What a difference a week makes!

An unexepected visitor to the top step of the podium often comes as a result of a certain set of lucky circumstances - but today Vettel’s win was anything but lucky.

Okay, some would argue that had Hamilton, Raikkonen and Kubica made it through to the last segment of qualifying then there’s a chance he wouldn’t have started on pole position but the truth of the matter is that unlike some qualifying formats of old, all drivers were on the track at the same time and therefore had the same opportunities.  Vettel simply did a much better job than everyone else yesterday and that continued today in the race.

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.

Not unsurprising news today that Scott Speed has been replaced by Sebastian Vettel at Scuderia Toro Rosso.

It was surely a switch that was going to happen at the end of the season anyway, but the dramas of the last few weeks have simply hurried this process along a bit. Amid rumours that he was not going to be retained for next year, there were even wilder rumours about a physical altercation with his boss at the European Grand Prix - after his comments here Speed’s future was basically decided there and then.