Motorsport: Brazil. Land of Senna, the samba, and the caipirinha, a vicious mixture of cane liquor, sugar and crushed limes that has seen more than one Formula One hack join a snaking conga line to detox over the years. This year, however, we may be deflected from that previosly inexorably swaying course.
For this year the prospect of drowning one's sorrows in a seedy Paulistan bar as yet another season spirals into a set pattern of Ferrari domination is not looming large on the horizon. This year Ferrari has had its worst start to a season for five years.
We've had the arrival of the youngest ever pole winner, a maiden victory for future champion Kimi Raikkonen and a race-wrecking blunder from an under-pressure Michael Schumacher. We've had something to talk about - upsets, intrigue and, whisper it: overtaking!
And so, as we this morning prepare to board a plane for Sao Paulo, we're not thinking about evenings spent weeping into potentially lethal cocktails as Michael Schumacher single-handedly destroys the careers of 200 journalists. We're thinking about tyres and quietly praying that Michelin gets it right again this weekend.
In a sport dominated by glamour - and to employ a highly politically incorrect metaphor - tyres are like the ugly friend at a party. You don't want to, but you know you're going to have to deal with her if you want to get to her good looking friend. They're not sexy, they're not much fun but they're a major factor in a race-winnning equation. And this weekend they'll be all important.
Michelin has dominated the first two races of this season, taking five of six available podium places. But it's a domination based on events skewed in its favour. In Australia, weather and quick thinking by McLaren played into the French manufacturer's hands. In Malaysia, it was history. The company was superbly fettled there in 2002 and continued success was simply a case of "more of the same, please."
Brazil is a different story, though a quick glance at the stats appears to indicate otherwise. In 2002 , Juan Pablo Montoya was the fastest man and polesitter and the year before Ralf Schumacher had the fastest lap of the race - on French rubber. But those statistics mask the fact that the Michelins of those years were wildly inconsistent. Blisteringly quick from new but blistering badly after a handful of laps and lagging desperately until they began to wear slick, when they came back into play.
Bridgestone, by contrast, can claim three wins in three years and it's this track record that could push Michael Schumacher back into this championship with a vengeance.
Cue Bridgestone's director of motorsport, Hiroshi Yasukawa: "Michael (Schumacher) won on Bridgestone tyres in Brazil last year and we are quietly confident that our tyres will give our teams the performance they need to put them on the podium next weekend."
Ominous words, but if there is heart to be taken it's from the words of Bridgestone technical director Hisao Suganuma who admitted that the compounds used in these first three flyaway race vary little.
Against those compounds, Michelin, who has this year balanced tremendous qualifying performance with the consistency required for race distance, has prevailed. An impressive-looking McLaren and a circuit on which Williams have been the pace in recent years will give the French company, and the denizens of the media centre, hope.
If, after Interlagos, Formula One travels back to Europe and Imola with Ferrari still slumping then maybe, just maybe we can put off diving headlong into the grappa as well as laying off the caipirinhas. A sober journalist is a rare sight, only occasionally seen in the wild. The preservation of this species, so endangered over recent seasons, is in the hands of Michelin boss Pierre Duspasquier. Tyres: they may not be sexy, but they can save live(r)s.