Image source, Getty Images

Thank God for Renault, eh?

I was starting to worry about the cars for this season, with the colour black featuring prominently, but Renault has pretty much gone full yellow with their 2016 livery, which was officially unveiled on Wednesday.

Renault's launch also had the added bonus of K-Mag and Jolyon Palmer in sandals and matching shorts.

And I thought I had pale legs...

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I don't know what you mean, Mike...

Image source, Twitter

Here's one of the new faces for 2016 - Rio Haryanto.

He is driving for Manor this season. Incidentally my favourite looking car this season.

The Indonesian has just Daniel Ricciardo for company on the track at the moment.

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer

Well, that’s quite a statement of intent. 

Nico Rosberg goes out and sets a time on the damp track on intermediates and it’s a 1:44.037. Lewis Hamilton then goes out and does a 1:40.812. 

Just the 3.225 seconds then…

Anything you can do I can do better, though, as Lewis Hamilton knocks his team-mate off the two-man timesheet by going 3.2s faster.

Let the tussle begin.

Nico Rosberg clocks the first flying lap of the season with 1:44.037. He was fastest in FP1 in Australia last season with 1:29.557.

A bit of early season rustiness in the pits it seems. 

A Force India came to a stop in the pit lane and had to be pushed back. At the same time, Mercedes gave Lewis Hamilton the OK to head out but he had to stop immediately to avoid the returning Force India.

Pretty much everyone has been out on the circuit now, except for the two Haas cars.

Nico Rosberg, Nico Hulkenberg and Max Verstappen - all on intermediates - have all popped out for their installation laps. 

Things might be drying up in Melbourne but the track is clearly still damp, with some amount of spray being kicked up by the cars.

Image source, Getty Images

There might be a mixed view of the regulations restricting radio messages, but if there is anyone it will suit it will be Kimi Raikkonen because, as we all know, he knows what he is doing...

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer in Melbourne

There are two big rule changes ahead of this season. One is about qualifying and the other an extensive ban on radio communications, which means the drivers will get much less help than before. It’s fair to say both have had a mixed reception. 

The drivers generally don’t understand the reasoning behind the qualifying changes - which was to try to mix up the grids a bit. 

Nico Rosberg welcomed the radio ban, but other are less sure. Jenson Button said it was unpoliceable. And Fernando Alonso said he believed it would have the opposite effect to that intended. “I don’t think it will change much,” he said, “and if it does you will follow what the team information was given to you two hours before the race - stopping laps, managing tyres and brakes, there is no more time to talk about that and you will follow that instruction like a robot. I don’t think that is the aim of the thing.”

The 2016 Formula 1 season is officially under way!

Straight out is Sebastian Vettel in the Ferrari.

The new qualifying format has certainly left plenty of people confused, so how about we have a little fun with it? 

Why not tweet things you find more confusing than qualifying to #moreconfusingthanqualifying, external

I'll kick things off with Bernie Ecclestone high-fiving a yeti...

Image source, Getty Images

I tell you what we all need at silly o'clock in the morning - a look at the new qualifying format, that's what.

We still have a three-session knockout system - Q1, Q2, Q3 - but instead of a set number of drivers being eliminated after set time period, seven will be eliminated at 90 second intervals in Q2, seven more in Q2 and six in Q3, leaving a two-driver shoot-out for pole.

Got it? If not, this graphic may help...

Image source, Twitter

Crikey, where does the time go. I haven't even got round to popping in my amusing (in my own head) discussion point. More on that shortly.

First more important things, tune into 5 live sports extra now to listen to live commentary of first practice at Albert Park, which is drying up nicely after a miserable morning.

You might have already noticed that we have a vote up and running and the question we are asking is: Who is most likely to beat Lewis Hamilton to the title?

Cast your vote on the right side of this page if you are following on a desktop, or by clicking on the 'vote' tab on all other devices.

The vote closes at 07:00 GMT, and check terms and conditions here.

Andrew Benson
Chief F1 writer

The big question ahead of the new season is whether Ferrari have been able to close the gap to Mercedes over the winter. It was quite a task - Mercedes won all but three of last season’s races and had a healthy advantage of more than 0.6secs a lap on average in qualifying in 2015. 

Sebastian Vettel was slightly contradictory in his views of where his team stood. He said he “thought we have” done enough to trouble Mercedes, but immediately added: “The question is, are we ready in time.” 

Ferrari have certainly be trying. Their new car is more of a design departure than Mercedes’ - which is not always a good thing, by any means - and they have spent more engine development ‘tokens’ over the winter than any of their rivals. 

Out of the 32 available, they have used 23, leaving only nine for the remainder of the season. only have nine left. Of the rest, Mercedes have applies 19, Honda 18, and Renault only seven, which explains Red Bull’s optimism that they will be significantly stronger in the second half of the season than the first, after a major development comes on stream in the summer.      

OK, just 15 minutes to go until 90 minutes of first practice gets under way.

Are Ferrari going to pose a bigger challenge to Mercedes this year? Can Nico Rosberg pick up from where he left off at the end of 2016? 

Answers to those questions and more might become a little clearer over the course of the next few hours.