Kimi Raikkonen arrived at Ferrari as the main man, a super-quick driver to fill the void left by Michael Schumacher and lead the Formula 1 glamour team back to the top.
His Brazilian team mate Felipe Massa views the situation differently and, increasingly, so do some others.
Raikkonen is blisteringly quick, easily on a par with double champion Fernando Alonso and ahead of the rest. He has star quality.
But Massa now looks much more like the real deal, no longer simply plugging a hole at Ferrari until someone better comes along.
In 2006 he was handed a one-year contract alongside Schumacher, the most successful driver F1 has ever known, and came on in leaps and bounds
Massa now looks much more like the real deal
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He took his first Grand Prix podium at the Nuerburgring and won two races, including the Brazilian season-ender where he handled the considerable pressure of competing in front of his home Sao Paulo crowd on a weekend dominated by the German's farewell.
When Schumacher decided to retire Ferrari rewarded Massa with a contract extension to the end of 2008.
The Brazilian raced for Ferrari-powered Sauber in 2002, 2004 and 2005, with a spell as Ferrari test driver in 2003; he has been under contract to the Maranello since 2001.
Massa has learned from the maestro and worked on the rough edges; he was top of the timesheets on all three days of the final pre-season test in Bahrain in February 2007
Fernando Alonso commented: "Everybody thought that Kimi was coming to Ferrari and staying ahead and being number one and now everybody's realised that Felipe is very quick as well.
"For me it's not a surprise; either of them can win."
Renault team boss Flavio Briatore said much the same.
"I never believed Massa was so good," he declared.
"If you asked me about Massa at the beginning of the season, I thought he was kind of medium. But give him the right car and he's terrific."
Massa has been assured by the team that there is no longer a number one, even if Raikkonen is clearly the big money investment.
Breakthrough season
He knows the team well, is popular within it and speaks fluent Italian. Most importantly, he has the confidence that comes with being a winner after his breakthrough season.
Massa said: "I expect to make another step forward compared to last year; I'm trying to put everything together to be successful.
"I'm not the kind of guy who likes to say 'Yeah, I'm going to win'. I'm not like that. I'm going to keep working hard like always.
"In the end, winning the championship doesn't just mean being quick and being strong. You need to put everything together, especially luck, consistency and speed," he added.
Melbourne will give the first hint of whether the Brazilian can realistically hope to become his country's first champion since the late Ayrton Senna but that is no longer a laughable suggestion.
On recent form, Raikkonen will not find him an easy team mate.
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