Now...where was I?

Justin:

Two rounds gone, two wins for Mercedes. It seems the rumours were bang on the money before the season started. Mercedes have gotten themselves a huge gap and the title race will seemingly be fought between Nico and Lewis.

F1 2014
Is a new beast. It is an engine formula now, with aerodynamics taking a backseat. Mercedes have the best engine by far, hence even if the Red Bull is the fastest car in certain corners and is more aerodynamically efficient etc, the Mercedes engine still has more grunt. With horsepower to spare and the Renault engines having serious reliability issues, I find it difficult to see where another winner will come from at least until we get back to Europe or a wet race before then.

Ferrari
Pains me to say it, but the Ferrari does not look that fast. Alonso pretty much started 4th and finished 4th in both races, making no notable superfast overtakes aside from on Hulkenberg at the end of Malaysia (Hulk's tyres were shot to pieces). It's easier to make a fast car reliable, than to make a reliable car fast. The Ferrari is reliable, but looks to be the third fastest car behind Mercedes and Red Bull...at best.

Domination - Nico vs Lewis
It's early days, but you'd be silly not to put fair cash on either of the Mercedes drivers being champion in 2014. At least there are two people dominating right now, as opposed to just Vettel in the second half of 2013 - though I must say the Malaysian race was pretty boring!!

I am still going with my instinct and sticking with Nico for the title. People are saying Hamilton thrashed him at Sepang and that Nico wouldnt have won had Lewis not retired in Oz. Well, the latter we'll never know. The former - Nico seemed happy enough with second in Sepang. Just like JB accepted when he was at McLaren with Lewis, there will be days when Lewis absolutely knocks you out of the park. It's what you do on the days he doesnt that matters. Over a season, I think it's going to be a very close run thing between these two.

Felipe - Valtteri is faster than you
I sympathise with Massa here. Surely Williams will understand where he was coming from on ignoring team orders.

Hulkenberg
How has this guy not go a top drive? He was awesome in Malaysia.

New sound
I still miss the V8 roar, especially when they are on the grid starting the race. But, you can hear the fans cheering, the tyres screeching and the engine sound is quite different engine to engine and it's nice and deep...rich.

Next round....Bahrain. Let's hope Mark Webber avoids Nigel Mansell impressions in future.

3 minutes 10...hehehe

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/26798524

Schumi and Senna
No news on Schumi unfortunately.

It's 20 years in May since the passing of the great Aryton Senna. Two giants of the sport.

Here is a very cool twenty year anniversary edition of Senna's helmet, designed by the son of the guy who used to design Senna's helmets.

Kimi - A one stop strategy before the race ;-)

Justin:

Starting from where we left off in 2012 seems to be the main theme for Round 1 in Australia.

The three men on the podium were the top three in the title race last year and I would possibly put Kimi alongside Seb and Fernando in terms of real title contenders for 2013.

Of course, it's just one race and it's a quite particular street circuit in Albert Park. Malaysia has a lot of rather different characteristics as a track with fast, sweeping corners which may mean we'll see other cars coming to the front.

By way of a two stop strategy, and a one stop strategy before the race.... Kimi beat Fernando by over ten seconds in the end, with Vettel a further ten seconds down the road in third.

There was some great racing, nail biting stuff in the early stages with Vettel being hustled by the two very quick Ferrari's.

Mclaren are absolutely nowhere and Lewis must be loving his move to Mercedes, where he finished a solid if unspectacular fifth.

Sergio Perez's debut in his new team was frankly not good enough. Ok, its a difficult car, with JB struggling to ninth. But as we all know in F1 you must beat your team-mate first and foremost. I almost forgot Perez was in the race at all to be perfectly honest.

Mark Webber had a rubbish start yet again, from second on the grid. We learned later that he had an electronics fault AND no kers...does this guy get any good luck at all, ever?! Great recovery drive to sixth.

Adrian Sutil should get a mention - he led the race after a year out and didnt look out of place amongst the front runners at all. He faded due to differing strategies, but still finished a well earned seventh.

Good to see Massa is still keeping Alonso very honest, as he did in the last handful of races last year.

