So at last we have someone quick enough to keep those Mercedes cars honest.
Following a disappointing start to the season, it's great news for Formula 1 to have Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel in the position to win after a long run of races in which Mercedes could only beat itself.
Right from the outset of practice, Ferrari looked to have the out-and-out pace to take the fight to Mercedes.
And in race trim on the long runs on Friday afternoon, Ferrari looked stronger.
There have been times during the past year when Ferrari has looked strong on Friday and faded later in the weekend, but this time, come race day, the team achieved exactly what it set out to do.
Ferrari was able to take Mercedes on in a straight fight XPB |
As team boss Maurizio Arrivabene explained on Sunday night, the team believed when it analysed its race pace and strategy plans that it was in very strong shape - and, like a true top team, did everything right on Sunday afternoon.
For Ferrari to come from where it was last year, when it managed just two podiums, is a great accomplishment because it is never easy to turn things around so quickly.
There have been a lot of changes of senior personnel at Ferrari in recent times, with Luca di Montezemolo, Stefano Domenicali, Marco Mattiacci and Pat Fry all having departed.
Arrivabene has come in as team principal under new Ferrari chairman Sergio Marchionne, and this is also the first time technical director James Allison has had a proper run at a season since arriving from Lotus.
I doubt very much that the new management are solely responsible for this turnaround, but cutting through the company with an axe, as Ferrari has done, certainly sharpens everyone up.
I think you can see this; everyone is just that little bit more prepared, so the team doesn't look as lazy as it used to do.
Let's all hope that it can keep it up as the season progresses. There is no reason why it can't, since the Ferrari is good on its tyres and both drivers seem very at home with it - so battle is on.
For Vettel to win on his second Ferrari start is an exceptional achievement. No one can have ever thought that would happen when his move was announced last year (especially not Fernando Alonso!).
Raikkonen still finished fourth despite this puncture LAT |
As for Kimi Raikkonen, there's no doubt he would have been right up there as well had his qualifying not been compromised, which put him in a busy midfield and left him vulnerable to a first-corner contact.
That puncture surely put paid to a potential podium result, even considering his lowly starting position.
For Raikkonen to still come through the field and finish fourth confirms that Ferrari is the team to emerge from the winter fog as the main contender to challenge the Mercedes domination.
Vettel must have had a wry smile on his face as he swept past the two Red Bulls to lap them late on in the race.
He made a big decision in moving away from his safe haven at Red Bull to Ferrari, and on Sunday he proved he isn't just a one-team man.
Ferrari's pace forced Mercedes to think on its feet and the cracks started to show as a result.
A double pitstop during the safety car period put paid to Nico Rosberg's chances of a win, because he had to sit and wait for Lewis Hamilton's stop to be completed, and then also had to wait for the pitlane to clear as everyone else streamed in.
Fitting Hamilton with the hard tyre, the same as Vettel was on during the final stint, is another example of Mercedes being off its game.
While Vettel didn't have the choice, Mercedes did and the medium tyre was the faster compound. Hamilton immediately pointed out over the radio that he felt he was on the wrong tyre after being sent out on hards.
Hamilton and Mercedes have a lot to reflect on LAT |
The medium Pirellis (which had already been used in Q1 on Saturday) would certainly have gone off a bit earlier, but he just might have been ahead of Vettel by then, so the closing stages of the race would have been transformed.
Rosberg also had the choice but went with the mediums, and he did close on both Hamilton and Vettel in the final stint.
He made his final pitstop on lap 41 and came out 27 seconds behind Vettel and 13 seconds behind Hamilton. He finished 12.3s behind the Ferrari driver and within five of his team-mate, so this shows what Hamilton just might have done if he had been given the opportunity.
During winter testing it looked to me as if the Mercedes was a bit more aggressive on the rear tyres, as discussed in my pre-season analysis.
Mercedes has a very aggressive central section on the diffuser. This can be good for that extra bit of downforce but it can also be very sensitive to the rate of change of rear ride height.
This can lead to airflow separation, especially on corner entry, which in turn will overwork the rear tyre.
The very high track temperatures will have compounded this, which explains why Mercedes was struggling for tyre life.
It was disappointing to see Williams also struggling after appearing to be on a similar level to Ferrari at the previous grand prix.
The problem with Williams is that while there is a lot of talk about tidying up its operation, nothing ever seems to be done about it.
The Williams raced wheel-to-wheel but were outpaced by Ferrari and Mercedes LAT |
There was talk about the tyre pressures being too high in wet qualifying, but that is a minor problem compared with what I saw in the race.
