled to start next Monday in Barcelona, the pre-season tests are going to give us a much clearer sense of how well each team has done their homework ahead of the 2018 Formula one season.

By then, the countdown to the Australian Grand Prix will have started, and as in the blink of an eye, a month would have passed by, the new cars will be ready to start playing our favorite song turning on their engines.

Today McLaren launched its new car with new partner Renault. Wearing a Papaya-orange livery, the team´s new challenger managed to capture, bringing back to life a distinctive aspect of the British team. It was team founder Bruce McLaren who used the color on his car for the first time, 50 years ago.

On Monday morning, Toro Rosso and Force India will unveil to the world the new STR13 and VJM11 respectively.

WELCOMING THE ALFA ROMEO SAUBER FORMULA 1 TEAM

On Tuesday, the Alfa Romeo Sauber F1 team fully unveiled the brand new C37 challenger leaving an interesting first impression in the room.

The launch set the official return of the Italian car manufacturer Alfa Romeo (title sponsor) to Formula One after more than 30 years of absence.

The C37 is powered by a Ferrari power unit into a Swede-Italian soul. The dark red-white car is elegant, its rich heritage notorious.

A resemblance to last season´s Sauber - other than the name – is rare to find and that sets a new path for a team aiming for good results this year.

"The philosophy is much different to that of the C36. The aerodynamic concept has changed significantly, and the C37 has several new features in comparison to its predecessor.” said the team´s Technical director Jorg Zander.

DRIVERS

Monégasque driver, Charles Leclerc (20) - debuting in Formula 1 this season – and Swede driver Marcus Ericsson (27) - on his fourth season with the team- form the team driver line-up for 2018.

In addition to the car launch, the team also revealed the new driver overalls and helmet designs.

Marcus Ericsson new helmet stands out with a retro style inspired by fellow Swede driver Ronnie Peterson to whom he had also pay tribute with his helmet back in 2014 in celebration to the 40th anniversary of Ronnie Peterson single victory at the Monaco Grand Prix.

THE SUPER SWEDE

Ronnie Peterson is one of the most remarkable drivers to ever race in Formula One.  An extremely charismatic individual known by his aggressive approach to races.  

He was fast, he was talented, he was gone too soon on a Sunday afternoon at the 1978 Italian Grand Prix in Monza at the early age of 34, but his legacy remains and inspires young drivers till this date, such is the case of fellow Marcus Ericsson.

Peterson, mostly known by the nickname of Super Swede - which gives the name to the original feature film about his life released in August last year - would have been 74 years old last February 14.

The 70s were a very special time in Formula One history. Fittipaldi, Andretti, Hunt, were some of the names in the grid.

The Swede won 10 races in Formula One, achieving a total of 26 podiums and 14 pole positions.

He took part of 123 Formula One races, driving for three different teams. March Racing, Tyrrell, and Lotus from 1970 to 1978.

His one and only race in Formula 1 in a car powered by a V8 Alfa Romeo engine, took place at the Paul Ricard Circuit back in 1971. Peterson drove the March 711 for the British team STP March Racing, to which former FIA President Max Mosley was one the founders at the time.

March Racing was a team on a budget, as Mosley recalls on the Alfa Romeo deal: "The immediate attraction of the deal with Alfa Romeo was money, we got something like 20 000 pounds plus free engines and rebuilds, and we did perhaps think that the engine might prove better than the Cosworth.”

As part of the deal, the March Racing team would have three cars available to race. One of the cars would be shared by two Italian drivers Giovanni Galli and Andrea de Adamich. Peterson was the team´s number one driver.

The team cars were designed to use both, the Alfa Romeo and the Cosworth engines. As part of the partnership, Peterson would contest the 6-hour race at Watkins Glen at the wheel of an Alfa Romeo 3.0, T33-3 car partnering with Italian driver Andrea De Adamich, they ended up winning at Watkins Glen.

The Alfa V8 engine had shown some good results the previous year running with McLaren, achieving 1000 rpm, but unfortunately, things did not go according to plan at Paul Ricard, resulting in the one and only race Peterson would do in Formula 1 with the Alfa engine.

1971 was a remarkable year in Peterson´s career. He finished second in the World Formula 1 drivers championship, raced successfully in sports-car, winning a total of three races (one with the T33-3).

That same year, he also won the European F2 championship with a total of 54 points and 4 victories.

In 1973 he raced for the Formula 1 John Player Team Lotus winning four races and finishing third in the overall standings with a total of 52 points.

Today´s Formula one is a different series in comparison to that in which motorsport icons as Bruce McLaren or Ronnie Peterson once raced in.

This year though, the "need for speed" seems to have felt a need to go back to its roots.

Distinctive details of a golden era when things were not better or worse, they were just different.

A bond brings the past and the present together to Formula One, they both have a passion in common, the one for which time never changes, it is the passion for racing.