Alonso said the pace of the Lotus was a worry. Keeping things in perspective though, Ferrari have turned up with a very fast car. This time last year theirs was an absolute dog.

It seems Mclaren has brought the ugly duckling along this year.

Pecking order looks like Ferrari and Red Bull (RB may have better one lap pace but they seem to ruin their tyres in the race), Lotus then a small gap to Mercedes. Mclaren have fallen back and need to sort themselves out quickly.

To Malaysia in one week!

This isn't the Kimi we know - he usually drinks all the booze :-)

The greatest grand prix

Phil: I Was Having a Blog... can exclusively reveal the greatest grand prix ever, in the opinion of today's crop of F1 drivers.

Before each race, the BBC have been asking one driver to name his five favourite grands prix, one of which will then be broadcast on iPlayer. Some have gone for great races of the past, others for personal triumphs of their own. Adding up their votes gives us today's grand prix drivers' favourite race of all time.

Our slightly misshapen podium of races is as follows.

3=. France 1979 (4 votes). Something of a landmark for many reasons. Won by Jean-Pierre Jabouille (who?) in a Renault, victory at the French grand prix went to a French driver in a French car on French tyres. It was also the first time a grand prix had been won by a turbocharged car. But the reason it scored so highly was Jabouille's teammate Rene Arnoux's battle for second place with Gilles Villeneuve. Put it this way, these days the stewards would have sent them both to the naughty corner.

3=. Japan 1989 (4 votes). Alessandro Nannini's only career victory, but again that's probably not why most drivers chose it. The second last race of the 1980s was the absolute apex of the rivalry between Prost and Senna. Some say Senna went for a gap that wasn't there. Others say Prost turned in on him. The stewards followed Prost's point of view and disqualified Senna, who had rejoined the race after the inevitable collision, making Nannini race winner and Prost world champion.

3=. Belgium 2000 (4 votes). Schumacher always says his greatest rival was Mika Hakkinen, and this race features what's been called the greatest overtake ever, by Hakkinen on Schumacher with Ricardo Zonta as the meat in the sandwich. Interestingly, one of the drivers who voted for this race was none other than Michael Schumacher. He does have a heart, after all.

2. Brazil 2008 (6 votes). Surely the only time the world championship has been decided on the last lap on the last race, and surely the only time it ever will be, either. Felipe Massa had to win to be world champion. Lewis Hamilton only had to be fifth. On the last lap, with Massa in the lead and Hamilton sixth, it began to rain. Massa crossed the line, thinking he was world champion. But at the second last corner Hamilton, on intermediate tyres, passed Timo Glock on slicks to take fifth place, and the world championship.

1. Europe 1993 (7 votes). Murray Walker calls it, 'the greatest lap ever driven, by anybody', and he should know - he's watched enough. Senna's first lap in the wet at Donington Park, overtaking Prost, Schumacher, Damon Hill and Karl Wendlinger - fifth to first in one lap - made them all look like schoolboys. Watching it again, if you didn't know what was going to happen, you wouldn't think it was possible. Who said it was a stupid idea to have a race in England in March?

So Senna gets to spray champagne down the back of Massa's and Hakkinen's overalls (I don't think they'd mind) and we get to listen to the European national anthem (Beethoven's Ode to Joy, in case you were wondering). Interestingly this contest also had a nail-biting climax, with the last two on 6 votes each going into the final round, before Jenson Button cast the deciding vote.

Calm down, dear

Phil: I think we need to have a chat about the Red Bull team orders thing.

In my view it really ought not to be the headline: the headline should be Ferrari's first win since last autumn. Mark Webber having been told not to attempt to overtake his teammate for second place on the last lap of the race was slightly disappointing, as we missed out on what might have been an exciting last lap, but no more than that. Mark is right to try to overtake, he's right to ignore the team the first time, but I think that Red Bull were also right to try to stop him.

I really don't think anyone can condemn Red Bull yesterday and condone Ferrari at Hockenheim last year, for the following reasons.

1. Team orders were illegal then. They are legal now.
2. Massa was told to give up a position to his teammate. Webber was told not to overtake his teammate.
3. The Ferrari incident decided the win. The Red Bull incident decided second place.

