Just 22 drivers line-up on the grid this season (although HRT had a habit of missing the Australian Grand Prix anyway) with several new faces amongst them as well as a shuffle of pilots between teams.

While Formula One gets down to the serious business of testing its latest batch of finely tuned chargers, behind the scenes things would appear to be not so rosy. Global viewing figures are down, the last few months have been dominated by headlines bemoaning an influx of “pay drivers” and HRT finally put its hands up in surrender and was carted off by a scrap dealer. Yet is the sport really in such dire straights?

The final race of the season and therefore the final edition of Grand Prix View – here’s our preview guide to this weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. There’s everything you need to know about the Yas Marina circuit and a run-down of the paddock’s preparations and prospects for the season finale including a look at all the battles up and down the grid that will be decided this weekend, the most important of which is of course the four-way tussle for the Drivers’ Championship. As well as a look back …

So here we are one week away from qualifying for the Bahrain GP and I’m wondering where all the time has gone. It’s been an exciting week with the demise of USF1 and Campos Meta being sold on, giving us an unfortunate acronym for a team. HRT F1, I hope it doesn’t end up being as slow as a granny on hormone supplements.

But apart from the headline grabbing news there have been some fabulous blog posts covering a pretty wide range of topics; so without further ado, onto the good …