Looking out of the window while writing this, it's a beautiful, white, snow-laden morning. The schools are shut, the roads are chaos, but what else do you expect from the UK after a couple of inches of snow?

But while the kids love a day off school, it's not what the British-based Formula 1 teams need two weeks before the trucks have to head off to Barcelona for the first pre-season test, which starts on February 18.