Six races down the Formula One lane, this is what the championship table has to say. Rather tight isn’t it? Any Formula One buff worth his salt will not venture forth with predictions about who will get to take home the driver’s championship, but what has happened this year is worth closely monitoring. With the decision to remove traction-control systems from the cars with effect from this season, the scales have been tipped more towards driver skills rather than machine capability, which was what F1 was mostly centered around, in the past. The other significant change, although a year old, is the uniform set of tires for all cars. Michelin and Bridgestone were the two tyre manufactures who supplied for rival teams, and apart from the cars and the drivers, races used to won and lost by the rubber on the cars. Some tracks favored Michelin better will Bridgestone reigned supreme on other tracks, often taking the focus off the driving skills of the drivers themselves. Now, all cars run on Bridgestone, so it is one factor less that can turn things upside down. However, drivers accustomed to Michelin were crying hoarse last year, saying that they had difficulity adapting to the new rubber, but it has now settled down.

Here’s my analysis of each of the top five drivers and their cars:-

Driver: Lewis Hamilton
Team: McLaren Mercedes
Races: 6
Wins: 2

Last year’s rookie turned hero. The first black driver to race in Formula One, he made a sensational debut last year, with his first eight races yielding podium positions (finishing in the top three). He was so successful that he managed to almost completely upstage his senior and fellow driver at McLaren, two time world champion Fernando Alonso. He made a rash of mistakes towards the closing stages of the championship to end up losing the championship by one single point. The expectations were very high from Lewis, and he started off with a win in the Australian GP this year only to be upstaged by the Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Kimi Raikkonen who picked up two races each. He came back with a bang in the Monaco GP, where he survived a punctured tire to win in a rain interrupted race. He got lucky with his pitstops and the timing of the safety-cars, but he showed a lot of nerve. He is now the tournament leader and is looking strong. McLaren are backing him to the hilt and are showing signs of being able to come up with a car that can match the pace of the Ferraris. Definitely a contender for the title.

Driver: Kimi Raikkonen
Team: Scuderia Ferrari
Races: 6
Wins: 2

Last year’s F1 world champion. Goes by the nickname of Iceman. Aishwarya Rai can be defined as a master of facial expressions when contrasted with the expressionless Finn. Known to be very reserved. Some even say selfish. I say he is fast, but much overrated. He lacks the ‘mechanical’ skills to setup the car, the skills the legendary Michael Schumacher possessed. He does not seem to mingle with the race engineers and seems very aloof, a big minus point for any driver worth his salt. He won the championship last year, rather unconvincingly, by a single point. He was the tournament leader this year till Lewis Hamilton pipped him in the last race at Monaco. With his teammate hot on his heels, Kimi has to contend with competition within his own team as well as outside it. About the car, Ferrari are the fastest on the circuit, at the moment and they seem to be moving from strength to strength. Is Kimi a contender for the title ? Yes. For the moment.

Driver: Felipe Massa
Team: Scuderia Ferrari
Races: 6
Wins: 2

The underdog at Ferrari. He first had to play second fiddle to the legendary Schumacher and last year, despite several brilliant performances, was reduced to supporting Kimi Raikkonen’s bid for the title, due to bouts of carelessness and bad luck, which cost him race positions and points. On his given day, Massa can be unbeatable, but is known to be error prone. He has thrown away perfectly good starts and possible wins due to what is called ‘moments’ in F1, moments of carelessness and/or lack of concentration. A case in point is the Monaco GP this year. After starting the race from pole position, he was confortably in the race lead, till he made a mistake and aquaplaned off the track, handing over the race lead to Robert Kubica. It was this mistake that cost him the race win. He eventually finished third. He is now just one point behind his teammate Kimi Raikkonen. Time and again, Massa has out-qualified Kimi, but has not managed to be quite as consistent in the actual races. Massa seems to be more determined to prove his credentials this year than ever before, and may prove to be too hot to handle for Kimi, and the others too. He is also gifted in the art of setting up the car, much like Michael Schumacher.  He is fast, aggressive and a bit crazy. He is my personal favorite contender for the title.

Driver: Robert Kubica
Team: BMW Sauber
Races:6
Wins: 0

Robert Kubica is the dark horse and the silent mover. When everybody was backing the likes of Hamilton and Raikkonen thanks to the flamboyant personalities and performance, Robert was quietly picking up points. Though he has not won a single race, he is in the fourth position, just two points away from his nearest competitor Felipe Massa, and just six points shy of the tournament leader Lewis Hamilton. This says a lot. Here is a cool customer who is ever watchful, rarely makes mistakes and pounces with glee the minute an opponent makes one. The pace of the BMWs is not exactly great as they are almost always trailing behind the Ferraris and the McLarens, but even that is changing. With a pole in the Bahrain GP and a second position start in Australia, he has proved that he can more than challenge the pace of the dominating Ferrari and the McLaren cars. Though it is too early to make predictions, he is a good contender for the runner up to the title.

Driver: Nick Heidfeld
Team: BMW Sauber
Races: 6
Wins: 0

Nick made a much talked-about entry into F1 as he broke in without completing the mandatory testing experience required, on account of his fabulous records in F3, where Narain Karthikeyan (anybody still remember him ?) used to be a somebody. He has shown flashes of brilliance, but has not really been able to deliver consistent results. He is the beginner of the midfield. He is already twelve points adrift of his teammate and immediate competitor, Robert Kubica, and is not showing any signs that he is going to change the order of race leaders, anytime soon.