For Michael Schumacher, the season is turning into a cakewalk where everything he touches turns to gold. It seems that all Schumacher needs to do is pitch up, and the opposition collapses around him. It is not a healthy situation for Formula One.

Of all of Michael Schumacher's 48 Grand Prix victories, Sunday's triumph in the 2001 Monaco GP must surely rate as the easiest. Despite the Monaco circuit's fearsome reputation as a breaker of car and concentration, the reigning champion didn't even work up a sweat over the 78 laps. Ordinarily, that would draw superlatives about Schumacher's unparalleled physical conditioning. This time, it merely emphasised how outrageous fortune can bedevil the best-laid plans.

Just 24 hours earlier, Schumacher's main championship protagonist, McLaren's David Coulthard, had every reason to feel buoyant. One perfect qualifying lap had destroyed the opposition, Schumacher and teammate Mika Hakkinen included, and the detractors' self-assured proclamations of 'It's Coulthard, he'll blow his chances sooner or later' had taken on a note of desperation. But that was Saturday...

Since the reintroduction of launch control, the McLaren drivers have taken turns to be left stranded on the grid, hammering the steering wheel in frustration at a launch control software sequence which works perfectly every time - except when it really matters. And since becoming World Champion for the first time in 1994, Michael Schumacher has won all the Monaco races in odd-numbered years (95, 97, 99). Quite simply, Fate had already decreed that it was Coulthard's turn to stall on the grid, and Schumacher's turn to win Monaco again. That is the prevailing streak and, like it or not, streaks often hold sway over sound and reasoned logic in F1.

How else are we to rationalise the ultra-professional McLaren outfit's continued failure to get both cars off the line and into the motor race? It's the type of failure that is simply not accepted by team chief Ron Dennis. And, although Arrows rookie Enrique Bernoldi felt the immediate and public brunt of Dennis's anger, he was nothing more than a scapegoat. Although the Brazilian won't be receiving a McLaren-Mercedes Christmas gift hamper this year, I doubt he'd be willing to swap places with the McLaren software engineers at the post-race debriefing.

Coulthard's race was well and truly done before the lights even went out - there was no way he would ever come back from the hopeless situation of a last-row start. Even back in the 1970s, drivers would happily clatter their cars off steel and concrete to secure the vital Monaco pole position, for the man who led into St. Devote on the first lap had the race 80% won. Early in the 21st century, the prospects of overtaking at Monaco are even more remote.

The circuit is a living thriving anachronism. Modern circuits require run-off acreage that would satisfy the needs of most livestock farmers. Monaco's run-off is basically a wheel-width between the racing line and disaster. Toss in a perilously cramped and curved pitlane, the depression on the approach to Mirabeau, increasing bumpiness at St. Devote and the ongoing problems of tunnel entrance illumination, and it's surprising that racing is still allowed around the Principality.

If safe and exciting motor racing were the only requirements, Monaco would have been ditched long ago. The event has been saved by two central and timeless factors. The first is Monaco's uncontested status as the social highlight of the F1 calendar. The second is that despite its dull processional races, Monaco remains possibly the greatest test of driver skill in modern F1.

It is no coincidence that all of this year's points finishers at Monaco have at least five years F1 experience and over 800 GP starts among them. Without exception, drivers with less than two years experience were soundly beaten by their senior counterparts - Fisichella/Button, Irvine/de la Rosa, Verstappen/Bernoldi, Alesi/Burti and Ralf Schumacher/Montoya all followed the same pattern. One thing that Monaco does, relentlessly, is to separate the men from the boys.

For Montoya in particular, Monaco must have provided a disturbing wake-up call. After finally managing to outqualify and outrace Ralf Schumacher in Austria, the Colombian may have viewed Monaco as an opportunity to raise his stock further within the Williams team. After all, Ralf has never excelled at Monaco, and Montoya has plenty of genuine street-circuit experience from his F3000 and CART days. It took barely two racing laps for Montoya to make acquaintance with the Armco - a lesson which, like Senna's accident in 1988, should lead to some serious soul-searching. No amount of talent or top-flight machinery can compensate for the sheer experience required at Monaco. Thankfully, some aspects of F1 are not God-given, but earned.

For Williams, 2001 is turning from ecstasy into agony. After Imola, there was genuine optimism that they could wipe out the early season points deficit and challenge seriously for this year's championships. Monaco may have cemented their position as the third-fastest car on the grid, but Williams have never raced to be third. The early-season reasoning was that Williams have the engine, chassis and drivers to get the job done, Michelin just needed the time to develop a tyre that could compete on equal terms with Bridgestone. That logic didn't apply at Monaco, as the other Michelin runners performed far better than normal. As ever, Williams also had the top-speed advantage over their red and silver rivals. It is not enough that Williams rely on brute horsepower at the high-speed circuits, they will also need an efficient high-downforce package before Ferrari and McLaren feel really threatened.

As a test of pure driver skill, this year's Monaco was perfectly timed for several of the sport's acclaimed stars. Jean Alesi and Jacques Villeneuve have recently come under increasing fire for under-performing, and both responded with outstanding and dominant performances over their teammates, both in qualifying and the race.

For Eddie Jordan, 2001 is becoming yet another case of 'the right driver at the wrong time'. Jordan couldn't retain the services of Michael Schumacher, lost Ralf Schumacher, Fisichella, Barrichello and Irvine before they'd matured fully, signed Damon Hill at the wrong end of his career, and now has another leading driver, Heinz-Harald Frentzen, going walkabout on him. The German has looked listless and out of sorts since his controversial engine-misfiring claims against Ferrari and Sauber. At the first race of the year in Australia, Frentzen outqualified teammate Jarno Trulli by almost a full second. Since then, the Italian has qualified faster in all six Grands Prix, twice by around the same margin of a full second. Just as in 1999, Jordan are in a promising position, but with only one driver in top form.

When Frentzen under-performed against teammate Villeneuve in 1997, Williams were blamed for their unsympathetic handling of drivers. Frentzen can have no excuse this time - Jordan are one of the most driver-friendly teams in the paddock. The German delivered in 1999, but Jordan desperately need him to do so again, particularly now that BAR have eradicated Jordan's early season advantage in the 'Honda war'.

For Michael Schumacher, the season is turning into a cakewalk where everything he touches turns to gold. It seems that all Schumacher needs to do is pitch up, and the opposition collapses around him. It is not a healthy situation for Formula One. Schumacher, like Senna before him, needs adversity to bring out his best. He needs a smooth, fast and phlegmatic Mika Hakkinen calmly resisting his overtaking attempts, a fired-up David Coulthard flipping him the bird from behind, or an over-enthusiastic Juan Pablo Montoya fighting him fiercely for every inch of track position. Hopefully Canada will provide a return of genuine wheel-to-wheel racing.