Mark Hughes: F1's Inside Line

FERNANDO ALONSO is extra-chilled these McLaren days. At the team's traditional season-opening Thursday lunch at Melbourne's Stoke House, there he stands, leaning back, chatting to anyone around him. Talking shop just as happily as shooting the breeze.

Then he's joined by Lewis Hamilton and the pair are like a couple of mates out together: still relaxed, pleased to see each other, bouncing their sparkle off each other, easy companions. They don't have the appearance of drivers forced to do a pr function, but of two young guys enjoying their fantastic lives.

The Melbourne sun is glinting beautifully off the sea as they're each called to the outdoor balcony stage for a Vodafone appearance. Touchingly, Lewis's dad Anthony is in the background with a video camera. It's a real feel-good moment. There's a six-year-old actor there who recently played the part of a six-year-old Alonso for a TV ad.

At the end of the speech the compere thrusts the microphone in front of the kid's face and asks if he has any questions for the real-life Alonso. The poor child appears horror-struck, a look of panic spreading across his face as the crowd looks on. Lewis sees the boy's plight, leans down and whispers in his ear. The kid says: "Yes, can I have your job?" Everyone laughs and he's off the hook. It was only a little gesture on Lewis's part, but it said a lot about his quality.

Fast forward a couple of days - to McLaren's post-qualifying press conference. The two mates are now in uniform, answering questions about a session where Alonso has qualified second and Hamilton a delighted fourth, having pushed his world champion team-mate hard throughout the weekend. Both are still entirely at ease, but you can almost see the racer's shield they now each have around themselves. Both are filled with the enormous confidence of top sportsmen.

Lewis is asked about the pressure of having to perform when measured against a two-time world champion. He neatly deflects it, saying: "This is a stepping stone for me. I know my place in the team."

It's brilliant, yet entirely disingenuous. By apparently accepting he's not expected to beat Alonso, it deflects the pressure onto Alonso. So long, at least, as Lewis is able to apply some pressure on Fernando by dint of his speed. Which, on the evidence of Melbourne, he can.

Then a question is asked to both of them. Alonso is holding the microphone, but passes it to Hamilton - who looks a little surprised, but accepts. As if ,'Hey, it's okay for me to say you're team leader, but not for you to act like you are'. He answers the question, but then makes the point of saying into the microphone while looking at Alonso: "What do you think?" and putting the microphone in front of him, just like the compere did to the little kid. Composure, sheen, class, confidence.

Into the race and Hamilton passes his team-mate into the first corner and runs ahead of him for two of the race's three stints, though is forced to fall behind him in the all-important one. But Alonso had needed a more favourable strategy to do it. They set near-identical fastest laps on their way to second and third.

As Lewis steps down from the podium and the champagne spraying, he looks down and meets his dad's eyes. They say nothing to each other - but they each burst out laughing. Snapshot moments that will stay with them forever.

Up in the press conference Hamilton again is natural, deliriously happy, and not in the least put out that Alonso ended up ahead. "This is a two-time champion, a very great driver, whereas this is my debut and I finished just behind him. Of course I'm happy." Again, Alonso is the one who has to get on the defensive. He's asked how it feels to have a team-mate who can really push him for a change.

"I don't agree with you there," he fires back. "I had difficult moments with Trulli in 2004 at the beginning. He won the Monaco race and had more podiums than me. Fisichella normally started the season better than me and in 2005 won the Australian Grand Prix and last year won in Malaysia. So this is more or less similar to what I had today. Giancarlo was very tough in some moments and I was behind him - not often but more times than maybe we remember, and at the end of the day the final points after Brazil in October are the ones that count." No malice, just the pride of a competitor.

A few hours later the pair are again chatting and laughing like old mates. All this is spreading through the team. Much of the atmosphere is led by them. It couldn't be more different from this time last year.

But the Ferrari looks monstrously fast. And McLaren has a world championship to win against them. Alonso is logically the team's title chaser. When the closeness of their performance squeezes their drivers together, they're going to face moments of choice. The first of these came on Sunday.

How to decide which of them to favour in terms of strategy, when that is all that's going to separate them? Will they be forced to go the route favoured by Schumacher-era Ferrari that was so unpopular? While Ferrari just lets its guys do their thing? That's a huge question, forced on them probably much earlier than they were expecting.

That's how good Lewis was last weekend.