The No. 1 will be missing from the Formula 1 grid this season, Lewis Hamilton having opted against taking up his right to have that emblazoned on his car.
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Instead, the 44 with which he first made his name in karting will be etched onto the nose of his new Mercedes at the upcoming Australian Grand Prix weekend.
The defending champion says the No1 is “irrelevant”, a telling insight into his psyche going into the season. His mentality is that 2014 – for all its personal highs – has been laid to rest but also there is the sense that, regardless of last year’s result, he still has equal billing with teammate Nico Rosberg.
It would take a change of absolutely monumental proportions for this season to be anything other than another straight head to head between Mercedes’ top two.
Rosberg described testing as a “great winter for us” while ominously for the chasing pack Hamilton added that “the preparation and steps we have taken this year are even better than last year”.
On winter testing form alone, there is little to choose between the pair. Rosberg was the quickest of all the drivers in the winter with a lap time of 1 minute 22.792 seconds on the second day of the final test at the Circuit de Catalunya.
That the time was two-and-a-half seconds quicker than last year is telling of the advancements already made since the introduction of the V6 hybrid engines for last season.
But, in truth, it was neither really here nor there whether Hamilton or Rosberg clocked the quickest lap of the 12 days of testing, with differing game plans by the team from one day to the next.
However, what was telling was that Rosberg completed the larger number of laps of the pair over the winter, a psychological boost as they get ready to duel in Melbourne.
That this season has all the hallmarks of another Hamilton v Rosberg should not turn off the fans. In fact, it should be anything but dull with two pals whose friendship fissured during the course of the season expected to go through the roller coaster soap opera that is F1 once more.
There are those that believe that Rosberg’s best chance of the title has been and gone, that Hamilton will only get better having been embedded into the team for another season. But that is to underestimate the German’s qualifying pace and ability not to be overawed by having probably the quickest driver in the sport on the other side of the garage.
Allied to that is the fact Mercedes will once more let their racers race, an easy thing to do in truth if they are going to be as out front as anticipated. As executive director Toto Wolff said in Barcelona: “It’s going to be challenging this year.”
To get a true benchmark of where everyone stands is not always exact but the general synopsis is that Mercedes are nearly a second quicker per lap than anyone else and that Williams and Ferrari are the best of the rest.
Red Bull are just a modicum further back but it’s worth noting that a year ago they were nowhere to be seen yet ended up being Mercedes’ nearest challengers thanks to the trio of race wins by Daniel Ricciardo.
How Ricciardo would dearly love to get into the mix with that title scrap but, in his heart of hearts, he knows it will be Hamilton v Rosberg.
It is a rivalry to be applauded, a rivalry that is potentially just beginning to blossom and one that having reached boiling point at times last season has the chance to be as captivating as F1’s last great team head-to-head between Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna.
That that rivalry should have come with McLaren-Honda is somewhat befitting, with the Japanese manufacturer having returned to the sport for this season as McLaren’s engine supplier.
The so-called “match made in heaven” has, in truth, looked more hellbound than anything else with McLaren probably having the worst winter testing programme of any team, caused by a seemingly domino effect of problems.
The last pairing of McLaren and Honda came into being for the 1988 season when Prost and Senna won 15 of the 16 grands prix. Ron Dennis has made no secret of his desire to win races but that is unlikely to happen in 2015.
Jenson Button himself admitted: “There’s a long way to go to hone the car to the way I want it. Mercedes are very quick and we’re a long way off.”
For all the problems, the potential is obviously good and the idea of Fernando Alonso returning to the team indicates he has seen enough there to believe McLaren can be the next dominant force in F1 when Mercedes’ time at the top is done.
And what of Alonso’s former team Ferrari, at the start of their own new bright era with new team boss Maurizio Arrivabene and Sebastian Vettel having switched from Red Bull to Ferrari?
There appears to be a less chaotic nature to the team than in previous seasons although Ferrari know that realistically they cannot be properly competitive at the very front unless they sort out their qualifying issues. Their last pole dates back to the 2012 German Grand Prix.
Of other changes, there is the re-emergence of the Mexican Grand Prix for the first time since 1992, the last season of that previous McLaren-Honda partnership.
Quite what the state of the grid will be come race 18 of the season is another matter. Manor Marussia, Force India, Lotus and Sauber have made no secret of the fact they are not exactly cash-rich currently.
Whoever remains on the grid, it will either be Hamilton or Rosberg at the top of the pile. Hamilton may not have raced for over 100 days but few would bet against him to make it title number three.
