Opinion | Lotus packs punch in this season's F1 line-up

As the teams gather in Malaysia for this weekend's race, we have a much clearer idea of the Formula One pecking order. Once the chequered flag had finished waving in Albert Park there were a number of things the F1 fan had learnt.

The first thing of course, is that Lotus are the real deal. There was a lot of talk pre-season of the team picking up the odd win and sniffing around the podium. As a statement of intent and ability, Kimi Raikkonen's win in Australia was certainly unmistakable. He described the victory as one of his easiest. With the Finn's undiminished ability and the team's ability to punch above their weight given the resources available, a sustained championship push is a possibility.

It helped that the team have the measure of the new Pirelli tyres, which are even more devilish than last year. The company have designed them so, and decided to bring the super-soft version as one of the choices for Melbourne. The super-soft tyre degraded extremely quickly and the graining on them was startling as performance disappeared after a handful of laps.

When Raikkonen can do two stops and most others are having to make three, half the job is done. Force India also seem to have a car that can make the most of what Pirelli provide.

McLaren certainly don't. What a truly, utterly, awful weekend for the British outfit. Whilst other teams have evolved last year's car, McLaren went for broke with a radical redesign. Despite the millions spent, it just doesn't work. Just as worrying, the pit-wall decision-making seems to be amiss too. The team got qualifying all wrong with some strange tyre choices.

There were some sleepless nights both in Australia and in the Woking headquarters as engineers tried to work out what wasn't working. They are still scratching their heads. Given that McLaren were the fastest team by far in Brazil at the end of last season, they must be tempted to go back to that car, no matter how embarrassing that would be.