Finally, and I don't think it's relevant to the comparison between the two incidents, but Vettel is dominating Webber every bit as much as, and probably more than, Alonso was dominating Massa. That's not a criticism of Webber, because Vettel is in a class of his own: as Martin Brundle said, he's becoming the benchmark, as Schumacher one was. It's almost inconceivable now that Vettel does not retain his world title. He's 80 points ahead of his teammate, and 92 points ahead of his next nearest rival (Alonso). If the ten remaining races this season finished with exactly the same result (Alonso first, Vettel second), he would still beat Alonso by 12 points.

And he's 0.4s faster than the Stig.

Can we put this one to bed now?

Two photos

That's how good this season is. The other wall, incidentally, is at Estoril, 1986. Funny how Hamilton looks just as unhappy to be sitting next to Alonso as Senna looked unhappy to be sitting next to Prost...anyway, I digress.

I agree completely with my co-blogger about Massa's reduced circumstances. As my co-blogger rightly points out, two years ago he was one corner away from the world championship. My concern is that he might now become one of Formula 1's nearly men: a talent somehow reduced by a life-threatening crash (Herbert, Panis) or simply outshone by a faster teammate (Barrichello, Berger, Coulthard).

Finally, another statistic. Red Bull have taken 12 pole positions this year. The only other teams to have beaten that record are McLaren (1988 and 1989) and Williams (1992 and 1993) (on the other four occasions, the team took a whopping 15 poles, ie every race but one). McLaren and Williams walked it in 1988-9 and 1992-3 respectively. With that pace, Red Bull ought to have done the same this year. The viewing public's great fortune is that they haven't.

The wrong order

Phil: Had to blog, to get something out of my system.

I was astonished to find myself actually agreeing with Eddie Jordan after today's race when he described the result - or, rather, the Ferrari team order that engineered the result - as repugnant.

Here's why I found myself booing the telly this afternoon as Alonso passed his teammate. Firstly, since Ferrari's similar exercise ensuring Schumacher scored more points than Barrichello in Austria in 2002, team orders have been illegal. Whether you say, 'your teammate is faster than you, let him through', or, 'your teammate is faster than you, do you understand?' it's still a team order. Nobody is seriously suggesting that Felipe's foot accidentally slipped off the throttle or that he allowed his teammate through on his own initiative.

Secondly, it was completely unnecessary. Apart from Alonso himself very few people give him a realistic chance of being champion this year. Even my co-blogger doesn't think so. Today's 25 points still leave him no higher than fifth in the title race, 34 points behind the championship leader Lewis Hamilton. The whole exercise was pointless.

Thirdly, today is the anniversary of Massa's accident in Hungary last year, which almost killed him. What better way to prove the doubters who thought he would never regain the form he had in 2008 than with a victory today?

Fourthly, Ferrari took their first 1-2 finish since the first race of the season today. How pleased did they look on the podium? Massa was understandably sullen, Alonso embarassed and Stefano Domenicali who collected the team 'honours' tried his best to put a brave face on the whole thing. Contrast that with Red Bull's effort after their 1-2 at Monaco which saw both drivers and most of the team in the swimming pool on the team's boat. The atmosphere today reminded me more of a race where a driver has crashed and been and helicoptered to hospital, and nobody knows how he is, and they don't feel like celebrating.

Hopefully the stewards will investigate this incident after the race. But they had plenty of opportunity to do so during the race, and didn't.

Almost forgot to give it a title!

Phil: Welcome to the Grand Prix They Couldn't Think of a Half Decent Name For, sometimes known as Valencia, Europe, or even the other Spanish Grand Prix. Which brings me straight to my point: how much will the home team be worth to Alonso? I'm guessing my co-blogger blogged before quali (he likes nothing better than a nice log blog in the morning), as Ferrari's new double diffuser put Alonso and Massa 'only' fourth and fifth on the grid respectively, behind Vettel, Webber and Hamilton.

