The debate on Formula 1 2014 will run and run... and run for the rest of the year, so last weekend's result with Mercedes bagging a one-two - with Lewis Hamilton leading Nico Rosberg home - was no great surprise. The Red Bull of Vettel joining them on the podium in third was. The smile returned, even if 'the finger' didn't.
Did Hamilton blow Rosberg away?
We've covered the inaugural season of the
1.6 turbo era
in detail during the last few weeks, so with plenty of motorsport action over the previous seven days, we won't dwell on it too much.
However, twelve months on from 'Multi 21', team orders hit the headlines in Malaysia once more. Massa ignored a message to let Williams teammate Bottas through during the final stage of the race - but we can see his point. Sort of.
The radio call told the Brazilian, "Valtteri is quicker than you" - coded, maybe, but not necessarily a direct order as Massa argued, claiming it wasn't clear and that he was right to defend his position. Talking about re-writing the F1 rulebook last week, do team orders have a place in Formula 1? We'll open the floor to suggestions...
919 pipped the Audi R18 at Paul Ricard...
Porsche proves performance
Prior to the second F1 round of the season, Porsche proved the performance of its
919 Hybrid LMP1
challenger at the 2014 World Endurance Championship "Prologue" (that's just a fancy test, isn't it?), sending a shot across the bows of Audi and Toyota.
24-year-old rookie LMP1 driver Brendon Hartley posted a 1 min 41.289 second lap in Friday night's session, with cooler temperatures giving the V4 turbo motor more power and lower track temperatures possibly allowing a softer tyre.
Compare that to Lotterer's 1 min 42.073 on Friday afternoon in the #2 Audi R18 and it shows despite claims of high staff turnover and vibration issues from the V4 - although murmurings of a revised firing order for the 919's engine may have cured this - Porsche could really run Audi close for honours at the Circuit de la Sarthe this season.
.. maybe explains no Audi pics from the 'Prologue'
The second Porsche finished the two-day test in third, while Toyota's new 1,000hp TS040 managed a 1 min 42.356, good enough for fourth. Roughly 1.3 seconds covering the top four - game on.
That massive power output sets it out as the most powerful P1 car in a long time, with the front and rear electric motors delivering a 480hp hybrid boost alongside the 520hp 3.7-litre naturally aspirated V8. When was the last time a 1,000hp-plus car raced at Le Mans? Some form of Nissan RC90 in the early '90s we'd wager.
Hot air
What is interesting about the times the three big LMP teams posted at Paul Ricard was the different specifications the cars were running in. Ricard replicates the long straights of Le Mans, as well as a few other situations, pretty well, so it's a good place to glean some all-important data from. Especially if you're Porsche.
Cooler temps at night benefitted Porsche
Excuse us while the PH speculometer is wheeled out, but we don't know exactly who was running what. However, from as far as we can tell, Porsche was sporting a low drag setup, Audi went the other way and opted to run a high-downforce bodywork package, and Toyota mixed it up with one car in Le Mans trim and the other with a short circuit profile. This makes it a little more difficult to assess exactly the relative pace of each car.
Maybe Porsche was sick of rumours it was trailing the Audi by up to two seconds a lap at the previous Sebring test?
Factor in its recent announcement that the 919 will harvest only six megajoules of energy instead of the targeted eight - on a par with the Toyota in terms of energy recovery and ahead of the two megajoule Audi - and Hartley's time nearly eight tenths faster than the lead R18 means either Weissach has pulled its finger out, or Ingolstadt is sand bagging. Which brings us to Toyota again.
Don't forget the third contender in this battle
The Japanese firm's sports car programme is now in its third year, so the bean counters will be expecting results. With 1,000hp down the Mulsanne, it should help.
However, despite fuel quantities per lap already allegedly confirmed by the FIA and ACO, neither opted to make those numbers public over the two days. This means it's going to be extremely difficult to predict which car will emerge as the dominant package if the exact amount of energy (electric and chemical) the petrol and diesel outfits will get per lap is still up in the air, despite preliminary numbers.
With so many different types of circuit on the WEC calendar - Le Mans, Circuit of the Americas, Fuji and Bahrain to name a few - it's going to be a difficult season to forecast. Won't stop us having a go, though: Audi to win Le Mans 2014. There you go, we said it. What do you reckon?