The church bells were ringing in Maranello again today with Ferrari's victory in the Malaysian Grand Prix. The quiet sobbing sound you're hearing in the background is Fernando Alonso continuing to regret his career choices. Sebastian Vettel's win snaps one of Ferrari's longest Formula 1 winless streaks in recent memory, and places Vettel only three points behind Lewis Hamilton. Granted, we're only in the second race of the season, but Ferrari has made some incredible gains over the off season, going from a team struggling for podiums, to a possible early title contender.
This could also set us up for a very exciting Formula 1 season. The great Formula 1 seasons have been defined as duels between two drivers, Hunt versus Lauda, Senna versus Prost, Schumacher versus Hakkinen, and so on and so forth. These are the seasons everyone remembers because the races become one-on-one duels between larger then life drivers, and everyone else on the track better get out of the way if they know what's good for them. Or at least that's how we remember it. We had a little bit of that kind of dueling last year between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg. Still, Hamilton and Rosberg both drive for Mercedes, so even though Mercedes let the two go racing rather then issue team orders, you know they weren't going at each other full force because the number one mission was to bring home a win for Mercedes. A duel between Hamilton and Vettel would have no such restrictions. It would be the Formula 1 equivalent of a knife fight in a telephone booth, and it would make for an amazing season to watch.
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