(Editor's note: Ed Foster is the associate editor of Motor Sport magazine. He is also an F1 pundit for CNN's World Sport show.)

Five winners from the first five races? What’s happened to Formula One? We’re used to seeing a young German dominate, but he’s only won one race this year.

It has happened before, but it's very rare. In fact you have to go back to 1983, when five drivers from five different teams won the first five races.

Alain Prost broke that streak at Spa in Belgium, with his second victory of the season, but almost 30 years later there is no guarantee that the 2012 trend will not continue this weekend in Monaco.

So why is the racing so hit-and-miss at the moment? Firstly, yes, the tires have played a very large role.

The car that can get the best out of the Pirelli rubber, at the right time, will be much faster than anything else on track whether it’s a Red Bull or a McLaren. It’s all about maximizing the tires’ sweet spot and making sure that they last without their performance dropping away, very suddenly.

Ask Kimi Raikkonen how that feels – he had first-hand experience in China when he lost 10 places in one lap on worn tires. If you’re on the wrong rubber at the wrong time you may as well head to the pits and munch on ice cream, as the Finn famously did when a race was halted in 2009.

The fact that tires are now more important is partly down to the huge loss of downforce resulting from the ban on exhaust-blown diffusers at the end of 2011.

With less downforce at the back of the car (which means that it is pushed into the ground to create more grip), the rear tires slide around more and therefore get hotter, quicker. Add to this the huge variations in the temperatures at the different tracks and you’re some way to seeing why tire management is such a science.

Some teams are easier on their tires than others, and some drivers - like Perez and Button –have a remarkable ability to nurse them. But the current situation is emphasizing tire management and car setup even more than ever before.

The team that gets its head around the perfect way to treat the Pirellis will go on to win the 2012 world championship. It could be anyone from Williams to Ferrari.

The other reason for the apparently random results is that there is also a reasonably stable set of regulations this year, meaning that the performance differential has been somewhat leveled and almost every team - bar Caterham, Marussia and HRT - is in with a shot at taking the checkered flag at any given race.

It may be making the average fan salivate with excitement, but a certain Michael Schumacher is far from happy (and far from winning) with the emphasis on tire management.

Understandably he’s pretty tired of driving around constantly conserving tires, not being able to race flat out. Racing drivers tend to like driving as fast as they can.

“I just think,” he told CNN, “that they're playing a much too big effect because they are so peaky and so special that they don't put our cars or ourselves to the limit."

It’s not just Schumacher who’s tired of the current F1 lottery though; Red Bull owner Dietrich Mateschitz also thinks that the tires are throwing up too many surprise results. But whether that is down to the fact that his driver Sebastian Vettel has won the last two world championships with predictable racing, I couldn’t possibly comment on.

Okay, so for the purist fan it is perhaps a step too far, but for the average fan? They’re loving it. “Wouldn’t want it any other way” and “totally brilliant” were two typical responses when I posed the question of whether the unpredictability made good watching on Twitter earlier this week.

There may only be 20 points between the top seven drivers, but if you look at the top of the championship table the names Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel sit side by side on 61 points each. They’re arguably the two fastest drivers in F1 at the moment and that’s perhaps the crux of the argument.

Yes, the racing is unpredictable, but class still rises to the top.

With all this in mind, looking ahead to possible contenders to win in Monaco this weekend is going to be a pretty thankless task. Unless, of course, I just list every single entrant. But you can’t ever ignore the McLarens of Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button, nor the Ferrari of Alonso. Hamilton has been plagued by bad luck this year and it’s surely time for things to swing his way.

The Red Bulls will be fast, but then so could the Williams – especially in the hands of recent first-time winner Maldonado, who is very quick around the Principality. Last year he drove one of the races of his career only to be taken out in the closing stages by a charging, and hot-headed, Hamilton.

Lotus also looks very strong and if it goes smoothly for either Romain Grosjean or Raikkonen, then expect there to be six different winners, from six different teams, in the first six races of the year. It sounds better than it did after Monaco last year doesn’t it? After the street race in 2011 Vettel left with his fifth victory of the season, 58 points clear in the championship.

The 1983 season ended with Nelson Piquet just edging out Prost for the title, which he achieved with only three wins compared to the Frenchman's four. Hamilton’s comment that this year is all about consistently bagging points is spot on. Win or lose in Monaco, no-one will want to leave with nil points.

(Editor's note: Ed Foster is the associate editor of Motor Sport magazine. He is also an F1 pundit for CNN's World Sport show.)

As the Formula One circus makes its way to Catalunya for the first of the European rounds this weekend, Ferrari finds itself hoping, desperately, that it has made a step forward.

The teams have just finished their first in-season test since 2008, and after three days spent at Mugello everyone has their eyes on the Italian cars. Can Ferrari turn its season around with just one test? Probably not, is the quick answer.

Between the beginning of 2000 and the end of 2004, Ferrari was utterly dominant in Formula One. So dominant, in fact, that thanks to its drivers Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello it notched up 57 wins in 85 races (48 of which were courtesy of Germany's seven-time world champion).

