But then came the back-to-back wins, almost from nowhere, in France and Britain that kickstarted an awesome second half of the year, in which he finished on the podium at every race bar the Nurburgring. In hindsight, it was such a good example of putting the pressure on and maximising his points haul at every opportunity, it allowed him to creep up and pull off the biggest and most pleasant surprise of all - that the most apolitical driver in the field had fittingly pinched the title in this most political of seasons.

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And whose angelic demeanour hid an ambitious and arrogant streak as disappointing as his team-mate's. A lucky devil then, literally. But one who, in his first season, extracted the maximum and beyond, more often than anyone else. Who redrew the boundaries of expectations, who pulled off that sensational move on Raikkonen at Monza, and who barely made a rookie mistake to speak of until the last two races. A superstar, a giant, a new hero was born, but many were pleased that he was denied the title at the death.

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Late mechanical failures cost him at Sepang and Indianapolis, whilst strategy wrecked his race at Monaco, and a penalty in Canada deprived him of yet more points. He could have scored 30 or more by season's end, reflecting his place as the next man up after the Ferraris, McLarens and BMWs. That was the level of performance we came to expect. Williams could have done with the money from another team buying out Nico's contract, but instead they rushed to keep him for 2008. That said it all.

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He steadied and scored points in Malaysia and Spain, but the pressure was still on when he missed the Q1 cut in Canada. But a fortuitous 4th there lit a spark of confidence. From there his consistency was awesome, qualifying 6th or 7th in six of the next seven races, scoring points in eight of the next nine, including that fantastic 2nd place in Japan, and possibly destroying Fisichella's career. It was so pleasing to see a rookie who had to work hard to overcome adversity, and who did it without being pampered by his team.

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But how does a champion end up with such a fragile mindset that he lets an intra-team rival, even a rookie, throw him off his equilibrium so much? That he ends up making desperado mistakes in Spain and Canada? That he makes a rod for his own back in Hungary, both on the track and off it? That, even though McLaren did not know how to treat him properly, he resorted to underhanded means and the Spanish press? Alonso showed a bitterly disappointing dark side in 2007, and the mind boggles at exactly why.

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Aside from Sepang, Massa continued to prove what he showed from last year, that if he starts from pole and leads from the front, more often than not he will be unbeatable. But this is also his problem; he has yet to win other than from pole, and you sense that he's still not quite a complete package. There was his disqualification in Canada and a horror weekend in Hungary, and he still feels like a liability in the wet, which allowed Alonso to beat him at the Nurburgring. He's getting closer, but he's not a world-beater just yet.

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But, for starters, he was driving a BMW, the undisputed third best car that guaranteed points if it stayed reliable. And, apart from that Bahrain move, Nick did hardly anything memorable all season. So here's the dilemma - do you say that he's just an accumulator who can't really deliver when something special is called for, or do you say that he simply knows the limits and maximises what he can get, without being greedy and risk throwing it all away? A bit of both, really - but we probably prefer the latter.

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So apart from a sensational podium at the Nurburgring and two 7th places, he finished 9th three times, including Canada where he was thwarted by the Safety Car. And then there were all those painful retirements when he was competitive enough to score points, including Bahrain, Monaco, Brazil, and of course Japan - a race which we will never know whether or not he could have won. But the mechanical problems that haunt him now must beg the question: is there something in his driving style that breaks his cars?

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Like Raikkonen, it took him about a third of the season to adapt his style, but once he did he started leaving Rubens Barrichello in his wake regularly. With confidence on the one hand, and no pressure on the other, he pulled out brilliant on-the-limit races in France and Italy, and his wet weather cameos at the Nurburgring, in qualifying in Japan, and in China reminded everyone of the talent going to waste. Nick Fry claims this was Button's best ever season - surely an exaggeration, but you knew what he meant.

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By nature Kubica has an aggressive turn-in style that did not suit the Bridgestones at all, and he found it difficult to adjust; finishing 32s behind Heidfeld in Bahrain showed how much work he had to do. When he did get it right, he could match and beat his team-mate, but he was too inconsistent on that front. Arguably though, two of his best weekends were in France and Britain, upon his return to the cockpit after his horror smash in Canada. It was a sign of a resilience that one day will take him to the top.

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That was what made him more valuable to Red Bull than, say, Alexander Wurz was to Williams. It was not only a matter of his experience paying dividends, although that certainly contributed to his points-scoring finishes in Spain when his gearbox played up in the dying laps, in the changing conditions at the Nurburgring and Shanghai, and in the treacherous wet at Fuji. The fact was that he still had enough competitive race weekends in him to induce confidence from the team.

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He did the right thing in going to Toro Rosso so that he could go racing immediately, but he took a while to get the hang of the car. Once he did, few youngsters have ever made as much impression in an inferior machine in changeable conditions as he did in Japan and China. Sure, more than once he misjudged braking distances, and as Aussies we almost sent out the lynch mob after what he did to Mark Webber at Fuji, but he was sincerely apologetic. So not only was he fast, but he was willing to be humble and learn.

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But then Sato's form tapered along with that of the car. The Japanese driver had made it through Q1 five times in the first ten events, but not once thereafter. He could still be combative on occasions, especially in the early laps, and these days he has cut down on his error rate substantially, but there were to be no more highlights. Still, the important thing was that he had capitalised earlier in the season when the time was ripe, and that was what had set him apart from team-mate Davidson.

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