Just when it looked like Formula One motor racing might redeem itself, and show us some actual racing, something pops up to make sure that once again the sport is more newsworthy for the action off the track than on it.

Fans have been waiting long enough for the sport to emerge from its period of Schumacher/Ferrari domination. Results in the races to date suggest we may be on that threshold. Ferrari has been plagued by bad luck, but there’s no doubt that Renault has got its act together. McLaren is quick but unreliable, although reliability can be achieved. Toyota is quick and although there are doubts about its ability to maintain its performance for a whole season, technical chief Mike Gascoyne is just the guy to keep driving it forward. And in Imola it looked like BAR was getting back on the pace after a couple of lacklustre races. Finally, it looked like we could anticipate a season of actual racing. We should be so lucky.

Read the full story on the Crikey website here.