I must seem a miserable old geezer, with my refusal to join the general hubbub over Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton this year. It comes of being hasty in the past, placing too much hope in unproven drivers or teams and disillusionment after disappointment as a result. These days I’m slow to pass judgment, preferring to wait and see long after others have cast their votes.

Even so, my views on Massa are probably fairly obvious through various unguarded phrases and sentences in posts and comments. It has been Hamilton that I’ve been very careful about, watching and waiting to see how this season pans out. I want too much for him to be all that he is trumpeted as, the new British hope that will conquer the world, the one who will out-Schumacher Michael himself. Ever mindful of the crushing disappointments of former years, I hold my dreams close to my chest and put on the poker face.

But it is four races into the season now and Lewis has not put a foot wrong, in the car or out of it. If anyone ever looked a star on the rise, he is it. No-one, not even Michael Schumacher, broke the records for new arrivals as Lewis is doing.

So how good is he really? Never mind the pre-F1 resumé - we have seen those become irrelevant too often in the past - it’s how he races that matters. And thus far he has been very impressive, swapping fastest McLaren laps with his illustrious teammate and taking the fight to Ferrari. In a rookie, that is almost unheard of. The lad can drive, there is no doubt of that.

The detractors point out that he has had the luck to begin his F1 career with a team that has just returned to greatness; which is true - most new drivers start out in the lesser teams and hope to be noticed by those that matter. But how many of them would do as well as Lewis has, given the same circumstances? It didn’t help Alex Zanardi (second attempt, admitedly) or Michael Andretti to be in a top team.

Luck is an important part of a champion’s success anyway; if Lewis has it, that is one more string to his bow. But he has made his own luck, making himself known to Ron Dennis at a very early stage in his career and winning in whatever formula came his way. Everything looks so carefully planned that the only element of luck seems to be that he was available at the moment when McLaren had secured the services of the world champion and were prepared to take a little bit of a chance on the second seat as a result.

Out of the car he is just as good too. He oozes confidence yet retains enough humility for us to warm to him. His statements stick to the McLaren line with precision, yet are delivered with a breezy smile and obvious enthusiasm for his job. In fact, he has been the model of the good team driver and hardly needs the protection from the media that Ron has given him.

So why am I still hedging my bets? Perhaps I am too cautious but I want to see how he behaves when circumstances turn against him. Yes, he has held off both Raikkonen and Massa when challenged for position; how will he fare when someone gets past him? What will he do when the car breaks underneath him three races in a row? How will he handle it if Alonso manages to gain the upper hand in the mid-season?

I suspect that he will sail through such tests with all flags flying. I just want to see it, that’s all…

Did the new chicane make a difference to overtaking at the Spanish GP? You know it did not. But the modification to the track will sit there and grin at us from now on, having ruined a couple of fast corners without giving us anything in return. Track alterations stay, whether they achieve the desired result or not - after all, it is more important that the track designer save face than that the racing be improved at all.

So Barcelona remains the track where you overtake in the first few hundred yards or not at all. Alonso made his bid for the lead, failed and that was the end of any real fight at the front. Technically, Fernando was a little ahead at the corner and by the unwritten rules was entitled to claim the line in theory. But Massa was already committed and had nowhere to go, even had he wanted to after being criticized in the early races for not being aggressive enough. The slight bump that sent Alonso into the gravel was the risk he took and both drivers were lucky not to have suffered worse - a racing incident, indeed.

Thereafter things settled into the usual pattern of waiting for the driver ahead to run into trouble. Kimi Raikkonen duly obliged, electrical problems putting him out early and allowing Alonso back into third. Perhaps only Chris Amon can truly understand the thoughts that must be going through Kimi’s head as he wonders whether his bad luck has followed him to the ultra-reliable Ferrari team.

If we were only interested in the lead, Barcelona would have been boring indeed. But there was plenty to interest, mostly in the form of progress by some and disaster for others. David Coulthard had a great race in the Red Bull RB3, showing that it is becoming a force at last, and Super Aguri scored a point, admittedly thanks to Renault having a problem with their (French-made) fueling rig.

BMW were a little less convincing this time out, Robert Kubica coming in fourth but Heidfeld being on the receiving end of some blundering pitwork that saw a wheelnut deserting to the Toyota team. A little more Germanic efficiency required, methinks (and a rap on the knuckles for the lollipop man, no doubt).

Talking of Toyota, they joined Toro Rosso in having a truly (Trulli) dismal weekend, both cars retiring before lap 44. Not even Ralf’s optimism and Jarno’s amazing effort in putting the car into sixth in qualifying could save them this time. I have more sympathy for Scott Speed, however, who looked set to prove all his critics wrong with a tenth fastest time in practice and then a leap from last to 14th in the race, only to have a tire explode. After being robbed of the chance for a decent grid spot by engine failure in qualifying, it was Raikkonen-like luck indeed.

