Rosberg's Hamilton complaints were rubbish

Unfortunately, China didn't bring the cliff-hanger of a race that we saw in Malaysia. Everyone will be scratching their heads and searching for the reasons, but in my opinion it is very simple.

Mercedes has a better package than every other team, including Ferrari. And Lewis Hamilton is driving better than I think I have ever seen him with his level of performance week-in, week-out.

At least he started this year already separated from his girlfriend, so we are not all waiting for that drama to unfold and have an effect on his performance.

But if Hamilton were to trip up and be out of the picture, the situation would be quite different.

Rosberg accused Hamilton of backing him up © LAT

I have always rated Nico Rosberg and I genuinely believed that 2015 was going to be his season. With the experience of last year's championship fight and the memory of some strong performances, he was in a good place.

In reality, Rosberg hasn't had a look in as Hamilton has taken three pole positions and two wins. He is driving like a good number two, and if he doesn't get the monkey off his back very soon, the team will start to treat him like a support act to Hamilton.

His complaints about Hamilton backing him up into Vettel were rubbish. It was Hamilton's race to drive as he saw fit - that's the advantage you get from starting up front.

Mercedes was heading into relatively unknown territory in terms of tyre degradation. Every lap, every corner, was a new experience and why should he take any chances when he's got the race in his pocket?

Ferrari did what it could to try to get in among the Mercedes drivers. Pitting Sebastian Vettel early was a good shot in an attempt to gain track position on Rosberg. But I really don't think it was the right decision.

All Ferrari did was to show its hand with a car that Mercedes feared might be stronger on tyre management. With that concern gone, it was more or less over.

All Mercedes had to do was follow Ferrari's strategy and keep it simple. It even had the luxury of letting Rosberg pit first at the second round of stops to prevent Vettel from attacking with a two-lap undercut.

Rosberg's post-race frustration was clear to see © LAT

But it's bad news for Rosberg that, with three races down, it's still Vettel who is second in the championship in his Ferrari. Bahrain was a race Rosberg could have won last year, and he really needs to do that this year.

The battle between Ferrari and Mercedes is going to be defined by the in-season development cycle.

Normally, you would expect to see the first major upgrade at the start of the European season with next month's Spanish Grand Prix. But this year Mercedes has become the first to shoot its bolt with a new front wing introduced in China.

It's clearly a product from the same family as the previous-specification wing. But the changes in outer-end detail will improve the pitch sensitivity and provide more consistent downforce.

As I always say, peak downforce is all very well and good but if it's not consistent, it's no good. The driver can only drive to the troughs of the downforce, because that's what they know is there.

Looking more closely at the front wing, when the car is under braking and turning into the corner, the outer end of it gets very close to the ground. That is why, on many occasions, we see sparks coming from the front-wing endplate.

This can do one of two things to the aerodynamics of the car. This area of the front wing can stall because it just can't get enough airflow to keep the airflow attached to the aerodynamic surfaces and you will lose downforce.

Can Ferrari really challenge Mercedes on a regular basis? © XPB

The alternative is that it will increase the downforce by working harder what is called ground effect.

Either of these is not good for aerodynamic consistency, but the latter is the most difficult to work with.

If the front wing increases downforce on corner entry, then the car becomes very pointy and this will damage the rear tyres. The result is accelerated tyre degradation.

The instant cure for this is to run the car with less front-wing angle. This is the normal quick fix and it will make the car better on corner entry, but at the cost of having more understeer on corner exit or in a turn where there is very little braking.

This compromise will have a negative impact on laptime.

The Mercedes front-wing package should be a cure for both of these scenarios, producing a car that is faster and less aggressive on its tyres.

The question now is what can Ferrari bring to the show? How much performance can the Scuderia bring to the car?

This needs to happen sooner rather than later if it is to have any chance of keeping the championship dream alive. The car is good, but not on the same level as Mercedes - so gains have to be made either on the aerodynamic or engine side. Ideally both.

As for the rest, well unfortunately at the moment other than these two teams, they are in the second division. Williams is the best of the rest but has lost ground. A big step is needed to get back on terms with Ferrari, let alone Mercedes.

Both McLaren-Hondas made the finish, but are still way off the pace © LAT

During winter testing I didn't see what I would have called a step forward in the Williams car. I am sure it is there on paper, but sometimes it just doesn't come out at the circuit. It takes time to understand why.

From there, I will leapfrog a few teams - well, nearly all of the teams - to get down to McLaren. We keep hearing about how dramatic the improvement is but I haven't seen it yet.

Every circuit will have a different spread covering the grid in terms of time. The delta between Mercedes and Manor was much smaller in China and that doesn't mean that the team at the back of the grid has had a eureka moment.

It just means that the demands of the circuit aren't so critical to laptime, so everyone closes up.

McLaren and Honda are just not there. But what confuses me is a statement that Jenson Button made after Malaysia.

He said that, in the pitstop, McLaren added a load of front-wing angle and the car suddenly became very competitive with the cars around him.

That front wing is nothing to do with Honda, so from my point of view it is not one-sided.

Both Honda and McLaren have a lot of work to do.