A new one begins with the shadows of that day in Abu Dhabi still hanging over the sport three months later.
Lewis Hamilton and his Mercedes team are trying to move on after losing their eighth world drivers title in controversial and painful circumstances.
The man who beat him, Max Verstappen, probably starts the new season as favourite, but his Red Bull team principal Christian Horner continues to snipe, throwing various accusations at Mercedes. That they "bullied" the sport's governing body into making changes; they mounted a campaign to discredit Verstappen's title, and so on.
The ramifications of a day on which the referee made up the rules as he went along continue to reverberate. The changes have been made by the FIA, which was aware of the errors that were made.
A report on the events of the day is expected to be published this weekend. Michael Masi was moved into a different role after his freestyling with the rules under extreme pressure was judged to have made his position unsustainable.
Two people will alternate in a role that is not meant to be so high profile. There is a more robust structure around them. A face from the past has been brought back to add some gravitas and experience.
F1 veteran and long-time associate of the late Charlie Whiting, who died on the eve of the season, will advise the new race directors.
The sport's rule book has been rewritten from the ground up. A new set of technical regulations has been introduced in order to produce cars that are closer in terms of performance and can race more effectively.
The cars that will be seen on the track over the next two months are the product of four years of research by F1 and the FIA, and two years of development work by the teams.
The cars have been fundamentally revised in an attempt to ensure drivers can follow each other more closely. The rules have been made to make it easier to reduce the performance gap between the front and back of the field.
The fear was that this would lead to a lot of people looking like each other. There is more visual variation between the 10 cars than there has been in the past, much to the relief of both the teams and the fans.
The three teams expected to lead the way at the start of the season - Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes - have different approaches to solve the same set of problems.
The sidepods are almost not there because Mercedes shrunk their car's bodywork to such an extreme extent. Red Bull has created dramatic cutaways. The top of the cars have elegant curves cut out of them. The noses of the cars are different, with Mercedes and Red Bull having the more square ones.
The three big teams ended pre-season testing fastest, with lap times within a few tenths of a second of each other. Verstappen set the fastest time, but Red Bull looked stronger.
Mercedes looked on the back foot while Ferrari showed the most consistent performance. After promising early in testing that reliability problems would be solved before the car hits the track, McLaren hit reliability problems later on.
Hamilton doesn't think we will be competing for wins at the start of the season. Verstappen is skeptical of that claim. He said of previous years in which a difficult pre-season for Mercedes was followed by a victory at the first race, when he said of the world champion's attempts to play down expectations.
The Mercedes appeared to be in trouble. It was difficult for its drivers, Hamilton and George Russell. Pierre Gasly, who was following Hamilton on the final day of testing, backed up his claims.
The Frenchman said that Lewis was struggling and that they had some work to do to be fighting at the top.
The Mercedes was suffering from a phenomenon that has not been seen in F1 for 40 years.
This is a type of bouncing caused by an aerodynamic disruption to which these cars are vulnerable.
Back in the 70s and 80s, it was commonplace to say it was a word from the past. It was a surprise to all the teams that no one in an engineering position was around back then.
Adrian Newey, Red Bull's chief technical officer, was just starting his career when the last ground-effect era came to an end.
Is it a coincidence that Red Bull is on top of the phenomenon? The final upgrade was introduced on the last day of testing, but they didn't experience it at all.
Mercedes claims that the gps speed traces to which all teams have access backs up their claims. Their main time loss was in the corners, which is contrary to the suggestion from Ferrari that their apparent lack of pace was caused by them using their engine in a lower power mode.
The car was good in slow corners, but not great on the straights. The Red Bull was strong.
Verstappen is the favourite. The Dutchman is a force of nature. Even if his aggressive racing tactics are not appreciated by everyone, he is a talent worthy of the title of world champion regardless.
Verstappen will take a break if the Red Bull is good. The championship will likely be decided by who can add the most pace to their car over the season, while staying within the budget cap, which was lowered this year by $5m.
A true picture of the shape of the season will only begin to be formed after a few races, according to an old cliche in F1, but no less true for that.
The changes Brawn has overseen will work. The field spread seems to have been reduced, and some positive signs about the cars need to be treated with caution.
A number of drivers said during testing that it appeared to be easier to follow more closely, in that the amount of grip they lost seemed to be reduced.
Thetow effect, a speed gain created when close behind a car because of a hole in the air it creates, had been reduced, and some said the one might cancel out the other.
There is a question about the tires. The tyres have been prone to overheating since they became sole supplier in 2011. Drivers have had to drive within themselves a lot to keep the rubber within the required temperature threshold.
Racing was difficult because drivers were usually well under the limit, and if a driver tried to overtake, the tyres would quickly heat up.
The rule changes of this year include the introduction of bigger wheels and lower-profile tires, as well as the change of the tyre design to make them more robust, so drivers could push closer to the limit and race harder. There is not much point in creating more raceable cars if the tires turn into something.
There are conflicting messages as to whether this has been a success. In one news conference this winter, Lance Stroll of Aston Martin said the tyres were the same as before, but Carlos Sainz of Ferrari said he was more optimistic about the tyres.
The sport's two most successful active drivers had their say. Four-time champion Sebastian Vettel pointed out that heavier cars meant that the challenge to Pirelli had increased, and that they needed to wait and see.
The tyres are worse this year, Hamilton said. I hope we can get some better tyres at some point, or maybe they work better in places not so hot.
F1 did a great job of staging two full seasons in the midst of the Pandemic. The threat of Covid-19 seems to have waned, and it has ambitions to host its longest-ever season of 23 races, crammed into a month's less time than the 22 events of 2021.
The season ends in November so that it doesn't clash with the World Cup.
The Russian Grand Prix was canceled because of the invasion of Ukraine, but F1 wants to replace it. Changes have been made to the weekend structure in order to hold so many races in such a short time.
The F1 weekends should be cut from four days to three. The news conferences are on Friday morning before the later start to practice, so the media day is the first casualty. Everyone will have a long day on Friday before the competition starts on Saturday.
Attempts to double the number of events to six foundered on a row over money, so there will be three of those again.
The rules are the big test. Will this new era be better and brighter than before?
It has a lot to live up to after one of the greatest seasons in history.
The grand experiment will be answered on Sunday by Bahrain.
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