Further down the grid, both Renaults and both Williams have outqualified both Mercedes, with Rosberg a disappointing 12th and Schumacher a hopeless 15th (but then I probably over-indulged in Schumi-bashing in Canada, so am going to leave him alone this time, unless he makes me do something). If a move by Kubica from Renault to Mercedes was on the cards before today, he should think very carefully before taking the offer up, particularly as he is clearly undisputed team leader at Renault, and would have a serious rival in Rosberg at Mercedes. But I don't think it's anything more than idle speculation.

Finally, I really think Jacques Villeneuve ought to be 110% exploring the limits of comedy facial hair, fannying about on the guitar and even having another crack at Le Mans before he explores even 1% of getting back in an F1 car.

Tyre degradation is more interesting than you think

Phil: Well, I managed to avoid the news between the race on Sunday evening and my finally managing to watch it on iPlayer on Tuesday evening, so the result was a surprise. And a very pleasant surprise: I have to say I enjoyed watching this race probably more than any other so far this season (with the exception of Monaco, naturally, when I was joined by my co-blogger). I'd forgotten what a great and challenging track the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve is.

In the first 15 laps we had enough excitement for several races: Hamilton and Alonso going wheel-to-wheel in the pitlane, a visit to the Wall of Champions, Schumacher taking to the grass, Massa and Liuzzi colliding no less than three times in the first corner, Kovalainen in the Lotus running as high as seventh, and even a dash of overtaking. No less than five drivers led the race: Hamilton, Vettel, Webber, Alonso, and, for the first time in his career, Sebastian Buemi. The Red Bulls, who started on the hard tyres, fought a race-long battle with Alonso and the McLarens, who started on the soft tyres, and Alonso fought his own battle with Hamilton, starting with the nail-bating pitlane moment I've already referred to. I'd agree with my co-blogger's synopsis, however, that on balance the five drivers who lead the championship - Hamilton, Alonso, Button, Webber and Vettel - were the only ones likely to win this race, and I agree that one of them will be world champion. Which one is that this stage anyone's guess, as all of them, except I think Vettel, have at one stage led the title charge. When was the last time we had a five-horse race for the title?

Montreal is a track that's so challenging for the drivers that it perhaps wouldn't be fair to name a Skiver of the Day, not even one of the many who nominated themselves by picking up a penalty or two for pitlane speeding or some other dodgy driving misdemeanour. Except that there is a very obvious candidate, and he is the most succesful driver in the history of the sport. Martin Brundle called this the worst race of Schumacher's career. It's not clear whether this means his post-comeback career, or his career since 1991, but the latter wouldn't be unfair. Scrapping with Kubica after his first pitstop was messy, particularly cutting across the grass to avoid conceding the place, but probably just about within the rules. Shunting his former protégé Massa and breaking his front wing in an effort to retain a place his pace didn't really justify was unsportsmanlike. Giving away his points on the last lap but letting both Sutil and Liuzzi pass him was just plain crap. If only he'd stuck to passing Alonso behind the safety car at Monaco - at least that was classic Schumacher rule-bending. This looked like plain incompetence. If you saw this race, and only this race, you would never believe he had been world champion seven times. Hopefully preparing for next year means asking Top Gear if he can go back to being The Stig.

Normally I agree with almost everything my co-blogger writes, and given the depth of his knowledge about Formula 1 there's every reason to, but I have to disagree with his point about Jacques Villeneuve's rumoured comeback. Schumacher's comeback has shown every semi-retired Formula 1 driver how hard it is, and I would suggest has given the likes of Villeneuve plenty of food for thought. Could we really expect Villeneuve to do better, given that he has been away much longer, and arguably reached his peak longer ago than Schumacher? Kimi Raikkonen, who has been linked to a seat at Renault next season, should be thinking along the same lines, although I think his future now lies in rallying.

They don't call me 'Phil Space' for nothing

Phil: Come to think of it, they don't call me Phil Space at all. The title of my co-blogger's most recent post reminds me very much of the BBC's pre-race coverage, minus the annoying bleeping countdown thing and the annoying Eddie Jordan thing.