Not only were there some slow pitstops, but the team allowed Valtteri Bottas to challenge and overtake Felipe Massa on the last lap of the race.
That is criminal because they had everything to lose and nothing to gain, as fifth and sixth were assured.
I am a Bottas fan but it was only Massa's experience that ensured they didn't both end up in the gravel trap.
As for Red Bull, it wasn't only the intense heat that was leaving the team a bit red-faced. Being beaten up by the junior team (and lapped by Vettel) must be a hard pill to swallow.
Toro Rosso is just getting on with doing the job. It has the same Renault engine but instead of senior figures shooting their mouths off about how bad it is they are just taking the best out of it.
Congratulations to both Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz Jr for keeping it together and pulling a double points finish out of what could have been a very difficult weekend.
I've always favoured running talented, motivated young drivers and Toro Rosso's points haul shows what you can achieve with speed and inexperience.
Force India is suffering from its shortened pre-season testing and while the car is simply not quick enough, it won't be until after the Barcelona post-race test that we can see its potential.
Toro Rosso and Sauber have both done a good job over the winter so I am afraid to say Force India, with its problems in the off-season, has stood still.
Hulkenberg spent a while running as high as second for Force India LAT |
Hopefully it has the budget to ensure that when its new components are introduced the gains will be significant.
It must be frustrating for Nico Hulkenberg. He is an exceptional talent going to waste.
When he was running in second place he was driving like a demon. When will one of the big teams open their eyes and give him a chance?
After a fantastic weekend in Melbourne it was down to earth with a bump for Sauber. The car is quick enough to mix it with Toro Rosso but a disappointing race and a no-points finish in Malaysia will wake it up, especially with both drivers making errors.
As for McLaren and Honda, I suppose the school report will say 'must try harder next time'.
I am sure they will find some positive slant to put on what was another dismal weekend, and doubtless it will have collected another trillion gigabytes of data to work through, but the reality of it is that McLaren wasn't competitive and never really looked like being so.
Whatever is holding it back needs to be turned up, even if it only lasts for a limited amount of laps.
McLaren-Honda needs to show whatever potential it really has within the car, and prove that there is some light at the end of the tunnel otherwise everyone is going to lose motivation.
It sees itself as the best-placed team to defeat Mercedes in the long term.
But the Malaysian GP proves that, currently, Ferrari legitimately holds that honour.
So at last we have someone quick enough to keep those Mercedes cars honest.
Following a disappointing start to the season, it's great news for Formula 1 to have Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel in the position to win after a long run of races in which Mercedes could only beat itself.
Right from the outset of practice, Ferrari looked to have the out-and-out pace to take the fight to Mercedes.
And in race trim on the long runs on Friday afternoon, Ferrari looked stronger.
There have been times during the past year when Ferrari has looked strong on Friday and faded later in the weekend, but this time, come race day, the team achieved exactly what it set out to do.
Ferrari was able to take Mercedes on in a straight fight XPB |
As team boss Maurizio Arrivabene explained on Sunday night, the team believed when it analysed its race pace and strategy plans that it was in very strong shape - and, like a true top team, did everything right on Sunday afternoon.
For Ferrari to come from where it was last year, when it managed just two podiums, is a great accomplishment because it is never easy to turn things around so quickly.
There have been a lot of changes of senior personnel at Ferrari in recent times, with Luca di Montezemolo, Stefano Domenicali, Marco Mattiacci and Pat Fry all having departed.
Arrivabene has come in as team principal under new Ferrari chairman Sergio Marchionne, and this is also the first time technical director James Allison has had a proper run at a season since arriving from Lotus.
I doubt very much that the new management are solely responsible for this turnaround, but cutting through the company with an axe, as Ferrari has done, certainly sharpens everyone up.
I think you can see this; everyone is just that little bit more prepared, so the team doesn't look as lazy as it used to do.
Let's all hope that it can keep it up as the season progresses. There is no reason why it can't, since the Ferrari is good on its tyres and both drivers seem very at home with it - so battle is on.
For Vettel to win on his second Ferrari start is an exceptional achievement. No one can have ever thought that would happen when his move was announced last year (especially not Fernando Alonso!).
Raikkonen still finished fourth despite this puncture LAT |
As for Kimi Raikkonen, there's no doubt he would have been right up there as well had his qualifying not been compromised, which put him in a busy midfield and left him vulnerable to a first-corner contact.
That puncture surely put paid to a potential podium result, even considering his lowly starting position.
For Raikkonen to still come through the field and finish fourth confirms that Ferrari is the team to emerge from the winter fog as the main contender to challenge the Mercedes domination.
