While Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes will be aiming to hunt down front-runner McLaren in Shanghai, there is an equally exciting five-way battle going on in the midfield pack.
The team to beat is Sauber, mainly thanks to some clever pit wall strategies and equally, two stunning drives from Sergio Perez.
In Australia a penalty for an early gearbox change meant he had to start at the back of the grid, yet the Mexican fought his way to the eighth place.
In Malaysia, fortuitous timing of the tyre stops on the rain-soaked track played as much to Perez' advantage as it did for race winner Alonso.
At one moment it even seemed as if the Sauber driver might even challenge the champion's Ferrari for victory.
However, there are a few doubts whether Sauber might be able to maintain this pace. The car is clearly short of sponsor deals and without funding, its development lead may stagnate. The Lotus team too is experiencing a turbulent time on the commercial front, as the Proton-owned Lotus Cars Group last week announced its withdrawal of title sponsorship.
It seems that the sports car manufacturer's ambitious plans are no longer endorsed by the Malaysian parent company. So where does that leave the F-1 team?
In pretty good shape, with some good sponsors outside of Lotus, they tell us. The team's owner, Genii Capital is even sufficiently bullish to hint that it might wish to make an offer to buy the loss-making sports car maker outright.
It could be one reason why the cars continue to carry the Lotus name even though it is no longer being paid to do so.
On the other hand, business writers report that earlier this year, Proton extended the team a £35 million loan. If for any reason the team was to default on that, it could mean Proton would become the owner of its own Formula One team at a knock-down price!
On the track, certainly the Lotus Renault car shows real promise.
Raikkonen's return with a seventh place in Australia and fifth in Sepang, certainly looks a lot more convincing than Schumacher's. Meanwhile, returning rookie Romain Grosjean has shown spectacular qualifying pace. What might happen if he can avoid hitting things on the opening lap, only time will tell.
Toro Rosso is another strong mid-field team. Despite the disruption of having to switch to two more relatively untried drivers in Ricciardo and Vergne, both the youngsters have scored points, despite a car which clearly requires an aggressive driving input.
Force India disappoints
Toro Rosso's performance has so far overshadowed Force India, which looked good in testing, but has so far disappointed in the races. The team may be paying the penalty for throwing so many resources into continuing to develop last year's car late into the season, as it battled to sixth place in the constructors' championship.
It is hard too, not to wonder whether Vijay Mallya's other financial woes, including his problems with Kingfisher Airways, are also affecting the team's development budgets. Time will tell.
Finally we come to Williams, which has fought back from the worst season in its history.
A handy new car and a pair of drivers whose natural talents outweigh their inexperience seem to have borne fruit — and it has just unveiled a secret weapon.
The Williams team's new test driver, Susie Wolff is no token girl.
Over the past decade she raced her way through Formula Renault, Formula Three and for the last five years has raced against the likes of Paul di Resta in the fiercely competitive German Touring Car Championship.
Steve Slater is a Formula One commentator on STAR Sports
