They protested that the new Sauber is simply a blue Ferrari, which goes against the sport’s technical regulations (which although secret, are said to state that no part of an F1 car may be designed or made by another constructor except for the engine, gearbox and safety equipment).

Peter Sauber denied the similarity and insisted that the C23 is an evolution of last year's C22. He told Autosport magazine: “All cars are permanently evolving and teams look at what others do. There are lots of similarities throughout the paddock.“In our case, this is more so because we are using both the Ferrari engine and Ferrari gearbox.”

The FIA are also happy that the C23 is not a Ferrari copy but admit that the two cars have similarities. A source told Autosport: “Everything is above board. The car is not the same as the Ferrari, but it is very similar.

This type of controversy crops up periodically in F1. Late last year a Toyota engineer was questioned by German police over allegations that rival teams had obtained access to Ferrari's designs click here.

The 1995 Ligier was striking similar to the same year's Benetton and there was speculation at the time that Flavio Briatore, who was the boss of both teams, had allowed Ligier's engineers a little too much access to Benetton's drawings. He claimed that there was no breach of the regulations because the cars were manufactured separately. Previously, the March 811 was admitted to be a 'cut-price copy' of the Williams FW07.

There is no doubt that Sauber are getting ever closer to Ferrari. Ferrari F1 tester Felipe Massa is racing for the Swiss team again this year and both teams run on Bridgestone tyres and information sharing between two good teams can only help both. Sauber are one of the better "second division" teams and have achieved good results, Sauber's bold choice of drivers like Raikkonen and Heidfeld having reaped dividends.

The huge financial advantage enjoyed by the top teams means that the grids and the results are rarely intermingled. The days when stella new talent could shock the establishment, particularly in adverse conditions, are sadly missed. Who can forget Ayrton Senna in the Toleman, in the wet, at Monaco in 1984?

FIA president Max Mosely is reported to favour a relaxation of the rules forcing F1 teams to build their own chassis, allowing them to buy cars from rival manufacturers. This could reduce costs and maybe once again, we could enjoy the excitiment of a young hero giving the F1 Big Cheeses a hard time.

Finally, everyone needs to remember that there's only one King of The Blues.

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