Only two races within the Formula One World Championship, and it seems as if the McLaren Team will be this year's Constructors Champion. In fact, the McLaren domination is so absolute at this point, that it might be a matter of very few races (half a season perhaps?) before they will be formally crowned with the title. Nevertheless, the question remains open: is there no hope of the other top teams - primarily Williams and Ferrari - to catch up with the Silver Bullets of Ilmor and give us viewers some chance of a good fight.

The McLaren domination seems to be whole at the moment, from tires to engine, and chassis. But, I do believe the major key element that McLaren has is Chief Designer Adrian Newey. His design seems to be key advantage the team has. Added to that is the Mercedes engine, said to be the most powerful out there. Although last year it seemed to suffer reliability problems, it now looks like the engine to beat.

Bearing those two key forces in mind, it seems hard to find what answer a team like Ferrari might have. The Italian team seems to be lagging in every aspect behind the McLaren, except for one, that of course being former World Champion Michael Schumacher. The latter has proven in previous years he can provide a battle even in a mediocre car. Schumacher also has with him his ex-Benetton engineers, Ross Brown and Rory Byrne. Although they have, as of now, under-performed, Ferrari does seem to be improving every race, so maybe the ex-Benetton trio of Brown/Byrne/Schumacher can still give Ferrari the edge to challenge McLaren.

Having said that about the Ferrari, I can't see the other top team - that being Williams - giving us much hope of a battle. Williams seem to be in the same position that McLaren were in only a couple of years ago, past their glory years. Williams have been going in reverse since the departure of Damon Hill and Adrian Newey. It has been speculated that Hill was fired due to BMW willing to supply Williams with engines when they come come back in 1999/2000 in return for a German driver. Whether this is true or not, Williams' decision seems nowadays to have cost them dearly. Williams are missing Newey's miraculous designing and Hill's testing feedback, and the Mecachrome engine seems to be slower than the works Renault was in past years. Therefore, my feeling is that Williams will continue to lose ground to both McLaren and Ferrari due to lack of expertise.

There are also, of course, 8 other teams out there trying to fight their way up. But only two races behind, it is discouraging to find that no one can match the McLarens this year. Which only leaves the hope that somehow, from behind, will appear the Dark Horse.