Ignoring the race for the championship (which Alonso will win in the end – my prediction), the two most interesting teams at the moment are Honda and BMW Sauber. Both seem to have caught Toyota for performance and are now locked in a battle that may decide whether either of them join the top three teams next year.

Jenson Button has come on song for Honda in the latter part of the season and was fastest in testing at Jerez this week. The car is over its mid-season problems and improving all the time. Given that the team was expected to do much better than they have this year, the sudden up-turn in their fortunes does make them look a good bet for 2007. Honda is steeped in racing and they were bound to get it right sooner or later.

For some reason, the constant improvement in the BMW Sauber impresses me even more, however. They look like a team that has the determination and technical innovation to start winning races very soon. I hate to say it but their somewhat shabby treatment of Jacques Villeneuve is an indication of a team that is going places. Faced with a situation where their test driver, Robert Kubica, seemed to be quicker and hungrier than their aging star, they did the ruthless thing and put the younger driver in the racing seat.

But it is the car that impresses most. There is an old saying in racing that “what looks right, is right” and the BMW certainly looks good. Everything about it speaks of quality, its compact design, careful presentation and tasteful paint job. On the track it has confirmed that it has the potential to be a winner, especially now that Kubica is showing that he has a race brain as well as speed.

Toyota remain the biggest disappointment of the year. They have all the necessary elements and have shared the Bridgestone tire advantage that Ferrari has enjoyed mid-season. Yet the results just will not come – they pick up points but really should be fighting for the lead by now. As I have said before, it looks quite likely that the company will buy Williams and amalgamate the two teams in the end, thereby adding a long experience of successful racing to their existing technical skills.

With all three of the top teams experiencing big changes for next year, it becomes very hard to predict a result. Raikkonen looks to be favorite for the championship but we have yet to see how Ferrari will fare without Michael Schumacher. Both Renault and McLaren will have less than the team they wanted (since McLaren wanted to keep Raikkonen and Renault Alonso) and they may struggle for a while. Which opens up the competition a little and gives an opportunity for new teams to grab some of the glory.

Watch BMW Sauber – if anyone can upset the big three, they are the ones to do it.

Fernando Alonso has been talking about Michael Schumacher’s achievements in Formula One. Understandably, his view is colored somewhat by recent events and he went so far as to say that Michael, whilst being a great driver, was also the most unsporting in the history of F1.

He has a point. I cannot recall any driver of the past being involved in so many incidents where foul play was suspected. Michael has even admitted that the one that did not work, his attempt to push Jacques Villeneuve off the road in his (Villeneuve’s) championship year, was deliberate. Ayrton Senna, too, confessed to one incident with Prost that was fully intended, but that was in retaliation for a similar stunt pulled by the Frenchman the year before. Neither of these drivers made a habit of winning by devious means, however.

The controversies surrounding Michael are just too frequent and numerous to be without some foundation. We all have an opinion on each incident, having witnessed them on television, and it is possible to judge many as racing accidents. But all of them? I doubt it. If Michael is as skilled as his reputation and record suggests, it seems a bit strange that he should make so many mistakes at the precise moments when it counted most for a race win or the championship. Where is the skill in clobbering your nearest rival when he attempts to pass?

But, enough of Michael; next year he will no longer be a factor and we will be able to experience F1 with a new crop of stars and hopefuls. And one of the rising stars will undoubtedly be Robert Kubica. His race at Monza was one of the few bright spots and we can be certain that there will be many more from him.

Yes, Robert was lucky in being able to get past a few cars in the confusion of the start and first chicane. But he seized that opportunity like an old hand and then defended his position with skill and maturity. Rare is the driver who manages that in only his third Grand Prix.

His lap times also demonstrate his ability – he posted the fourth fastest in the race, behind Raikkonen, Michael and Massa. And it was not a matter of running light on fuel as we suspected at first. Kubica pitted at the same times as the leaders.

All of which bodes very well for BMW Sauber’s chances next year. I just wish they would drop the “Sauber” from their name – we all know it’s really just a BMW now.

