Online: Why F1 2009 could be a classic

Two races down. Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa are just one point behind Lewis Hamilton in the championship standings, and similarly there is just one point separating McLaren and Ferrari in the constructors' championship.

It is a state of affairs that no one would have been too surprised to see happen, judging by how close the Woking and Maranello teams have been on track over the past few seasons.

Lewis Hamilton (McLaren MP4-24 Mercedes) and Felipe Massa (Ferrari F60) at Sepang © XPB

But in Formula 1 you are only as good as the opposition, and unfortunately for the silver and red teams, their rivals have taken a big leap forward in 2009. So while things are close between the once mighty duo, their battle is taking place at the lower end of the top 10. Indeed, they are battling for the last spot in the points' standings.

Amid all the off-track controversy that has dominated headlines and driven more fans than ever to find out the latest gossip from the paddock, it has been all too easy to overlook what a thriller of a season we are being treated to on-track.

The talk may have been all about diffusers and what was or wasn't said in the stewards room at the Australian Grand Prix, but what we should be getting all excited about is that we really do appear to have a New World Order in 2009.

The major rules revamp introduced this year has ended a team's success being based purely on how well they can refine the current regulations. The more resources that could be thrown at shaving off weight, or endlessly tweaking aerodynamic parts on a computer or wind tunnel, the more success a team could enjoy. It was the ultimate expression that the bigger the budget, the more successful you would be.

The new 2009 rules however, have thrown that refinement exercise out of the window. Now, clever thinking and hard work have paid off and is it any wonder that two of the strongest cars have been produced by Ross Brawn and Adrian Newey?

Yet, this new world order is not just because Brawn GP has done such a good job with a car that it started work on around 15 months ago.

Toyota also appears to have finally started delivering the form that its mega budgets should have been producing for years now. The TF109 is a beautiful looking car and Newey for one was lost in thought for several minutes on the grid at Sepang last week, pouring over the fine details of the red-and-white car that has helped Jarno Trulli and Timo Glock to podium finishes.

Newey certainly has nothing to be ashamed of with his own car as Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber seem on the verge of a major breakthrough for Red Bull Racing. Yes the team has been caught out by the diffuser situation, but even so, the RB5 should win races this year providing that Brawn BGP001 is not as far ahead of the opposition as some think.

Then you add to the mix the fact that Williams has made a step forward with its FW31, allowing Nico Rosberg to lead in the early stages of the Malaysia race and set his sights on a decent haul of points, and even podiums, over the next few events.

Yet it is not just the form of the cars that has given cause for optimism. We have only had two races so far, but it appears that the cars can follow each other closer than they have been able to do so in the past. And that, judging by the looks of it, has helped produce more overtaking which was the aim of the new rules in the first place.

Fernando Alonso (Renault R29), Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari F60), Mark Webber (Red Bull RB5 Renault), and Timo Glock (Toyota TF109) battle in the midfield © XPB

Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (KERS) are also playing their part too. While there remain questions about the overall benefits in terms of lap times, it is in the races that we are seeing a bigger difference.

In Malaysia we saw KERS allow several drivers to leapfrog their rivals on the run into the first corner. Then later in the race, being used as a defensive tool, Fernando Alonso was able to hold off a host of cars as he struggled to eke lap time out of his R29. For 2009, the Trulli train looks set to be replaced by the KERS train.

So with a new order on the track, rules and regulations that are delivering all that we had hoped, and once dominant teams facing a struggle, F1 2009 has all the hallmarks of being a truly great season.

Roll on China.