Melbourne gave us all food for thought, but I make no apology for returning to the McLaren MP4-12C. It puts the entire McLaren operation on a different footing and though it is not a racing car, it will play a significant part in the future of McLaren, the Formula One team.

It turns out that I was right a while back. Norbert Haug has confirmed what I had suspected, there was a rift over McLaren's production car ambitions.

This could explain a few things from the past, like the suspension of the F1 supercar with its BMW V12 engine and the fact that Middle Eastern investors bought into McLaren as an overall entity and Mercedes-Benz seemed to be left on the sidelines.

On 17th March, McLaren held a press day in Woking to launch a new company, though you will not be able to buy an MP4-12C until next year. The press conference was brilliant, being both informative and entertaining. All the main people had a say, the car was formally unveiled, and Jenson and Lewis were on hand though they were actually only peripheral.

They put on an amusing two-hander which was reminiscent of the conversations Jackie Stewart and Graham Hill had each year as part of the BBC 'Sports Personality Of The Year' show. I cannot think of any other sport where you find such intelligence and wit.

David Beckham phones home. 'I got off the plane at Heathrow, called a cab and told the driver to take me to Victoria. I'm at a railway station.'

In my time, I have been on a few press launches, though I missed the one staged by Volkswagen to celebrate 50 years of the Beetle. That went on for five and a half hours. 'Und now ve introduce Helmut who has fastened more veel nuts on Volkswagens than any man in history. This must make you very proud, Helmut. Tell us about your life with veel nuts.'

Coincidental with the McLaren press launch was the launch of this year's Goodwood Festival of Speed, the theme of which will be Viva Veloce! It is Alfa Romeo's centenary. Some hacks, not me, were ferried between the two events by plane. McLaren has been with the Festival from the very beginning and so sent one of the mule MP4-12Cs to Goodwood.

As a mule, it was painted in matt black and bore no badging, apart from the tax disc. It was displayed alongside a McLaren F1 which, astonishingly is now 17 years old. For me, Gordon Murray's car is still the greatest supercar ever made. Forget the Bugatti Veyron, that is a design exercise and the objectives took forever to be met. Also, the Veyron is downright ugly.

Even in matt black, the new car had enormous presence. In case you are wondering about the designation. MP4 stands for McLaren plus Project 4, the latter being the name of Ronzo's team before he began the takeover of McLaren. The 'C' stands for carbon and the 12 remains a mystery.

When evolving the design, McLaren devised a system of evaluating all the performance parameters, including low emissions, and comparison to rivals. The answer is 12, but since McLaren is not revealing the rules of the game, it could mean anything.

In 'The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy', the answer to the Ultimate Question is 42. We do not know whether 42 is better than 12 or whether the McLaren system is like golf where you win with the lowest score.