Nigel Roebuck: Fifth Column

Michael Schumacher was in Barcelona at the weekend, attending a grand prix for the first time since his final race, at Interlagos last autumn. There would be a press conference in Ferrari's elaborate new edifice at noon on Friday, we were advised, and dutifully we turned up.

It was like a Kate Moss sighting, in which to come out ahead was to avoid being brained by swinging, shoulder-mounted, TV cameras.

As it was, for all the information we gleaned, the questions might as well have been handled by Ms Moss. Schumacher arrived fashionably late, his body language and expression suggesting he really didn't want to be doing this, and the impression was confirmed when he spoke: answers were clipped, you might say. Michael did allow, however, that he was at the team's disposal, that it wasn't entirely a social visit. Would he be attending debriefs? Yes, he said, if asked.

To no-one's great surprise, he was asked, and of course he took it seriously. According to a team insider, Schumacher was at the track on Friday evening long after Kimi Raikkonen had left.

When Raikkonen won in Melbourne, the opening race of 2007, Schumacher called Jean Todt's mobile to offer congratulations. As Kimi walked up the steps to the podium, Todt handed him the phone, so as to receive Michael's good wishes.

In all the commotion, it was difficult to hear, and the Kimster is not big on social graces, as we know. At once he gave the mobile back, without troubling to talk. One remembered Ron Dennis's words: "Raikkonen listens to no-one."

At the end of last year I asked Martin Whitmarsh what he expected of Raikkonen at Ferrari. Would Kimi, a man who - in public, anyway - rarely shows emotion of any kind flourish in what has always been a passionate team? Come to that, had Schumacher ever been 'a disciple' in the true, Ferrari, sense of the word?

"I don't know," said Whitmarsh, "how much Michael became a 'disciple' and how much he was an intelligent pragmatist. He was very much the complete package as a racing driver, a man who said, 'How am I going to create a team focused on me, and on winning?' He had a very proactive approach to the team. He said, 'I can contribute to its morale, its commitment, its self-belief'.

"Honestly, I think Michael Schumacher believed in Michael Schumacher. Perhaps I'm a bit cynical, but

I think he was smart enough to say to himself, 'If I can just bring this team together, as a cohesive outfit, it's going to make my job easier'. I think that same quality was there in Senna, Prost and Lauda - and I don't think Kimi has yet tried to do that. He's very independent and is not going to be dictated to by anybody."

Last season Schumacher had an excellent relationship with Felipe Massa, and that continues. At the weekend Felipe said he had learned a tremendous amount from Michael - "It was a very good school" - and allowed that they speak often on the phone.

On Sunday a German newspaper came out with this headline: 'Schumacher and Massa on pole'. Felipe had to do the driving, of course, and right well he did it, too, as in Bahrain. Clearly Todt (whose son Nicolas is Massa's manager) thinks highly of him, and on Sunday Jean's contented expression, as Felipe stood there on the podium, was reminiscent of how he looked when the sainted Michael had won a race.

Before the season began many were convinced that Raikkonen would blitz Massa, but others were more circumspect, pointing out that Felipe had won a couple of copybook grands prix last season, the first of them in Turkey, where he outpaced Schumacher all weekend. The fundamental speed had always been there, they said; now, at Ferrari, it was properly harnessed. If Kimi were expecting to dominate Felipe, he was in for a surprise.

In point of fact, Raikkonen himself never made any such claim - indeed, before Melbourne he said he believed that Massa, rather than Fernando Alonso, would be his major rival in the world championship.

At that stage of the game, the name of L Hamilton didn't even come up on the screen...

When Jacques Villeneuve previewed the season, he said he expected Massa to emerge as Ferrari's frontrunner, and Jackie Stewart was inclined to agree. "Towards the end of last year Felipe showed enormous promise. His speed early on was spectacular, but when he settled, he went even quicker. I thought his winning drive in Brazil was a masterpiece, and if he continues like that, he's a serious challenger for the championship.

"We know Raikkonen's very fast, but can he get his mind management together - and is he capable of romancing what is a very Italian team? I mean, they are not clinical operators - they need a driver they love, and they loved Michael, because of his incredible commitment. What I'm saying is that if Kimi's not...giving of himself, the biggest question is, 'Will the Ferrari guys fall in love, or not?' We'll have to wait and see."

On the rare occasions when Schumacher's Ferrari let him down, Michael would invariably change into civvies, then join Todt and Ross Brawn on the pit wall for the duration of the race. Once Raikkonen's car had failed in Barcelona, he lost little time in leaving the circuit.

Niki Lauda thought the Ferrari/Raikkonen partnership could flourish, but only in certain circumstances. "Raikkonen can drive fast, but he can't do anything else, so Ferrari must give him a complete car. If it's not absolutely competitive, there could be problems. Ferrari is an emotional team - not like McLaren. They need the human component, and Michael was ideal in that way - he got the whole thing working. I can't see Kimi doing the same."

Keke Rosberg, too, thought it vital that Raikkonen and Ferrari got off to a good start. "Kimi," he said, "is the quickest driver, no question, but he won't have the same relationship with Ferrari that Michael had, because he won't live with the team in the same way. If the results come quickly, nothing else will matter - but if they don't, who knows what'll happen?"

As things are, two teams stand clear of the rest, and it's pleasing that all four drivers are in the reckoning. But although Raikkonen and Alonso have each won a race this year, there's a sense at the moment that their team-mates - originally perceived, if not designated, as the number two drivers at Ferrari and McLaren - are shading them. Massa has won two of the four races, and the astonishing Hamilton, while not yet (quite) a grand prix winner, heads the world championship standings.

Admitted or not, this state of affairs has hardly escaped the attention of their teams. Ferrari and McLaren have missed no opportunity to stress their respective faith in Raikkonen and Alonso. It's by no means impossible that either of them could waltz it at Monaco, but as Massa and Hamilton exchanged 'high fives' in parc ferme at Barcelona, one detected an element of kindred spirit, a similar satisfaction.

Last word from Mario Andretti, to whom I spoke before leaving for Spain. "It seems like in some teams the number one and number two haven't been established, and the guys who were expected to lead the train - Raikkonen and Alonso - haven't necessarily done it: their young team-mates are giving them hassle, and I think that's great..."