I recently met Daniel Bruhl, who is playing ex-Ferrari driver Niki Lauda in the upcoming Hollywood film "Rush," and even he lost all interest in Formula One during those years. And he’s German. The team was so invincible that before each race started you could have written a report on it.

Okay, during those years Ferrari had Schumacher (whose status as its "number one" was very clear even after team orders were banned), Jean Todt and Ross Brawn, and tailor-made Bridgestone tires. But what really made a difference was that it tested relentlessly. Despite many drivers hating the thought of going round in circles collecting data, Schumacher appeared to revel in it.

However, just because there has been an in-season test this year it doesn’t necessarily mean that Ferrari will be challenging the likes of Red Bull and McLaren when the lights go out on Sunday.

There’s no denying that the Scuderia started the season with an ill-handling, unpredictable car, but no one could have predicted that after the first four races Fernando Alonso would be fifth in the world championship, only 10 points behind the leader Sebastian Vettel.

The fact that the Spaniard – whose two world titles came when he was at Renault - notched up that victory in Malaysia in March is perhaps the only thing that is keeping the "tifosi" from storming the Maranello castle.

Ferrari’s last constructors' title was back in 2008, while Kimi Raikkonen was the last Scuderia driver to lift the drivers' crown, and that was in 2007 when the very first iPhone was announced. Seems like a decade ago doesn’t it?

Anything less than several victories this year and team principal Stefano Domenicali will be, unjustly, put right in the firing line of a very unforgiving Italian media armed with the Gazzetta dello Sport’s AK47 equivalent: thousands of column inches.

At Mugello Ferrari did test many new parts on the car, but the updates look suspiciously like something that would make the car more predictable, rather than blisteringly quick. Of course, this doesn’t mean that it’s not a step in the right direction – just don’t expect Alonso to put his car on pole in Catalunya (famous last words?)

Alonso, it seems, is of a similar opinion. “In Montmelo,” he said on the Ferrari website on May 5, “we will be counting on making a step forward, but we won’t know until Saturday if we have and if so, how big a step it is. Clearly, having limited the damage in the first four races this year, we must turn things around.

“Having said that, it’s not the case that if we are not on pole in Barcelona then it’s the end of the world. The important thing is to make progress, reducing the gap as much as possible, first this weekend, then again in Monaco and after that, in Montreal, Valencia, Silverstone...”

If Ferrari employed me I would be saying exactly the same - not lifting the hopes of the millions of Ferrari fans around the world. Ferrari will no doubt have sorted some of its issues, but all the other leading teams were at the same test and, bar something extraordinary, they all will have taken a step forward as well.

That said, there are still 16 races left and who would have predicted four different winners from four different teams in the first four races of this season? No, me neither. Formula One 2012 continues to intrigue.

(Editor's note: Ed Foster is the associate editor of Motor Sport magazine. He is also an F1 pundit for CNN's World Sport show.)

Why hasn't Red Bull won a race so far this year? What's happened to Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber? Last year the German driver turned up at every track expecting to win, such was the dominance of his car. However, this year it's all changed.

Mercedes has won its first race since 1955, McLaren has started the year with a quick car, and Ferrari most certainly hasn't. Is Red Bull's dominance finally over? It is for now, but don't expect double world champion Vettel to be happy not taking that checkered flag and showing us all that "victory finger" of his.

For those that are wondering what's happened since the black and white flag was waved in Brazil last season, here's some insight from the paddock:

McLaren: McLaren has spent the last few years playing catch up throughout the season having started the year with an uncompetitive car. However, this year it has started well, and Jenson Button's victory in the Australian Grand Prix is proof that the team has stolen a march on its rivals.

The Britain-based outfit is also one of the best in the pit lane at mid-season development. It has the resources, and the drivers in Lewis Hamilton and Button, to be an almost certain championship contender. It's also one of only two teams to maintain its car's elegance by avoiding the stepped-nose design.

Mercedes: Since the takeover of Brawn GP at the end of 2009, Mercedes has struggled to replicate the form that carried Jenson Button to that year's title. Brawn GP dramatically downsized its team during that championship year and it's only now, over two years later, that Mercedes has managed to recover that form.

Rosberg's win and pole position in China were sublime and now that he has that maiden win under his belt - after 111 races - expect him to keep posting strong results. Their straight-line speed from the last two years now seems to have been carried into the corners. Mercedes are in a very strong position to take their first world championship since 1955.

Red Bull: Red Bull, particularly in qualifying, was untouchable last year and carried Sebastian Vettel to his second World Championship. However, this year it has struggled in qualifying which many people are putting down to the ban on off-throttle blown diffusers.

Last year Red Bull perfected the technology that meant, even when the driver wasn't on the throttle, exhaust gases were blown over the rear of the car creating a huge amount of downforce and therefore grip. Don't write the team off though. It has huge resources and two very quick drivers. Expect them to be back at the front soon.

Ferrari: It all seems to have gone wrong for Ferrari this year. The car is nowhere near as quick as the front-runners, but Fernando Alonso did manage to pull of a stunning victory in a mixed conditions Malaysian Grand Prix. Don't be fooled though. The Ferrari's dry pace is nowhere near the likes of McLaren.