In an interview with Autosport Magazine, Jacques Villeneuve has denied that there was acrimony in the split between himself and BMW Sauber. Apparently, the team wanted to assess Robert Kubica in a race situation and asked Jacques to step down for a while; he was not prepared to do so.

“After having been in F1 for 10 years and having won the championship and so on, even though it’s quite a few years ago, I wasn’t ready to stay home some weekends just to see how the other guy would go and to then be compared to him,” said Villeneuve.

Jacques has a point. As mentioned in my article, Driver Contracts, F1 team managers sometimes regard the driver as just another component that can be swapped in and out of the car at will. If we are now going to have a situation where the teams can “test drive” anyone in a race while the contracted driver waits on the sidelines, the balance of power shifts far too much towards the employer.

It is hard enough for a driver to stay in F1 already, never mind the long struggle it takes to get there. To expect the contracted employee (that’s what he is, after all) not to object when another driver is used in a race, purely so that the team’s choice of driver is made easier, is making a mockery of the whole business of contracts and team loyalty.

Is it too much to expect that a team makes its choice of drivers before the season starts and then sticks by it? All potential and existing F1 drivers have served a hard apprenticeship in other formulae, so it’s not as if the choice has to be made in the dark. Just occasionally, a driver will prove to be unsuited to F1 for one reason or another; but that’s life – nothing is guaranteed. And a contract is a contract, a document designed to protect the rights of both parties.

Jacques seems to have accepted the situation in a very mature fashion, even so.

“This time there wasn’t really bitterness, it was just matter of fact. This has happened, OK, it doesn’t make me happy, I don’t want to work my butt off for the rest of the season if it’s like that, and then to wait until November and maybe there would be a decision for the year after.”

That is what I always liked about Jacques – he was straight and honest, sometimes quite controversial, but never afraid to speak his mind. F1 could do with more like him.

I am beginning to think that Brazil has a new star. Not only did Felipe Massa win in Turkey, he made it look easy. Michael can mutter about pace cars and pit stops as much as he likes but the fact is Massa was better all weekend and made no mistakes.

There were a handful of occasions when Barrichello was Michael’s teammate that he too looked the better, but they were few and far between. The difference in what Massa is doing is that he keeps improving in both technique and maturity, leading us to wonder just how much better he can get as he learns the Ferrari. He is still in his first season with the team, remember.

You can say that Massa gained the pole only through a couple of Schumacher mistakes but that ignores the reason for mistakes; invariably, they are the result of trying too hard. And, if Michael was twice pressured into mistakes that cost him pole position, it would seem pretty clear that he knew he had his work cut out to beat Massa. The Renaults were never a threat to him.

As it happens, the result was both the worst and best possible for Ferrari. Worst, because Michael lost out on a victory that would have closed the gap to Alonso in the championship; best because the team gained on Renault and because they avoided the embarrassing scenario of having to order Massa to let Michael through into the lead. Would they have done it? Jean Todt won’t say now, of course, but Massa was ready to do it, slowing on his final lap in case Michael managed to get past Alonso.

It was a good race for the fans too, with plenty of battles and overtaking throughout the field. Button confirmed that the Honda is coming good with a strong and unchallenged drive to fourth. Barrichello reiterated the lesson with race-long duels ending in a well-deserved eighth place.

Kubica looked good in the BMW Sauber until the tires went off. Although the team were disappointed with their performance, I would say that they have great days to look forward to with the young Polish driver; all it needs is that they start getting the tire choice right.

Otherwise, it was pretty much business as usual, with the Toyotas making it difficult for themselves but showing what might have been, the Williams fading away after a good start and the little teams flying off the road at every opportunity. McLaren had a race they will want to forget as soon as possible.

But it was Massa’s day, even if we couldn’t keep our eyes off the Schumacher/Alonso battle in the last few laps. That is the way with dominant wins – they lack the excitement of a tussle, merely demonstrating the superiority of man and machine on the day. Who would bet against Massa having one or two more like that before the end of the season?

If he’s allowed to, of course…