Three races are completed in the 2005 Formula One racing season, and already the jungle drums are intimating that changes may be on the winds. A new front-running squad has emerged and with it two of F1's hottest driving talents are being given the chance to shine. Whisper it: these guys might, just might, finally wrest the F1 crowns from Ferrari and Michael Schumacher.

The season's opening races have brought a new car very much to the fore, in the comely shape of the Renault R25. The Renault squad is an Anglo-French collaboration (the team's chassis is designed and built in Oxfordshire, the engines just outside Paris) and has been very much there or thereabouts, pace-wise, since it began its life in 2002. Back then it was a team in transition, morphing from the Benetton operation that ran between 1985 and 2001. Now, it is very much its own master, and results thus far in 2005 are testimony to those few, precious years of experience.

Consistency, evolution and cooperation abound at Renault, in the same way that it does at Ferrari. Having both the engine and chassis built in-house neatly sidesteps the potential for ugly political wrangles between separate engine and chassis builders. Focus among the workforce is, therefore, unencumbered by peripheral bickering. Not for Renault the power struggles that typified B.A.R's relationship with Honda (until the Japanese firm took controlling interest in the team), and which still dog Williams and BMW. Such subtleties in management structure can make all the difference in the pressure cooker that is modern F1, and the results on track suggest the ethos is correct and working.

The R25 is nimble and, crucially, stable. A major flaw with last year's R24 was its lack of grip on turn in. What with all the aerodynamic changes foisted on the engineers by the FIA, this past winter has been a busy one down Renault way. But it would appear to be a successful one, too. Gone is the troublesome understeer, replaced by 2003-levels of grip and stability. The 2003 challenger was penned by Mike Gascoyne, one of F1's leading designers, and now being paid the equivalent of a driver's salary in his new role with Toyota. His revered reputation was significantly bolstered by the performance of the R23, but it would now appear that his successor, Bob Bell, has gone one better. No mean achievement, to be sure.

This year's engine also suggests a performance leap over the R24. It retains its innate drivability and bottom-end power, but it now seems to have the grunt at the top end, too. BMW, Ferrari and Toyota all held an advantage in this department last season. It seems now that Renault have clawed back all of this, and possibly a tad more. Coupled with a Michelin tire that seems to possess an edge over Bridgestone, it all adds up to a powerful package. A package which Ferrari, on those struggling Bridgestone tires, will surely be regarding with increasing alarm.

So what of the drivers? Well, during the closed season many F1 journos waxed lyrical at length about the talents of the 2005 driver line up at McLaren. It was to be, they said, the best driver pairing since Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost raced for the same stable in the late 1980s. True, both of McLaren's current charges, Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya, are proven race winners and both ran Michael Schumacher close in the 2003 title race, but it has been my distinct impression that Montoya has been a little off the boil in recent times, and his performances to date in 2005 have supported that view. Renault's drivers, on the other hand, promised, for me, an even more mouth-watering prospect. A mixture of youth and experience, the pairing of Giancarlo Fisichella and Fernando Alonso is surely the strongest in the pit-lane.

Thirty-two-year-old Italian Fisichella has proven pedigree but hasn't always had the wheels under him that his talent warrants. A little over half a dozen races with Minardi in 1996 allowed him to cut his teeth F1, and a move to the then-competitive Jordan team for 1997 established Giancarlo as F1's newest hotshoe. Sadly, things began to stutter. His debut season under Eddie Jordan delivered some strong drives, most notably a stirring second place in Belgium, but a move to Benetton in 1998 proved a backwards step. The Enstone-based squad were on the slide, and they took Giancarlo down with them. In four years with the team Fisi secured a clutch of second-place finishes, often at the Canadian GP, but, those good days aside, his experience there was largely disappointing.

In 2002 Fisi was left with little option but to rejoin Jordan. By this point Jordan, too, were on the slide ? fast, yes, but never going to deliver regular podiums. But it's funny how things work out: at the rain-soaked Brazilian GP in 2003 high attrition ravaged the field, but Fisi, driving beautifully on wet-weather Bridgestones, kept it on the island. Thanks to cars ahead of him having taken earlier pit stops, Fisi was the leader when Mark Webber got his Jaguar out of shape on the start-finish straight. With debris littering the track, Fisi's current team-mate, Fernando Alonso, slammed into an errant tire from the stricken Jaguar, wiping out his R23 in the process. The race was red-flagged and, on the lap count-back, Fisi was declared the winner. Suddenly Giancarlo had caught the paddock's attention: he was, at last, a grand prix winner.

Solid drives for Sauber in 2004 completed the turnaround in his fortunes and Giancarlo was promptly signed up for Renault in 2005. As I'm sure you are aware, he won first time out for his new team. Malaysia and Bahrain, admittedly, were disappointing, but the pace was nevertheless still there. Giancarlo Fisichella has finally arrived in the big-time. He will assuredly be there or thereabouts as the title race unfolds.

Fisi's team-mate, meanwhile, is also a little bit special. He made his grand prix debut with Minardi on March 4 2001, a date which, with hindsight, was seminal. Also beginning their grand prix careers that day were Juan Pablo Montoya and Kimi Raikkonen, now both at McLaren, and, like Fernando, regarded as F1's biggest stars after Schumacher senior.

Fernando's pace is staggering. At a test in 1999, the then 17-year-old was testing a Minardi as part of his prize for winning the Formula Nissan championship. After scaring the life out of sports director Cesare Fiorio with his apparent reckless pace, back in the pit garage Fernando calmly explained that he had been taking it easy. "Taking it easy" saw Fernando go a full 3.5 seconds faster than his nearest rival from of a batch of other hopefuls who tested the Minardi that day. "I've dealt with over 300 young drivers over the years," exuded Fiorio, "but none has made the impression on me that he did. None."

His debut year with Minardi predictably yielded little in the way of good results. Trolling around at the back of the field was all that could be expected in a car so hopelessly off the pace. He did, however, have in his pocket a testing contract with Benetton/Renault, for whom he was to pound out many miles in future months. The following year was something of a sabbatical from racing, as he concentrated solely on his testing duties. Fortunately, his talent was too great to stay restricted for long. At the end of 2002, team boss Flavio Briatore showed the door to Jenson Button in favor of the young Spaniard. A slap in the face for Jenson and a slap on the back for Fernando.

Flavio's faith was well founded. His second drive for Renault delivered a debut pole position (in only his eighteenth career race) and a podium finish. He then scored another podium next time out in Brazil before grabbing second place in the Spanish GP two races later. By mid-season he was the man on the F1 grid, and by the close of the 2003 campaign he was a race winner, scampering home victorious at the Hungarian GP. The next season, 2004, was, almost inevitably, a letdown. He still had some stirring drives, but the podiums weren't coming as freely.  His reputation, thankfully, did not suffer, and he was able to dust himself down and focus on 2005.

Three races in to this term, Fernando leads the drivers' championship. In Australia he fought gamely from thirteenth on the grid (after running on a damp track in qualifying) to finish third at the flag, and in Malaysia and Bahrain he won with lights-to-flag victories reminiscent of his debut win in Hungary two years earlier.

So, the car's good and the drivers are very good. The reliability and the focus is there, and, perhaps most crucially, Ferrari are a mile off the pace?for now, at least. Renault must make hay while the sun still shines because -- and this is a guarantee -- Ferrari won't stay off the pace for too much longer. Should Renault find themselves still ahead of the game by mid-season, however, then expect one of their super-talented drivers to be crowned world champion come November.