Felipe Massa - whose seat in the team is under pressure - is still struggling to match Alonso's pace. The lack of form is being put down to his huge accident in the second part of qualifying for the 2009 Hungarian Grand Prix, when a spring from Rubens Barrichello's Brawn GP car hit him in the head.

However, he was quick when he returned at the beginning of 2010 and his current lack of form seems to stem from being asked to move over for his team-mate Alonso in that year's German Grand Prix at Hockenheim. If ever there was a message to say "you are the number two driver," that was it.

Ferrari may struggle to catch up with the might of Red Bull, McLaren and Mercedes.

Renault and Sauber: Kimi Raikkonen, after a two-year sabbatical in the World Rally Championship, seems to have lost none of his pace. Meanwhile, Sauber's Sergio Perez has managed to prove that he is a worthy possible successor to Massa at Ferrari after a brilliant drive in the Chinese Grand Prix, which brought him his first podium in F1.

But the burning question is whether these midfield teams can keep up with the speed of development that the top outfits can manage.

Will this be one of the most exciting championships of recent years? It'll be hard to beat the heart-stopping final race in 2008, when Lewis Hamilton won the title on the last corner of the last lap, but on current evidence things are looking good. Look at the amount of overtaking in the past few races. I know, overtaking in F1? We're certainly entering a golden era of racing.

The fact that there are six Formula One world champions on the grid for this weekend’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix, the most there has ever been, is amazing.

As racing drivers, what they all want to do is win a race with the best possible grid. If they win against nobodies, it means nothing to them. But with six world champions, if they win a race, it is a huge accolade to have.

One of the reasons it should be a really good season is all the teams seem much closer together this year. We won’t know the true nature of things until the end of the fly away races at the beginning of the season, but everything looks a bit closer. Even the midfield teams look closer to the front of the grid than normal.

Ferrari might surprise a few people, because they still don’t have a very quick car. In Spain's double world champion Fernando Alonso they have got one of the best drivers on the grid, alongside Red Bull’s two-time title winner Sebastian Vettel and McLaren’s 2008 champion Lewis Hamilton.

Alonso’s patience has got to be wearing thin, he has been very supportive of the company but he is a racing driver, he wants to be winning races.

Mercedes could surprise people because they are much faster than last year and they will be a lot closer to the front of the grid than they were in 2010 and 2011.

Seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher has struggled to reach his peak form since returning to the sport with Mercedes in 2010, but the sport has changed a lot.

There are new technical regulations and different rules relating to tires. But the bottom line is Schumacher is not as good as he was. But this year, with the Mercedes being a lot quicker, he should be back up there.

If there’s a sniff of rain or mixed conditions, Schumacher is always going to be the one who comes through and will probably grab victory.

Like Schumacher two years ago, 2007 drivers’ champion Kimi Raikkonen is returning to the sport with Lotus, formerly Renault, after two years away.

But unlike Schumacher, not too much has changed since the Finn has been away. His teammate, France’s Romain Grosjean, was not very good when he stood in for Nelson Piquet at Renault in 2010.

Grosjean has gone away, he has matured and he has got a lot better. But he is not world champion material. I think he will flatter Raikkonen nicely.

But the man to beat will be Vettel. The German is such a complete driver, every part of him is brilliant. People question his overtaking ability, but we saw at Monza last year, when he went round Alonso with two wheels on the grass, that he doesn’t have too many worries in that department.

Vettel is the complete package and still so young -– he is going to stay at this level for many years to come. He is not the overwhelming favorite, but if the Red Bull is quick enough he will win races, which could make life tough for his Australian teammate Mark Webber.

The 35-year-old didn’t have a great season in 2011, despite his season-ending win in Brazil. He was comprehensively blown away by Vettel. When a driver starts winning races, as Vettel has, the team starts getting behind you. As the other driver, you are going to start feeling left out.

The McLaren pair of Button and Hamilton will be Vettel’s main challengers.

Button and Hamilton get on really well, as well as you can as teammates. If someone beats you from another team, you just say their car is faster, but there is always that edge with teammates. They’ve got the same equipment and that is the perfect person to compare yourself to.

McLaren are good at putting two very quick drivers into their team and letting them go for it. Obviously there have been bumps, with Alonso and Hamilton in 2007 and Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna in the 1980s.

It doesn’t always go according to plan. But of all the teammates on the grid, you get an impression Button and Hamilton do get on very well.

Button is actually a very normal, down-to-earth, decent guy, so it’s hard not to like him. He is at the peak of his career. He’s got the experience, he’s quick and he has obviously settled in really well at McLaren.

He is one of the quickest drivers on the grid now and he’s got a very bright future at McLaren having signed a multi-year contract last season.

What we will see this year is, if a team makes a single mistake, in terms of tire strategy or pit stops, they are going to pay for it hugely and finish 13th rather than sixth.

Last year if you made a tiny mistake, you could perhaps hide it because the gaps between the teams were so big. But this year the gap won’t be there. That’s going to mean the team which makes the least mistakes is going to be right up there.