2006 season so far!

After only five races this season, we can already come up with some conclusions. Ferrari is back and Renault will have a hard time defending both titles. After the first 3 oversea races it appeared that Renault and Alonso were starting where they left: on the highest scaffold. Renault won the 3 first races (Bahrain, Malaysia and Australia). After only 2 races on European soil, Ferrari has showed that they can't be forgotten as Schumi won the race at Imola and this weekend's GP at Nürburgring.

One thing is certain: the 2006 Formula One Championship will be an exciting one this season. Fernando Alonso proved that he still wants to win with Renault, though he announced leaving the team for McLaren at the end of the season. The Spaniard won in Bahrain and Australia and has been on the podium in all the five races (2 wins and 3 times second place).

The young World Champion didn't have much competition in the first three races, though it was clear that the field was closer together than in 2005. Two weeks ago, the F1 circus came back to Europe and that was the signal for Schumacher and Ferrari to show that they're still in the game. Schumacher won two times thanks to good pit stop tactics. At Imola, Schumi took his 66th pole position and was take the win in front of the Tifosi. At Nürburgring, Schumi was able to win again and this time in front of his home crowd.

As Massa finished 3rd this weekend, we can say that Ferrari is back and will be fighting hard for the title. But where is McLaren? Raikkonen had his "bad luck" in the first races and Juan Pablo Montoya has had his share of misfortune as well. But we have to say that it seems that McLaren hasn't found the pace to catch up with Ferrari and Renault.

In the Constructors' Championship McLaren (38 points) is twelve points behind Ferrari (46 points) and 24 behind Renault (62 points). Surprise of the season is that Toyota seems to have a lot of problems with their car. Toyota, 5th in the Constructors' Championship last season, only scored 7 points so far. And this for the team with the largest budget in F1. The Japanese team already fired Mike Gascoyne, who was praised as 'saviour of Toyota' last season, but still the team isn't performing as they should. Jarno Trulli, the Italian driver of the team hasn't collect any points so far and Ralf Schumacher only 7.

Honda Racing F1 Team, was considered the biggest rival of Renault this season after winter testing. But the team hasn't lived up to the expectations. During the qualifying sessions, Jenson Button always performs strong, but during the race the Briton can't make it happen. Team mate Rubens Barrichello still hasn't found his pace and rumours have been spread that if he doesn't perform, young gun Anthony Davidson will take his place.

Honda is 4th for now in the Constructors' Championship with 19 points, followed by the BMW Sauber F1 Team with 11 points.

BMW and Williams parted at the end of last season. The BMW Sauber F1 Team does it good so far with both Jacques Villeneuve and Nick Heidfeld scoring points. There were some problems with the BMW P86 engine in the beginning of the season as Villeneuve suffered an engine failure in Bahrain and only a week after that in Malaysia, team mate Heidfeld had the same problem. In the meantime, Robert Kubica has showed that he's worthy of his seat with BMW Sauber as third driver. The young Pole has done some fantastic work for the team during the Friday practice sessions.

The Williams F1 Team has the pace, has good drivers,...the only thing missing so far is reliability. In Bahrain, young gun Nico Rosberg surprised everyone in motorsport by scoring points in his first F1 race. By his side he has the experienced Aussi driver, Mark Webber. Both drivers have already gained some points for their team, but have suffered a lot of problems as well, especially hydraulic problems. As long as these hydraulic problems aren't solved, the team won't able to show what they're worth.

Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso: the two teams of Red Bull. As it is the first year of STR in F1 (still with V10 engine) they still have a lot to learn. Scott Speed, the American rookie thought he scored his first point in F1 at Albert Park, but he was penalized for passing David Coulthard under a yellow flag. Team mate Tonio Liuzzi crashed in Australia, had to retire the race at Nürburgring this weekend after an incident with Ralf Schumacher and... David Coulthard. The drivers of the sister teams seem to have some problems avoiding each other on the race track.

Red Bull has had a lot of problems in the beginning of the season. First there were the cooling problems, solved thanks to Adrian Newey, than the problems with the Ferrari V8 and now that the problems seem to be solved, none of the Red Bull cars crossed the finish line this weekend. The team only scored 2 points so far.

Midland F1, the first F1 Team under Russian license, has to admit that they just lack pace. Tiago Monteiro and Christijan Albers have to fight over and over again with the Super Aguri drivers and sometimes this doesn't happen without accidents. At Imola, Albers was hit by Yuji Ide and crashed spectacularly, but without injuries. After this new incident with Ide, the FIA has "advised" the Super Aguri F1 Team to hire a new race driver. With Franck Montagny, there is again a Frenchman in F1. Too bad for Montagny that he suffered hydraulic problems during his first GP.

Conclusion so far: Renault has 1 big rival at the moment and that is Ferrari, though McLaren isn't far away.