The European Grand Prix marked the transition from the first half of the season to the second. Usually it's not a significant event in the season's flow. The status quo is established early on, and the second half becomes more of the same. This year's halfway point looks like the dividing line between two very different halves.

Sunday's European Grand Prix at the modern Nurburgring marked the transition from the first half of the season to the second. Usually it's not a significant event in the season's flow. The status quo is established early on, and the second half becomes more of the same. This year's halfway point looks like the dividing line between two very different halves, if Sunday's performances are the yardstick.

The early 2001 exchanges featured the expected continuation of the Ferrari/McLaren war, with Williams snapping at their heels for any scraps gifted by unreliability. In just a handful of races, the pecking order has been well and truly shaken up, and McLaren now find themselves in the unfamiliar role of outsiders looking in.

The Williams resurgence should not have come as a shock to anyone. Williams regard championship contention as something of a birthright, and deservedly so. The history of the last twenty years shows that, if any team is equipped to bounce back from adversity, it must be Williams. In 2000, their first year with new engine partner BMW, Williams jumped from fifth to third in the Constructors' Championship. That improvement has continued into 2001 with relentless momentum. If Juan Pablo Montoya's race-leading performance at Brazil and Ralf Schumacher's debut win at Imola were written off as flukes inherited from the misfortunes of others, Ralf's follow-up win in Canada two weeks ago silenced all critics.

Ralf's Canadian win was impressive, but featured too much hugging, back-slapping 'Gee isn't my brother great?' sentimentality. Brothers may be like that on family TV shows, but not in real life. Siblings, especially those in professional sports, should thrive on conflict. Nurburgring gave us a glimpse of just how intense the Schumacher brothers' rivalry could become in future.

Michael has never been hesitant to muscle and intimidate opponents, and Sunday's startline chop on Ralf proved no exception. After the race, Ralf voiced his indignation to Michael in no uncertain terms. Unabashed, Michael proceeded to the post-race interview where, with poker face, he informed the world that it had all been good clean racing fun. Now that is what being a big brother is all about. Ralf, in turn, is playing the typecast role of little brother to perfection - lots of attitude and talk, but way too passive when push comes to shove.

This season has given true meaning to the Schumachers' 'tough but fair' racing reputation - Michael is tough and Ralf is fair. That's possibly a by-product of their history. Since his F1 career started, Ralf has been a minor player while Michael fought for championships. Every time they met on track, Ralf knew that any physical contact had the potential to put Michael out of the Championship. Small wonder, then, that Ralf is so hesitant to have a go at Michael in the way that teammate Juan Pablo Montoya did at Interlagos.

The game is currently being played on Michael's terms. Ralf can either continue with Mika Hakkinen's 'go ahead and chop me, let's see who's leading after the stops' approach, or he can adopt teammate Montoya's 'this track ain't wide enough for the two of us' mentality. For the moment, Ralf seems wise enough to stick with the first option.

Whatever the ethics of his intimidatory tactics, Schumacher continues to impress with his sheer professionalism, focus and force of will. On Friday, the McLarens looked unbeatable, a situation exacerbated by Schumacher missing much of Saturday's vital second free practice session due to hydraulic problems with the Ferrari. Worse yet, the Williams pair had gone even faster than the McLarens. Under those circumstances, many F1 drivers would sulk their way to a lowly grid position, blaming lack of setup time for a disappointing qualifying performance. Not Schumacher. It took the Ferrari WDC just two runs to shatter Ralf's provisional pole time. And, on a track surface which was becoming progressively slower, Schumacher went faster still until a mistake at the final chicane (and David Coulthard's spun McLaren) nullified the attempt.

Ferrari's image of bulletproof reliability took a knock when Schumacher's car ground to a terminal halt on the lap from the pits to the grid, prior to the race start. The pole-sitter hasn't won at Nurburgring since the circuit was reintroduced to the F1 calendar in 1995, and it seemed that the Nurburgring pole jinx would hold true for the seventh year in succession. Again the German was unfazed, climbing into the second car and controlling the race from the front for his fifth, and arguably most impressive, win of the season.

As a contest, the race fizzled out after Ralf Schumacher's ten-second penalty for crossing the white line at the pitlane exit. If Ralf hadn't put his left wheels over the line, if Juan Pablo Montoya had pushed harder in the earlier stages of the race, if Williams had put two laps more fuel into Ralf's car at the start, then maybe things would have worked out differently. Therein lies the rub: 2001 is fast becoming a season of Ferrari glory and opposition 'ifs' - if Coulthard hadn't stalled at Monaco, if McLaren had also chosen intermediate tyres at Sepang, if Mika Hakkinen's clutch hadn't expired on the last lap at Spain, if Montoya hadn't been rear-ended out of contention in Brazil. Ultimately there are only two 'ifs' that matter. The first is easy - if any other team/driver combination was as consistently fast and reliable as Schumacher/Ferrari, then we may have a close WDC battle.

The second 'if' is a lot more intriguing - if one driver seems to be cakewalking the Championship, something will happen to turn it into a close and hard-fought battle. It's happened the last three seasons running, there's no reason it shouldn't happen again. The next stop on the calendar is Magny-Cours, significantly the site that started last season's swing of fortune. Going into France 2000, Schumacher had won five of the year's eight Grands Prix, and had a 24 point lead over his nearest McLaren rival, Mika Hakkinen. Going into France 2001, Schumacher has won five of the year's nine Grands Prix, and has a 24 point lead over his nearest McLaren rival, David Coulthard. In 2000, Schumacher was chasing a career landmark - emulating Ayrton Senna's mark of 41 GP wins. This year, he is chasing another career benchmark - becoming only the second driver in the modern era to notch up a half-century of wins. Could lightning strike twice?

It seems unlikely. This time last year, McLaren were getting stronger. This year, after the disappointment of Canada, they seem to have lost the plot completely. Team chief Ron Dennis and David Coulthard keep making the right noises, about 'going away and doing what needs to be done'. The lack of any further details belies the obvious - that they're at a loss how to remain competitive. Since the start of the season, no amount of tinkering and redesigning by Adrian Newey's team has managed to conjure up a front-end that is to Coulthard's satisfaction.

If Mika Hakkinen could rediscover his form of the past three years, the Woking team may still be in with a chance of the Constructors Championship, if not the Drivers'. But Schumacher's purple patch has rendered Rubens Barrichello's contribution largely irrelevant. The way the German is going, he can win both championships for Ferrari on his own. And with Williams's Juan Pablo Montoya starting to show some welcome maturity in his approach, it seems that McLaren's immediate challenge is to protect their second place in the championships, rather than attacking Ferrari's position of dominance.

McLaren's decline was as inevitable as Williams's resurgence. Domination of F1 has always been a fleeting phenomenon, and McLaren have occupied the throne along with Ferrari for the last three seasons. That's not to say that they're finished just yet, but the days of McLarens lapping the field are over for the moment. Ferrari too have had a long run at the top, first or second in the Championship for six years straight. The question is not whether they will go into decline after Schumacher retires, for that is inevitable. The real question is how much longer they can resist the Williams challenge. The second half of the 2001 season will go a long way towards answering that question.