Ferrari head to Suzuka as the team of the moment, with the wind firmly in their sails after back-to-back victories. Fernando Alonso has even been cocky enough to say that he has become the title favourite: whether he enjoys plain sailing or more treacherous waters totally depends on his performance at Japan.

Alonso has sprung up from fifth to second in the drivers chase with three wins from five races, taking simplistic, battling, and brilliant wins respectively. However, Lewis Hamilton has demonstrated just how vulnerable it can as the man of the moment – his cracking win at Spa has been followed up by Alonso taking a full 50 points off of him in the just two races, with the Brit running into all kinds of trouble, and carbon fibre. With five drivers clearly battling tooth-and-nail for the title, avoiding collisions with those other desperate contenders is as much of a must as ruling from the front.

With Mark Webber refusing to take the mantra of title favourite, Fernando Alonso has said that he goes into the final four races as the favourite. Logic might state that the Red Bull car that looked so invincible earlier in the season can regain the dominance it has already shown, but personally I’m inclined to agree with the Spaniard. He is driving irresistibly, and more importantly, he has a teammate ready to help. I’ve said it in my past few entries, but the driver who can’t win the title is the driver who could really shape the battle. Felipe Massa was unable to assist at Singapore because of a dodgy gearbox, but if he can muscle himself ahead of a Red Bull, it is very much advantage Alonso. While Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber have spent all season taking points off of each other, the best display that Massa can produce will be to finish second last – so long as a title competitor finishes behind him. And with McLaren still off the pace, and Hamilton once again in the wars in practice, it is realistically a three horse race – but with Alonso’s support from Massa, he is realistically the only jockey with a really four-legged stallion beneath him.

With first practice already out of the way, you could say that Red Bull look like they’re going to walk this weekend, finishing almost a second up on their nearest rivals. But I naively thought the same about the Singapore weekend – practice can be deceiving and no driver ever gives it 100% in making it to the top of the timesheets. But should Mark Webber be able to add vital points to his championship lead, we’ll have to wait and see just whose title challenge is in need of a lifejacket.

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