Mclaren head to China after another positive race at Melbourne confirmed a number of their hopes and fears for the year.

Before the season began you would’ve been considered a fool to say that after two races Ferrari would not have appeared on the podium while both Mclaren drivers had made appearances up there.

Having been quick but hardly rapid at the tight, twisty Albert Park season opener, the team excelled at the quicker Sepang, falling just one tenth off from pole and three seconds away from a win. If Nick Heidfeld didn’t have a lightening-fast start and a point to prove, then you sense either driver could’ve pushed Sebastian Vettel all the way for the win.

However, Malaysia proved other preconceptions from before the season to be true. Lewis Hamilton’s role as a tyre destroyer again showed, ultimatley transferring an easy second into a penalty-hit eighth with a total tumble down the field. However one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, with Jenson Button reliably pushing Vettel a lot harder than he pushed his Pirelli tyres.

While the cooler Chinese temperatures are expected to make tyre wear much better this weekend, Hamilton’s title challenge will be over before it has begun if he continually needs to be taking an extra pitstop more than the two men who currently look like his title contenders.

“If Hamilton can add to his 18 F1 poles then it will make it a great deal easier to add to his 14 wins – while Button you sense will have to use all his guile and sense as Pirelli continue to entertain.”

So what is in written on the fortune cookie for Mclaren at Shanghai? Encouragingly both Hamilton and Button have taken a win here (2008 and 2010 respectively), though you could be forgiven for forgetting that Hamilton’s most swashbuckling display around the arena ended up in the pitlane gravel trap, when the title was seemingly on a plate for him in 2007.

Regardless of the interchangeable weather conditions and poor team strategy, ultimately it was tyre wear that gave up the ghost on that occasion.

The team’s objectives will simply be to repeat what they’ve done this season. If Hamilton and Vettel’s duels in qualifying can remain this electric then the teams will never need to charge their KERS systems again; while the young German has breezed to two easy wins this season, he has done so through leading from the first corner. If Hamilton can add to his 18 F1 poles then it will make it a great deal easier to add to his 14 wins – while Button you sense will have to use all his guile and sense as Pirelli continue to entertain.

And if the team can hold off a surpisingly quick Renault and an unexpectedly slow Ferrari, then you sense their title challenge can really get off the ground this weekend.

My verdict? Hamilton to end up on the top step of the podium. However I’m not yet confident enough to shout this from the top of the hills – call it more of a Chinese whisper.

The Chinese Grand Prix takes place on the 15th, 16th and 17th April. For all of the build-up, latest news and reaction stay right here on Formula 1 FanCast.

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