Ferrari

It's said that it's impossible to overtake at the Suzuka race circuit but it's not true. There have been winners from way, way down the field. One of the last old-fashioned racing circuits where Formula One still races, this weekend has shown something fascinating: no matter what technical rules are imposed, no matter what generation of drivers is involved - it's tracks like the Honda's Twin Ring Motagi circuits that actually deliver great racing.

Lewis Hamilton made perhaps the most prescient statement of recent times in Formula One. He said that Ferrari have a faster car than Mercedes. But Mercedes, he said, have the better team, saying that the systems, the strength in depth in all departments, the stability are what give him and team-mate Valtteri Bottas the machinery that allows them to do the job. And with four one-two finishes in the first four races, in each case at least in part due to Ferrari fluffing something, even in the dense air of below sea level Baku which should have increased the red cars' performance advantage, it's increasingly looking as if he's right. But the apparent Sunday afternoon jog for the two Mercedes drivers around the streets of Azerbaijan's capital, Baku, is as much to do with the failures of others as the strength of Mercedes. Ferrari are not the only ones struggling to get it together.

It's a question that three years ago had a clear answer: yes; easily. Now, it's far more complicated. How far, then, should F1 go to appease the Italian team?

One of the pluckiest teams in F1 for many years has been the outfit created by Peter Sauber and which has, more or less continuously, carried his name since (there was a short period where it appeared to be known as BMW). But now it's been adopted by the Fiat group which has gone from sticking the Alfa Romeo logo on the fin in return for money to a rather more involved - and stable - relationship. The announcement that the team would be renamed "Alfa Romeo Racing" made much of the long term funding. So does that mean the Sauber name is gone for evermore?

It's a very long time since Formula One (and many countries) banned tobacco advertising. For a decade, Ferrari have kept the red and white of their previous long-standing tobacco sponsor, Marlboro. Now Malboro's parent company are back, with a white logo, on the Ferraris and a book of Haiku poetry created from the wit and wisdom and sometimes grouchiness of Kimi Raikkonen just before he leaves the team. So what's going on?

Some months ago, we produced a series of our views of some of the ways that Formula One could be improved to avoid it becoming a high-speed procession around circuits that are, often, not very interesting from a spectators' point of view. One of those was a system where the fastest drivers were rewarded for being fastest but started at the back. In the past few races, without the incentives, that's what we've seen and yesterday's German Grand Prix demonstrated why it's such an excellent concept, even when the stewards act to spoil it.

If you are a fan of motor racing, don't bother with yesterday's Monaco Grand Prix. An utterly dull procession for almost the entire event was punctuated only by odd-ball happenings and intrigue. If you are a conspiracy theorist and find humour in the oddest places, there might be something for you. But first, this telephone call from Fernando Alonso waiting to drive in the Indy 500 to Button, in the car on the way down the pit lane to his own, personal, lonely, starting line.

It is, perhaps, ironic that one of Ferrari's most ardent supporters, Bernie Ecclestone, isn't the boss of F1 any longer as the Prancing Horse danced its way into the first victory of the 2017 F1 Grand Prix season in Melbourne, Australia.

At the opening round of the 2016 Formula One Championship in Melbourne Australia, the Ferrari drivers demonstrated superhuman powers of anticipation and dexterity as they shot off the line and their cars hit optimum revs and made optimum gear changes all the way into the first braking zone. Do Ferrari have a little extra somewhere in their systems?

Given Ferrari's history of stress-testing and even breaking the rules, often with the support of stewards and the FIA, it's a bit rich that they asked the FIA to review the stewards' decision over a pass by Sebastian Vettel on Verne in the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Maybe the surprise popularity of the Peugeot RCZ has inspired more manufacturers to be daring, moving what would once have been concept cars into production - and at an affordable price. At the Geneva Motor Show, Alfa Romeo, the nicer end of the Fiat range, has announced the 4C and it's creating stirrings in places that usually only upmarket sports cars reach.