The interest was all in what might be coming in the future of this season. Yes, we have a battle royal for the title that should continue for a while at least, but we also have a few teams that look to be getting it together at last. Red Bull are beginning to threaten BMW’s third fastest spot and Renault are improving faster than Fisichella had predicted. Williams are a bit unpredictable but quicker than Toyota at least, while Toro Rosso show signs of real improvement. Things are tight in the midfield and could become even tighter.

And now we look ahead to Monaco, traditionally the circuit where driving skill counts for more than aerodynamics. Hamilton is confident, having raced in the principality before, Fernando and Kimi know it only too well; can this be the circuit where Massa finally convinces me?

It has been such a long break in between GPs that today’s free practice sessions are worth examining in a bit more detail than usual. And the news is that Alonso was fastest, perhaps putting an end to the silly speculation that he is under any pressure from Lewis Hamilton. The champion’s time was three tenths quicker than that of his closest challenger, Fisichella, and was set within the first half hour, whereas Giancarlo’s was a last minute effort.

On the face of it, the McLarens seem to be the cars to beat, Massa and Raikkonen finishing with the fourth and sixth fastest times respectively. But this is only practice and the real test will come tomorrow in qualifying. For much of the second session the Ferraris were clearly working on race set ups, anyway.

The pace of the Renaults (second and third fastest) tempts one to think that they have solved their problems, but both times were set right at the end of the session and were probably minimum-weight morale boosters. Much more surprising was the Toro Rosso of Scott Speed. His time was set early on but remained good enough for tenth fastest at the end, later runs being spoiled by an off course excursion. Even presuming that the car was set up for speed rather than endurance, it was an unexpected lap and might give second thoughts to those who doubt Scott’s ability.

Other than that, it was pretty much business as usual, with the BMWs being a little slower than we might have expected and the Red Bulls also disappointing somewhat. As I predicted earlier this week, the Super Aguris are losing their grip on the midfield and drifting down towards the back of the grid. But the Toyotas were awful, even their late runs failing to lift them from the company of the back markers. Everyone may have made progress over the long break but it seems some have made much less than others.

The times have to be taken with a pinch of salt, of course, and the likelihood is that qualifying will produce a very similar grid to those seen in the first three races. But, unless Ferrari were sandbagging as never before, we will not see them dominate qualifying as I was beginning to fear. On this evidence, things will remain very close up front and we could enjoy a fiercely-fought battle on Sunday.

I see Bernie has being having a go at Silverstone and its owners, the BRDC again. Apparently, he is fed up with the BRDC never managing to fulfill its promises regarding redevelopment of the circuit.

As usual, the problem is funding the work necessary to bring Silverstone up to modern standards for F1 tracks. Noises are made about the possibility of government assistance but this is the UK we’re talking about - since when did a British government donate public money to a project as popular as keeping the British Grand Prix?

F1 Fanatic has an interesting proposal that might ensure Silverstone’s survival: that Bernie himself buy the track and spend a few of his many millions in bringing it up to date. Since Bernie has already invested in the Turkish Grand Prix circuit (and thereby ensured its existence for years to come), it seems reasonable that he should do the same for a circuit as loved and historic as Silverstone.

Now there would be a marriage made in the corridors of power, if not in heaven - the two Stones coming together in a union of bliss for the foreseeable future. But it’s the Silver that might get in the way; Bernie did not become rich by investing in lost causes and I’m not at all sure he would be interested in throwing his loot at such a big project as Silverstone. The Turkish circuit is almost brand new and does not need much cash to keep it up to par; Silverstone needs several fortunes to turn it into the glitzy venue that Bernie wants.

Yeah, I tried very hard to get in a quip about Eccles cakes but failed - see if you can do better…

So it remains to be seen whether Silverstone will survive yet again through its annual crisis. But there is one point in all this that I have not seen mentioned yet. Amongst all the cheers for Bernie’s purchase of the Turkish circuit, I detected no pondering upon the matter of a conflict of interests. Surely that must occur if the man who says yes or no to prospective GPs also owns one or two of them? How likely is he to cut out his own GP if it fails to come up to spec? And are not other circuit owners entitled to query his impartiality as a result?

It is not that I think Bernie would do anything underhand or that I want to see the future of some circuits threatened because they can’t get funding from Bernie. I am just interested and wondering why the matter has not been raised before. Call me awkward or a pot-stirrer - that would fit well enough.