I have to say also that I agree entirely with him about the possibility of Ferrari, or anyone else, running a third car. Ferrari have long had the ear of F1's senior management (Max and Bernie), and presumably all the more so since 'their' man, Jean Todt, is now at the helm, but I think they're mistaken if they think they can prevail on the rulemakers to allow third cars: economies of scale notwithstanding, it goes completely against the grain of making F1 more accessible to small teams (opening the grid to new teams, awarding points down to tenth place, etc). Presumably, everyone at Ferrari knows this, and flirting with Rossi is a way of reminding Massa he needs Ferrari more than they need him.

Michelin might be back! Does anyone know any jokes about the 2005 US Grand Prix?

Still no idea what happened at Shanghai

Phil: My house is still under a cloud of volcanic murk, or something like that, which no television signals can yet penetrate, so I've still not seen last weekend's race. I did read this morning, though, that Luca di Montezemolo is convinced that Valentino Rossi has nothing left to prove in Moto GP and that his next logical career step is Formula 1, at the wheel of a Ferrari, naturally. That's on the assumption that di Montezemolo can persuade the FIA to let him run a three-car team in the future, which, given the current cost-cutting moves, doesn't really seem feasible. He's also alluded to potential friction between his other two drivers, observing that Alonso and Massa both know that, 'they drive for Ferrari, not for themselves'!

The German renaissance

Phil: I'm going to leave Alonso's penultimate lap engine blowout to my co-blogger, as I know it's a subject dear to his heart. Instead I'm going to congratulate Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber and Red Bull on their 1-2 at Sepang. The title race is tight, very tight, as I'll explain, but if Adrian Newey's car can give Vettel reliability as well as speed, I think he has to be the favourite.

Alonso's early exit means that he has had to concede the lead of the world title chase to his teammate Felipe Massa, who now leads with 39 points. Alonso and Vettel follow on 37 points, then Button and Rosberg on 35 points. Four points separate the top five drivers. What's more, the new points system was designed to ensure drivers have to win races to win the title. Three drivers have won the first three races of this season, but the man at the head of the title race isn't one of them. Consistency is still the most important thing where the world title is concerned.

Something else that's noteworthy. A quarter of the field, or four of the top 10 in the drivers' title chase, are German. When Michael Schumacher drove his first race in 1991 he was the only one. Sebastian Vettel, born in 1987, was only four years old at the time. My point is that he, Rosberg, Sutil and the rest are the Schumacher generation: the young German kids who grew up with him as a motor racing role model (those of us with slightly longer memories realise that he might not be altogether the best role model for an aspiring young driver to have).

All that remains is for me to name my Skiver of the Day, which dubious honour today goes to BBC1, for shunting the coverage to BBC2 mid-race to make way for some God-bothering. Aren't Sundays sacred any more?

Can Webber deliver?

Phil: To set the record straight, I'm not sure we've ever said Webber looks good. We've said he's an underrated talent, a talent as yet unrewarded with significant results, but never that he looks good. Well, he doesn't do it for me anyway.

I really don't know what went wrong with Hamilton, Alonso and Massa today. After last year's washout at Sepang, McLaren and Ferrari must have been aware of the possibility of a wet qualifying session. That they didn't take the opportunity to get a lap in at the beginning of Q1 before the rain started properly like everyone else, except Lucas di Grassi whose Virgin was in bits, shows at best blissful ignorance and at worst supreme arrogance. The effective demise of both McLarens and both Ferraris meant that Kovalainen could put the Lotus as high as 15th, ahead of three of the four world champions on the grid. Regrettably, I found myself agreeing with Eddie Jordan that the big cheeses could and should have done much better.

Speaking of which, perhaps Eddie will find himself a shirt that's better suited to the tropical climate tomorrow. It's lucky we weren't watching in smellyvision.

Seriously, for a minute, well done to Red Bull on their third consecutive pole - let's see if they can convert it into a race win tomorrow. A pat on the back also to Nico Hulkenberg, or Hülkenberg to any fellow Germanists, who qualified fifth in only his third grand prix.

A grid as scrambled as this one promises an exciting race tomorrow and further rain will only serve to spice things up. Can the big boys cut through the field fast enough to influence the result? Can the Red Bulls capitalise on their advantage? How will the rain and the possibility of a safety car affect tyres and strategies? Might we see a maiden win for Rosberg, or even Sutil? Set your alarm clocks for 9am tomorrow to find out.