It’s been a long time coming, but the first Grand Prix of the 2009 season is almost upon us.

This is the first race in an awfully long time where I won’t be automatically supporting David Coulthard following his retirement at the end of last season.

It begs the question as to who I should follow this time round - or in fact is it really necessary to follow anyone in particular?

The main focus of attention after the Canadian GP was on Lewis Hamilton, which is a bit of a shame as it should really have centred on the men on the podium.

Nick Heidfeld did admirably well to manage a second place for BMW, but even he was in the shadow of his teammate Robert Kubica who managed to pull the German manufacturer’s maiden GP win out of the bag.

As if that wasn’t enough, David Coulthard managed to put his dismal start to the season behind him long enough to take the third spot on the podium - a well deserved return to form in my book.

There’s no denying it, at 37 years of age David Coulthard’s best days are behind him.  Despite many other drivers carrying on well past this age, it would appear that F1 is a young man’s game now and DC will be bumped out of the picture probably sooner rather than later.

It’s unfortunate in my eyes as I think he still has a lot to offer Red Bull, or any other team.  It’s debatable, but I think had he been in a Ferrari during the first couple of races this year he would have given Kimi Raikkonen a much harder time of it than Felipe Massa managed to do.

Imagine someone asks you to draw a racing car, just gives you a blank piece of paper and a pencil - what would be the first thing you’d draw?

Me, I’d probably start at the nose and do a nice sweeping line back then a little dip to symbolise the cockpit (they have raised sides now, but I’m kinda old fashioned!), before rising up to the airbox and then sloping back down over the engine cover to the rear wing.  That wing would be next before adding in the wheels and a line along the floor of the car.

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.