This 2008 World Driver's Championship in Formula One has been hotly contested for many seasons. This year, things are closer even than last year's effort. But how have we come to this point? After the British Grand Prix four weeks ago, there's a three way tie and another driver two points further behind? Let's examine why this looks like the Championship nobody wants.

The Races

Australia

The season began with a win from the Mclaren of Lewis Hamilton but it was not a dominating performance all around for the Silver Arrows. Finnish team mate Heikki Kovalainen had quite a low-key afternoon. Here, we witnessed the first indication that Mclaren would struggle for Constructors points.

Ferrari had a miserable time of it at Albert Park, with BMW being the second team clearly. Raikkonen drove like an amateur all weekend and took at least two off-road adventures while Massa ran into David Coulthard.

ACTUAL AVAILABLE POINTS (D & C): 18

FERRARI: 1 (Raikkonen 1; Massa: 0)

MCLAREN: 14 (Hamilton: 10; Kovalainen: 4)

BMW: 8 (Kubica: 0; Heidfeld: 8)

Malaysia

Raikkonen bounced back in Malaysia after Australia's dire performance to win in sensational and dominating style. Yet even here Ferrari did not capitalise as they should have. Massa had 'another one of those days' and spun away good Constructors and Drivers points for himself and the team.

Hamilton suffered due to a wheel nut problem in his pit stop. Kovalainen managed a third place, but it was Kubica again who managed to drive to second. BMW scored more consistent points.

ACTUAL AVAILABLE POINTS: 18

FERRARI: 10 (Raikkonen: 10; Massa: 0)

MCLAREN: 10 (Hamilton: 4; Kovalainen: 6)

BMW: 11 (Kubica: 8; Heidfeld: 3)

Bahrain

Here we saw Ferrari finally making two cars in the points and one team seeming like they wanted to make a decent stab at the championship, as Massa led Raikkonen home

It was Mclaren, though, that seemed now to be throwing points away left, right, and center with Kovalainen managing only a distant fifth position behind both BMWs and Lewis Hamilton having a needlessly messy race and involving himself with Alonso.

ACTUAL AVAILABLE POINTS: 18

FERRARI: 18 (Raikkonen: 8; Massa: 10)

MCLAREN: 4 (Hamilton: 0; Kovalainen: 4)

BMW: 11 (Kubica: 6; Heidfeld: 5)

Spain

Another Ferrari one-two at Barcelona saw the Scuderia cementing a dominant performance at Bahrain. It was a role reversal as Massa finished behind Raikkonen this time. However, consistent wins were not forthcoming. Even BMW slipped up this race, with Heidfeld finishing outside the money in 9th.

Hamilton had another troubled day and Mclaren continued to throw their early dominance away as an accidental failure on Kovalainen's car pitched him into the wall.

ACTUAL AVAILABLE POINTS: 18

FERRARI: 18 (Raikkonen: 10; Massa: 8)

MCLAREN: 6 (Hamilton: 6; Kovalainen: 0)

BMW: 5 (Kubica: 5; Heidfeld: 0)

Turkey

Ferrari continued to show that they perhaps wanted this Championship after all, with Felipe Massa scoring a good victory. Lewis Hamilton took second place and Raikkonen was back in third.

You're currently logged into Facebook

Do you want to share your Bleacher Report activity on Facebook?