In terms of drawing up a representative pecking order of general pace, this has not been particularly straightforward. Apart from the first race of the season at Bahrain where both drivers and teams were ultra conservative towards the entire race weekend, conditions have been continually variable at some point through the three previous race weekends. This has led to a brilliant spectacle come race day but not much in the way of building a representative picture of relative performance, but I for one am not going to begrudge this issue. The start of the European season at Barcelona will prove a crucial race towards judging the relative performance of teams up and down the pit lane as long as it remains a dry weekend. This is even more-so due to the track itself being used for pre-season testing so teams should not receive any surprises towards understanding set-up. It will provide a precise assessment of the state of play between the top four teams, whether Red Bull have maintained their advantage and exactly how Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes compare to the season’s pace-setting team after they have all bolted on their first major upgrade packages.

The team most aggrieved with the way things stand up to this point will undoubtedly be Red Bull despite their dominant win in Malaysia capitalising on their main rivals errors in qualifying. The team have failed to capitalise on their early season advantage in outright raw pace and it will be interesting to see whether these squandered chances for early season dominance will come back to bite them as the season develops. It has been widely emphasised that Sebastian Vettel would have two additional race victories to his name but for the unfortunate engine and mechanical woes at Bahrain and Melbourne respectively. His place in the championship needless to say would have been far stronger as a result had the first few races been less eventful for him.

Yet Red Bull may find some solace by looking across the garages to Ferrari who have had some major engine concerns to distract them in the early races and which could come back to bite them latter in the season depending on how well they are able to manage the 6 functioning engines they have left with Fernando Alonso. The state of play between the Ferrari pairing of Massa and Alonso is finely poised and could start to give their team boss Stefano Dominicali a few headaches as the season develops. The dynamic between the pair looks far more explosive than at McLaren and Red Bull where a competitive harmony has been established thus far. At Mercedes Nico Rosberg’s outstanding performances has put his illustrious teammate in the shade at the moment. But this could begin to change come Barcelona if Schumacher finds his feet in the B spec car being introduced. Ferrari’s equality policy thus far shows the respect they have for Massa which has arisen from his own impressive maturity as a driver, competitor and championship contender from 2008. However in Formula 1 there is no time for anyone to rest on their laurels. Alonso’s steely determination and focus is proving already Massa’s toughest challenge towards his success. Ultimately Ferrari have moved beyond the idea of a clear number 1 driver that was so evident to see with the Schumacher era of the early 2000s, much to Rubens Barrichello’s misfortune. The team have gone back to their more traditional roots when under the great Enzo Ferrari it was commonplace for their drivers to knock stripes off each other at all costs.

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