Two races in and it’s hard to really assess how this season is going to pan out given that the two races have led to six different people on the podium, but already there are some clear winners and losers among the teams.

This is how I think the teams have faired in the season openers:

Ferrari :  Last year’s champions, but they are going to struggle to retain the title if they carry on as they are.  Uncharacteristic mechanical failures have resulted in a lot of the drivers’ time being spent off the track.  The drivers haven’t covered themselves in glory either, with both falling off the track in Melbourne before Massa repeated the mistake in Malaysia.

In a somewhat frank interview, Michael Schumacher has pointed the finger of blame squarely at Ferrari’s Felipe Massa over his spin at the first corner of the first race last weekend.

Claiming that Massa was in too low a gear for the corner which in turn initiated the spin, he is also quoted as saying both DC and Massa were to blame for their coming together later in the race, but places more of the blame on his ex-teammate.

You have to say that David could have been a little cleverer about it, but there is no question that Felipe was the cause.   Michael Schumacher

First of all, congratulations to Lewis Hamilton for getting his season off to the perfect start - he not only drove well to win, but was lucky enough that those thought to be his main competitors for the title all stumbled and failed to finish, although Raikkonen did eventually manage to claim a point.

However, Lewis has said a couple of things since his win which strike me as odd.  Firstly he claims this was his best ever victory - which is weird given that he was very rarely under any pressure at all from those behind him, and neither did he actually have to pass anyone.  It’s perhaps his most comfortable win, but I doubt it will live forever in the minds of his fans as being his greatest victory.

From a spectator’s point of view is Alonso joining Renault a good thing in the grand scheme of things?

It’s not an easy question to answer.

What it guarantees (hopefully, barring unforseen circumstances) is that the three best drivers are all going to be at different teams for the next year at least.

Unlike this year where Alonso and Hamilton were both at McLaren, next season will see Hamilton remain at McLaren, Alonso at Renault and Kimi at Ferrari.  Throw a BMW driver or two into the mix and perhaps a Red Bull and it sounds like it could be a good year of racing!

It seems Fernando Alonso is being backed into a corner slightly over where he will be driving next season.

Assuming there is to be no contract breaking going on, then where can he go?

There has been much speculation on this which I won’t go over again, but basically he seems to have a realistic choice between Renault and Toyota - between a team who were once great and could believably be great again, and a team who has loads of money, but are unlikely to be great anytime soon.

There is also a vacant seat at McLaren, but that’s hardly a likely option!