Nigel Roebuck: Fifth Column

One way and another, two top teams - and their drivers - are rather dominating F1 conversation at the moment, not least because the perceived number one drivers of McLaren and Ferrari have so far fallen a little short of expectations. Lewis Hamilton may be the only member of the quartet so far without a win in 2007, but he leads the world championship, and the man with most victories and pole positions is Felipe Massa.

Although Fernando Alonso won at Sepang, and Kimi Raikkonen in Melbourne, neither has looked as convincing as might have been anticipated, and inevitably there has much speculation as to why. In Barcelona Jackie Stewart suggested that Raikkonen falls short of the level of professionalism required today.

"The way he lives his life," said Stewart, "is contrary to allowing him to put together the complete package - the kind that allowed Schumacher to win multiple championships, or Senna, Prost, Clark or even me. It's an attitude, a mentality, and a way of doing business. Our lifestyle, mind, make-up, was different from a Raikkonen."

All of which adds up to the fact that JYS doesn't believe Kimi works hard enough, and if you speak to McLaren folk they will tell you the same thing. Raikkonen may have an extraordinary natural gift, they say, but he sells it short.

The Kimster responded to Stewart's remarks in predictable fashion. "I don't care what Jackie says. It has nothing to do with me."

Meantime, Niki Lauda last week offered words of advice to Alonso. To take on Hamilton, Lauda suggested, Fernando needs to concentrate on capitalising on his experience, the strongest card in his hand for the simple reason that it is - apparently - the only card Lewis doesn't hold.

Lauda referred to the 1984 season at McLaren, when he was expecting to continue with John Watson as his team-mate, but suddenly found himself paired with Alain Prost.

Niki was ever disarmingly honest. Many drivers will trot out the line that they love to have a super-quick team-mate, because it motivates them, raises the bar on their own performance, but Gerhard Berger, another straight-talking Austrian, was probably nearer reality when asked to define his ideal team-mate: "Simple - it's a guy two seconds a lap slower than you are! Three is even better..."

There's no question that Lauda was initially shaken by the aw pace of Prost in 1984. "The year before, I had Watson, which I liked because he was slower and a known quantity. Then Prost came and, first race, he's two places ahead of me on the grid. I used my experience to lead, the car retired. I went back to the hotel, and he won the race."

Lauda was not one to make excuses and his comments were succinct: "Car, tyres, no problem." So what was the problem? "Prost - he's bloody quick!"

Through that season Niki was to outqualify Alain only once, and often the two McLarens were nowhere near each other on the grid. On sheer speed, Lauda swiftly accepted, he was not going to beat his team-mate, and therefore he put guile and stealth - experience - to work. By season's end, Prost had won seven grands prix to Lauda's five, but it was Niki who won the world championship, by just half a point, in the closest title fight of all time.

Increasingly, in 1984, Prost became McLaren's blue-eyed boy. He was new, he was dauntingly quick - and, as Lauda pointed out, "compared with me, he was incredibly cheap!" After a falling-out with Renault at the end of '83, Alain was without a drive, and his only realistic possibility was McLaren, then still involved in 'fiscal discussions' with Watson. Prost's unexpected availability put paid to Wattie's chances of keeping the drive, and the icing for Ron Dennis was that signing Alain didn't need to break the bank: where else, at that stage of the game, was he going?

Four years later, it was the turn of Prost, by now 33, to be faced with a team-mate of intimidating pace. In 1988, Alain was still the more complete of the McLaren drivers, but Ayrton Senna, five years his junior, was invariably the quicker. And Prost, like Lauda before him, put his experience to work. In the end, Ayrton took the title, but back then only the 11 best scores counted; had the system been as it is today, with every score counting, Alain would have won it comfortably.

Now Lauda is suggesting that Alonso should do as he did in 1984, and use experience to take on Hamilton. No doubt his advice is sound, but that was then, and this is now. F1 has changed out of sight in the last couple of decades, not least in terms of overtaking, which was easier in Niki's time. In the title-deciding race of '84, at Estoril, Prost won comfortably, but Lauda clinched it by finishing second - after starting 11th. It's not too easy to imagine a sixth-row starter climbing the second step of the podium today.

Reliability was far less good in those pre-gizmo days, too: the harder you pushed, the greater the chance of missing a shift and blowing the engine, of applying too much throttle out of a corner and spinning - simply, of making a mistake of the kind a driver cannot make today.

As well as that, when it came to making the most of experience, the rules in 1984 were rather more benign than today. It was the turbo era and refuelling was banned: every driver had 220 litres of fuel and it was up to him how he used it: wop up the boost and you went quicker but used more gas. 'Strategy' isn't a 21st century invention.

Another difference between what Lauda faced with Prost, and what Alonso now squares up to with Hamilton, is that Lewis is a rookie, whereas Alain already had four seasons of F1 behind him, and had almost won a world championship. The shock to Fernando's system must therefore be all the greater, and he doesn't have the same circumstances as Niki in which to 'put experience to work'.

That said, Hamilton is not quite a rookie in the old sense of the word. He is perhaps the first of the 'next generation' of F1 drivers, having been groomed by McLaren since the late 1990s. He may have driven in only four grands prix to date, but has spent countless hours in the team's 'simulator', which is light years ahead of any other. You may say this is not quite the same as the real thing, and of course you'd be right, but it's not a million miles away. When Mika Hakkinen was sampling it in times past, and playfully 'put it into the wall', he damn nearly broke his wrist.

Now comes Monaco, but if Alonso won there last year, there's little doubt as to which of the McLaren drivers will be heading for the Principality in the more positive frame of mind. As last week, let's finish with a quote from Mario Andretti, who was back in England at the weekend, for GPlive at Donington Park.

"I look at Hamilton's situation, and I salivate! He's 22 years old, in one of the very best teams, he's confident and he's quick. Plus, he's a rookie, and the great thing about that is that he's got nothing to lose. If he finishes behind Alonso, it's what's expected - but if he beats him, and keeps on doing it, Alonso's stock will go down dramatically. That's got to be grinding on Fernando. He's going to have to dig deep, and I'll really applaud if he does it..."