Today’s grand prix in Monaco promises to be one of the most interesting so far.

Besides being a louder race due to the street circuit resonance, Mercedes’ superiority might be slightly minimised on this highly technical street circuit and it will be down to true driver talent.

Nico Rosberg won last year. He lives in Monaco and knows the route well. Many drivers are aiming for a good result, with qualifying being a determining factor. Downforce and acceleration will be the talk of town while good braking and fast exits from corners is imperative.

The lack of grip on the road asphalt might surprise many and tyre degradation will be an issue. Rain could be another variable.

Many are the top teams already focusing on 2015, including McLaren and Ferrari, even though engineers and designers had dwelt on the importance of getting this year’s car spot on.

Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel and Daniel Riccardo seem to be getting the best of their car with an incredible race in Spain where Vettel ended fourth after leaving the grid 15th.

Much has been said on the technical superiority of the Mercedes team. However, we have already witnessed teams having such an advantage when turbo-powered cars were introduced.

In Spain, I experienced first hand, the F1 ‘silence’. The cacophony of sound has gone and ear plugs have become something of the past.

However, with a smaller engine, a turbo and a hybrid system, the new generation F1 cars have massive amount of instant torque, resulting in bullet-type acceleration.

It is sad that the amazing feeling of the ground shaking when all 24 F1 cars rev up at the start has gone.

As things stand, the British grand prix in Silverstone will give a clearer indication if this is going to be a straight run for Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton, the Ross Brawn way, even though Brawn might have planned all this and is seeing history repeat itself with the 2009 Jenson Button world title.

Last Monday, Sir Jack Brabham passed away at the age of 88. Sir Brabham was a three-time world champion, having won his third world championship in 1966 at the age of 40 in a car that was his own manufacture, the Brabham BT 19. This is a feat that has not been matched up to this day.

Spanish F1 Grand Prix

Team-by-team analysis

Mercedes
(Lewis Hamilton 1, Nico Rosberg 2)

Fourth win in a row for Hamilton, who takes the overall lead from Rosberg. Fourth one-two in a row for Mercedes and fifth win in five races. Mercedes have also started every one on pole. Hamilton, who started on pole, now has 26 career wins.

Red Bull
(Daniel Ricciardo 3, Sebastian Vettel 4)

Ricciardo celebrated his first F1 podium after being stripped of second place in the Australian season-opener. He started third on the grid. Vettel, using a different chassis to the previous races, started 15th after a five-place penalty for a gearbox change.

Ferrari
(Fernando Alonso 6, Kimi Raikkonen 7)

Alonso, last year’s winner in Spain, has now gone a year without a victory. Raikkonen was lapped.

Force India
(Sergio Perez 9, Nico Hulkenberg 10)

The team continued their record of scoring points in every race this season but lost ground to Ferrari. Hulkenberg said his race had been a case of damage limitation after struggling with tyre degradation.

Williams
(Valtteri Bottas 5, Felipe Massa 13)

Williams moved up to fifth in the standings with Bottas running third at the start before falling back in the pitstops. Massa did three stops to Bottas’s two.

McLaren
(Jenson Button 11, Kevin Magnussen 12)

McLaren have now gone three races without a point, their longest non-scoring drought in five years. Button dropped from eighth to 13th at the start. Magnussen tapped Vettel on the first lap and fell to 15th.

Toro Rosso
(Daniil Kvyat 14, Jean-Eric Vergne retired)

Kvyat suffered heavy tyre wear. Vergne was told to pit and retire on lap 25 due to an exhaust problem.

Lotus
(Romain Grosjean 8, Pastor Maldonado 15)

Grosjean bagged Lotus’s first points of the season in his 50th grand prix start and despite struggling with power unit problems. Maldonado started last after crashing in qualifying and was handed a five-second stop/go penalty for causing a collision with Caterham’s Ericsson. The Venezuelan now has four penalty points this season, more than any other driver.

Sauber
(Esteban Gutierrez 16, Adrian Sutil 17)

The Swiss team brought a new package, that took weight out of the car, but it failed to work well in all areas. They still have no points.

Marussia
(Jules Bianchi 18, Max Chilton 19)

Chilton stretched his record run of successive finishes to 24 races, every grand prix he has started.

Caterham
(Marcus Ericsson 20, Kamui Kobayashi retired)

Kobayashi suffered a left front brake failure on lap 44 and retired after avoiding hitting the wall at turn one. Ericsson was hit by Maldonado at the start. (Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Josh Reich)

“It’s fantastic to get my first win here (Spain) after eight attempts and it’s really difficult to put that feeling into words right now. We have our bosses from Mercedes-Benz here today and it’s great for the team that we were able to give them a one-two finish. In all my career, I’ve never before had a car or a performance gap like this. Nico drove a fantastic race and I struggled to keep him behind, but I just managed it at the end. I had the same problems with the car this afternoon that I found yesterday in qualifying: I couldn’t attack the corners properly because of snap oversteer and that’s where Nico was catching me. I’m just so proud of this team: we are looking very strong and I’m enjoying every moment and every step of the way. There’s still a long way to go this season, though, so we are staying humble, getting our heads down and working hard. I still have a bit more time to find from the car because it’s very, very close with Nico, so I have to keep working on that. But it’s a great feeling to be leading the championship.” – Lewis Hamilton