After the first four races it is quite clear things are not going according to plan for either Kimi Raikkonen or Fernando Alonso — both tipped as title contenders before the 2007 season even got going. Both have been thoroughly upstaged by their respective team-mates, Felipe Massa at Ferrari and Lewis Hamilton at McLaren-Mercedes.

Raikkonen?s move this year from McLaren to Ferrari began early in 2006, at a time when the Silver Arrows were fast but fragile and Ferrari seemed to be regaining the speed that was so dominant up to 2004 but missing in 2005, while at the same time maintaining its rock solid reliability. After five years at McLaren, where he should have won two titles — in 2003 and 2005 were it not for unreliability — the move made sense.

Alonso also decided early to swap his Renault for a McLaren in 2007 with a late 2005 announcement that came as a complete surprise. Fernando had just won his first title and indications were that he could repeat the feat in 2006, but the Spanish sensation knew after four years at Renault he was going to need a new challenge, even if it took him a few years at a new team to become a title contender again.

It was generally accepted the combination of the superfast Raikkonen and Ferrari would provide the Finn with his best chance ever of winning a first title, while Alonso — as double world champion, and provided McLaren could deliver a fast and reliable car — would be his biggest rival.

Alas, how differently things have turned out.

At Ferrari, during the first four races of the season, Felipe Massa generally has been faster than Raikkonen, both in qualifying and in the races. In Australia Felipe could have given Kimi a good run for his money were it not for a broken gearbox in qualifying and a subsequent engine change; in Malaysia Massa had pole position but threw away a certain victory, and in both Bahrain and Spain the Brazilian qualified and raced flawlessly to score two consecutive victories.

In contrast, Raikkonen has only qualified on pole once (Australia), while in each of the next three races he started third on the grid. After his uncontested victory in Melbourne he has been able to score only two third places and in Spain last weekend he suffered his second technical problem of the season — alternator failure — following an overheating problem in Australia.

Perhaps Kimi has overestimated his own abilities and underestimated what it takes to make the Ferrari car and team his own. Clearly Felipe has not, so perhaps the Finn should follow the little Brazilian?s example and drink from the Fountain of Schumacher?s Wisdom?

At McLaren Lewis Hamilton has exceeded all expectations, including his own. As a rookie it could have been expected that he would be up to the speed of his vastly more experienced team-mate by the second half of the season. However, into the first corner of his first race the young Brit showed he was made of sterner stuff. He led Alonso for most of the race and only a better race strategy secured a second place finish for the Spaniard.

In Malaysia Hamilton?s robust defence of his second place against the Ferrari onslaught ensured victory for Alonso; in Bahrain he out-qualified Fernando and out-raced him, and in Spain, despite being two places behind on the grid, he again dominated his team-mate. This is the scoreboard: Hamilton third-second-second-second; Alonso second-first-fifth-third.

Hamilton is consistently fast and stays cool, while it is becoming increasingly clear Alonso?s fragile self-esteem is beginning to crack under pressure from his team-mate who, incredibly, is leading the Drivers? standings after only four Formula 1 races in his life.

The time is getting closer when both Ferrari and McLaren-Mercedes will have to decide which of their drivers they are going to focus their title aspirations on. Don?t be surprised if the two ?Number Two?s? become the ?Number Ones?.