Justin Hynes looks over the team strategiesfor this year's World Rally Championship
Monaco is a dull old place at the best of times. Enlivened in the summer only by the arrival each May of the Formula One circus, the principality slumbers through the rest of the year, a slightly grumpy fatcat, slumped on the shores of the Mediterranean, jealously guarding its prizes and bounty.
Except for next week. Then the other motorsport circus will arrive, sliding through the icy hills above the Côte d'Azur, the first thunderous volleys in the 2005 WRC campaign.
After a curate's egg of a season last year - some outstanding moments enlivening an otherwise certain march to glory by Citroën's Sebastien Loeb - this season is being touted as one of the most open and unpredictable recent campaigns.
Most of the uncertainty lies in the driver line-ups the teams have opted for. Just four of the works factory drivers this season are over 35. Nine of the drivers has yet to contest a full season at this level. The potential is either for disaster or fiery excitement.
Perhaps the only pairing recognisable as tried and tested is that at Peugeot, where double world champion Marcus Gronholm will team up with ex-Ford driver Markko Martin. Gronholm won the title with Peugeot in 2002 and is obviously a force to be reckoned with. Martin, though, is also definitely a potential challenger for Loeb's crown. Ninth in the championship in his first season with Ford in 2002, he ratcheted up his performance to claim fifth the following year and last term climbed to third behind Subaru's Petter Solberg.
The major question mark over the pair's fortunes, though, is the commitment Peugeot can deliver, after it announced that it will be exiting the series at the end of this season.
That, too, is the doubt over the hopes of defending champion Loeb and his Belgian team-mate Francois Duval at Citroën.
Peugeot's sister company will also leave the WRC at the end of this campaign and team insiders have expressed doubt about the competitiveness of their car.
The French team was set to introduced its new C4 during 2005 but development of the world rally car based on the road-going model has been scrapped.
"For sure, using the Xsara is going to be a handicap," said Citroën Motorsport boss Guy Frequelin recently. "Using it for the complete year is not going to be so good. We have to live with it, but it's going to be hard."
That could be all the incentive Ford and Subaru need. Aiming to close the gap for the blue oval will be the all-new pairing of Finland's Toni Gardemeister and Czech Roman Kresta.
Kresta, 28, is experienced at this level, having started 20 rallies since his debut in an M-Sport-run Ford Focus WRC on the Acropolis Rally in 2001 and having driven selected events for Skoda. Ford though is also competing with a last generation car with an all new Focus RS car planned for 2006.
Subaru has chosen to blend experience with youth in the pairing of last year's championship runner-up Petter Solberg and new recruits Stephane Sarrazin and Chris Atkinson who will share the second car.
While Solberg is preparing for a fifth season with Subaru, Sarrazin is gearing up for his first full season, but if the name seems strangely familiar it is because the Frenchman has spent most of his career piloting open wheel race cars as a Formula tester who raced a single Grand Prix for Prost in Brazil in 1999, and who had a brief stint as a tester for Toyota in 2002.
The son of an amateur rally driver, he has the sport in his blood and blistering times on asphalt have led Subaru to take a gamble,though it remains to be seen how he will a fare on gravel.
Atkinson is also short on experience - he has yet to even drive a WR car and the Subaru line-up could provide fireworks. Atkinson will contest 15 rounds while Sarrazin will compete on at least eight events and is likely to be nominated as Subaru's points-scoring driver on asphalt.
Skoda, too, is blending campaign hardened Armin Schwarz with a gang of new boys who will drive the second and third cars.
Finns Janne Tuohino and Jani Paasonen will share the second Fabia WRC on gravel events, with Frenchman Alex Bengue taking the car on asphalt. while reigning German DTM touring car champion Mattias Ekstrom and Czech Jan Kopecky will share a third car.
Finally, Mitsubishi is back with last year's lead driver Gilles Panizzi and ex-Peugeot man Harri Rovanpera. After a year out in 2003, Mitsubishi had high hopes for their Lancer WRC but 2004 was a season of hard lessons and a steep learning curve.
The car looked good as the season ended though, and winter development may have given them a platform from which to at least challenge for mid-table.
There could be Irish interest too this year, with 2004 Production world champion Niall McShea apparently eyeing up a 10-rally deal with a privateer outfit. News was expected early this month but the trail has gone cold, though it's hoped the Ulsterman can make the step up.
It's hard to argue with the credentials of the Loeb/Duval partnership. Both are exciting and hungry and have a championship-winning machine under them, though the development of that is in question. Gronholm and Martin too are a dangerous partnership and the Estonian in particular looks a good prospect.
Ford appears to be a team in transition, as does Mitsubishi and Skoda's line-up appears too varied for consistency. Subaru and Solberg remain the main threat to the French teams. But if bets were being placed, few would wager against Loeb, though Martin would be a good outside shot.