Vettel must have had a wry smile on his face as he swept past the two Red Bulls to lap them late on in the race.
He made a big decision in moving away from his safe haven at Red Bull to Ferrari, and on Sunday he proved he isn't just a one-team man.
Ferrari's pace forced Mercedes to think on its feet and the cracks started to show as a result.
A double pitstop during the safety car period put paid to Nico Rosberg's chances of a win, because he had to sit and wait for Lewis Hamilton's stop to be completed, and then also had to wait for the pitlane to clear as everyone else streamed in.
Fitting Hamilton with the hard tyre, the same as Vettel was on during the final stint, is another example of Mercedes being off its game.
While Vettel didn't have the choice, Mercedes did and the medium tyre was the faster compound. Hamilton immediately pointed out over the radio that he felt he was on the wrong tyre after being sent out on hards.
Hamilton and Mercedes have a lot to reflect on LAT |
The medium Pirellis (which had already been used in Q1 on Saturday) would certainly have gone off a bit earlier, but he just might have been ahead of Vettel by then, so the closing stages of the race would have been transformed.
Rosberg also had the choice but went with the mediums, and he did close on both Hamilton and Vettel in the final stint.
He made his final pitstop on lap 41 and came out 27 seconds behind Vettel and 13 seconds behind Hamilton. He finished 12.3s behind the Ferrari driver and within five of his team-mate, so this shows what Hamilton just might have done if he had been given the opportunity.
During winter testing it looked to me as if the Mercedes was a bit more aggressive on the rear tyres, as discussed in my pre-season analysis.
Mercedes has a very aggressive central section on the diffuser. This can be good for that extra bit of downforce but it can also be very sensitive to the rate of change of rear ride height.
This can lead to airflow separation, especially on corner entry, which in turn will overwork the rear tyre.
The very high track temperatures will have compounded this, which explains why Mercedes was struggling for tyre life.
It was disappointing to see Williams also struggling after appearing to be on a similar level to Ferrari at the previous grand prix.
The problem with Williams is that while there is a lot of talk about tidying up its operation, nothing ever seems to be done about it.
The Williams raced wheel-to-wheel but were outpaced by Ferrari and Mercedes LAT |
There was talk about the tyre pressures being too high in wet qualifying, but that is a minor problem compared with what I saw in the race.
Not only were there some slow pitstops, but the team allowed Valtteri Bottas to challenge and overtake Felipe Massa on the last lap of the race.
That is criminal because they had everything to lose and nothing to gain, as fifth and sixth were assured.
I am a Bottas fan but it was only Massa's experience that ensured they didn't both end up in the gravel trap.
As for Red Bull, it wasn't only the intense heat that was leaving the team a bit red-faced. Being beaten up by the junior team (and lapped by Vettel) must be a hard pill to swallow.
Toro Rosso is just getting on with doing the job. It has the same Renault engine but instead of senior figures shooting their mouths off about how bad it is they are just taking the best out of it.
Congratulations to both Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz Jr for keeping it together and pulling a double points finish out of what could have been a very difficult weekend.
I've always favoured running talented, motivated young drivers and Toro Rosso's points haul shows what you can achieve with speed and inexperience.
Force India is suffering from its shortened pre-season testing and while the car is simply not quick enough, it won't be until after the Barcelona post-race test that we can see its potential.
Toro Rosso and Sauber have both done a good job over the winter so I am afraid to say Force India, with its problems in the off-season, has stood still.
Hulkenberg spent a while running as high as second for Force India LAT |
Hopefully it has the budget to ensure that when its new components are introduced the gains will be significant.
It must be frustrating for Nico Hulkenberg. He is an exceptional talent going to waste.
When he was running in second place he was driving like a demon. When will one of the big teams open their eyes and give him a chance?
After a fantastic weekend in Melbourne it was down to earth with a bump for Sauber. The car is quick enough to mix it with Toro Rosso but a disappointing race and a no-points finish in Malaysia will wake it up, especially with both drivers making errors.
As for McLaren and Honda, I suppose the school report will say 'must try harder next time'.
I am sure they will find some positive slant to put on what was another dismal weekend, and doubtless it will have collected another trillion gigabytes of data to work through, but the reality of it is that McLaren wasn't competitive and never really looked like being so.
Whatever is holding it back needs to be turned up, even if it only lasts for a limited amount of laps.
McLaren-Honda needs to show whatever potential it really has within the car, and prove that there is some light at the end of the tunnel otherwise everyone is going to lose motivation.
It sees itself as the best-placed team to defeat Mercedes in the long term.
But the Malaysian GP proves that, currently, Ferrari legitimately holds that honour.