It has been a bit of a helter-skelter season in Formula 1 this year.

Sebastian Vettel leads the pack by just a single point, with reigning World Champion Lewis Hamilton snapping closely at his heels.

Vettel and Hamilton have very kindly allowed each other their fair share of time at the top, while Red Bull have spent most of their season trying to reign in controversial driver Max Verstappen.

Now, Hamilton will be confident of reclaiming his spot at the summit of the drivers standings after storming to pole position at the French Grand Prix.

Vettel will start in third and will be desperate to hunt Hamilton down to strengthen his charge on the drivers title.

While the battle for top spot looks set to go down to the wire, it has been a thoroughly underwhelming season for another former World Champion.

Fernando Alonso has struggled to make any kind of impression this year and has more often than not had to nurse his limping McLaren home rather than really challenge for points.

Returning to F1 for the French Grand Prix after winning the Le Mans 24 hour with Toyota, Alonso endured a torrid time in qualifying, failing to make Q2 for the first time this year.

Having failed to register any points in his last two races, Alonso will start in 16th on Sunday and could be in for yet another pointless weekend.

In the aftermath of his qualifying disaster, Alonso was asked what he expected from Sunday’s race and his response pretty much summed up the problem that so many fans have with F1 at the moment.

“The same as in the last few races. A train of cars all Sunday,” Alonso began.

“Those on pole will be fastest, they will start first and run away. The second ones will start second and run away. The third ones will start third and will run away.”

Interesting stuff.

There is no doubting that some races of late have looked rather processional, with many accusing the sport of being rather boring.

Alonso’s comments will do little to calm the voices calling for improvements to be made with regards to the competitiveness of the sport.

The Spaniard has been trying his hand at several other forms of motorsport of late, and these comments might suggest that he has just about had it with Formula 1.

Hopefully Sunday can prove the doubters wrong.