Look back to January this year and the first
F1 test in Jerez
, and it's nigh on unfathomable to think that teams were in turmoil over whether their cars would even be able to start a race. There were lots of people with lots of money feeling very uneasy: from Bernie to sponsors, drivers to team bosses, the outlook wasn't great.
A fine season when you think how Jerez went
Kimi Raikkonen, for example, managed to get his Ferrari F14 T out of the garage and round to turn two before it conked out, unceremoniously and embarrassingly hauled back to the paddock on a flat bed. Sebastien Vettel didn't even manage to get out of the pit lane - since when has that happened to a four-time World Champion?
True, the world doesn't revolve around Formula 1. Having said that, we've focused on it a fair bit in 2014 because, after the reliable V8s, some mechanical maladies brought on by the biggest F1 rule change since the last turbocharged era was quite big news. Oh, and Bernie's wooden spoon saw plenty of action, too.
If you somehow managed to avoid the season, it effectively came down to about 60m in the last race of a 19-strong calendar, a drag off the line and down to turn one between the two Mercs of Hamilton and Rosberg. Reliability hit both cars over the year, but Hamilton had worse luck and still managed to win more races. Crucially, including the last one after a mechanical - or rather an electronical - hit Rosberg's car.
And a Brit world champion too!
The uncertainty of the technology made the season unpredictable, and unpredictability brings with it human interest when a reliability problem crushes human emotion. It's emotion that links us to the sport, that keeps us gripped, so as it was laid on thicker and thicker throughout the year after a fiery first exchange in Bahrain - the plot unfolding like Hollywood had a hand in the script - towards the end of the season you were either in the Lewis or Nico camp.
I think 2014 has done a lot for the popularity of F1. In recent years it's only just been preferable to watching drying Dulux, but with the new tech aspect and closer racing, it's reignited many people's passion for it. They even started to show it in my local.
But even with a British World Champion crowned, it wasn't the best form of motorsport for me in 2014.
Endurance racing was back to its absorbing best
After years coasting along being carried by continuous Audi victories, endurance racing
finally delivered
. World Championship status obviously helps, but so does having three of the biggest manufacturers in the business racing head-to-head, each with a different solution to the pretty much perfectly judged rule book.
There will be four next year, potentially five the year after if rumours are to be believed - and with this a win starts to mean something, because of who or what you beat.
In LMP1-H alone, the variety of combustion engines and hybrid systems give different advantages in different places, making the racing exciting and again, importantly, unpredictable. Then there's LMP2 - a battle worth watching itself with a field so deeply laced with talent it's keeping the works LMP1 boys honest.
GTE means fans get to see their favourite road cars in race spec, and nothing looks better than a supercar rolling its arches with an ironing board rear wing.
And a Brit world champion too!
To top off a fantastic season we were served up another British World Champion. Anthony Davidson took the WEC Drivers' title with Sebastien Buemi and Toyota took the manufacturers' crown too. Audi won Le Mans and Porsche bagged a win in its first season back. Nissan's going to find it tough next year, but no doubt it'll succeed in the marketing battle with fans.
The WRC wasn't quite as close, with the terrier-like VW Polo and Sebastien Ogier dominating once more, but in isolation it still delivered some great action.
PH was out at the Monte in January and Rally GB in November. Regardless of the current spec of WRC car, the TV debacle and lack of competition, when you're stage-side nothing can prepare you for the technical innovation and driver skill required to get a 300hp supermini through a long three right crossed up in the dark. Like the N24 and Le Mans, if you're into motorsport it's something you've got to experience before you shuffle off this mortal coil.
Another stellar year for Loeb
No other championship offers multi-surface racing like rallying, so there's its Apprentice style USP right there.
While he might be a phenomenon, Sebastien Loeb also proved this year that rally drivers can pretty much drive the wheels off anything. Loeb finished third in his first season in the WTCC with Citroen, only beaten by touring car veteran Yvan Muller and 2014 champ Jose Maria Lopez who only signed up to race this time last year. Quite a result for Citroen.
Loeb bagged two wins - in between his wildcard his appearances at the odd rally next year, expect many more WTCC victories as he learns the art of front-wheel drive tin top racing that bit better. It's inevitable.
On the subject of touring cars, but looking a touch closer to home, BTCC was up to its usual tricks, with the title going down to the wire and plenty of door bashing throughout.
Don't forget the BTCC's usual thrills as well
Turkington and his BMW triumphed, with Plato taking it down to the final weekend in his MG before tangling with the eventual champion after he'd been crowned. Frustration or a genuine mistake? You decide.
In the DTM we saw one of the most unusual driver penalties ever when Bruno Spengler decided to brake test Daniel Juncadella only to be handed three hours of community service.
2014 really was a bumper year - rallycross made a come back and was elevated to World Championship status, the world's first all-electric series, Formula E, took to the track with mixed results, a 17 year-old driver got a taste of F1 and the Brabham name was bought and revived by the family in the year of Sir Jack's death.
From grassroots to the top level, if 2015 is as good as we've had it this year, we'll be in store for another fantastic 12 months of competition, engineering advances and - the most important thing of all from our perspective - entertainment. Bring it on.