The car that restored Ferrari's F1 respectability

For a team of Ferrari's glorious stature, the current 11-year title drought after such an extended period of dominance in the early 2000s is hideously obtrusive - but Ferrari has been through a far more extensive fallow period.

Following Jody Scheckter's title triumph in 1979, Ferrari fell off a cliff spectacularly in 1980, and began a 20-year span without title success.

It inched closer in the late 1990s, once the Michael Schumacher/Ross Brawn/Rory Byrne dream team clambered aboard the good ship Maranello, but disqualification for shoving Jacques Villeneuve off the circuit at the 1997 finale, an absurdly good McLaren as the rules changed for 1998, plus a broken leg for Schuey midway through 1999, contrived to spoil the party.

Still, Ferrari bagged the 1999 constructors' title as Eddie Irvine got within two points of the drivers' crown. If he could do that, imagine what a fully fit Michael Schumacher could do in that car...

The new millennium answered that question. An evolution of the rapid F399, the F1-2000 looked outwardly similar to its predecessor - but was a sharper, leaner machine. Using the McLaren-inspired trick of placing two small fins along the edge of the chassis bulkhead, it could be shrinkwrapped a little more, and the nose lost a smidgen of puppy fat over the winter.

Ferrari also overhauled the sidepods: these now slanted slightly downwards for a smoother transition to the rear wing. They were tapered in a little more towards the rear, while the inlet was swept in towards the bottom to link up more cohesively with the larger bargeboard package.

Out of all the changes made over the off-season, the new 90-degree V10 engine was the biggest-ticket item. Opening out the V-angle yielded a lower centre of gravity, and compromises for the lack of immediate balance were found in an uneven piston firing order. In joining the team, Ross Brawn had insisted Ferrari's engine and chassis departments worked closer together, and their cumulative efforts came to bear fruit.

The driving staff also changed. Irvine went off to lead the Jaguar team, with Rubens Barrichello going the other way after Jackie Stewart sold his outfit. Renowned for being excellent with set-up work, Barrichello was expected to challenge Schumacher more often than Irvine had.

In the days of unlimited testing, Ferrari spent the winter pounding around Fiorano and Mugello, logging almost 900 laps before the season opener in Melbourne. Despite the odometer's best efforts to resemble a phone number, Ferrari still began the season with a slight disadvantage to McLaren, which had also developed an evolution of its 1999 car.

In Melbourne, Schumacher and Barrichello qualified third and fourth behind the McLarens of Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard. Snap judgements suggested Hakkinen was in line for a third consecutive title, but the race threw up a result reflective of the McLaren and Ferrari dichotomy of 2000.

Hakkinen and Coulthard held their positions at the start, but hadn't even approached half-distance by the time both of their Mercedes engines gave up the ghost. The Mercedes valve seals proved to be problematic, a repeat of the Stuttgart manufacturer's woes from exactly a year before.

Ferrari took control and never looked back. The team switched Rubens Barrichello from a one-stop strategy to get ahead of the Jordan of Heinz-Harald Frentzen, who had trickled past into fourth at the start. From there, Ferrari waltzed to a one-two to set up a perfect start to the campaign.

Schumacher won the next two after that, but the streak came to a close at an uncharacteristically early British Grand Prix. Coulthard led home a McLaren 1-2 to put on a show for the home fans, who had spent most of the weekend trudging through mud and flooded car parks amid the April showers.

Victories went back and forth between Ferrari and McLaren during the middle the season; Hakkinen won in Spain and Coulthard sandwiched a Schumacher win in Canada with
successes in Monaco and France - the latter after a great duel with Schumacher, as he famously flipped off the German when faced with a robust defence.

Hakkinen got into his stride and notched up a second win in Austria and took an early lead next time out at Hockenheim, as Ferrari's German Grand Prix got off to a tumultuous start. Schumacher collided with Giancarlo Fisichella on lap one, while Barrichello qualified a lowly 18th after reliability issues and had to make his way through the field. Barrichello's eventual maiden win was miraculous, but Ferrari joy was put on hold for the next two races as Hakkinen collected a brace of victories to move to the top of the championship by six points.

Ferrari refused to capitulate, and Schumacher took a well-timed victory at Monza and prevailed two weeks later at F1's first visit to Indianapolis. Crucially, Hakkinen's engine failure in the US swung the pendulum firmly in Schumacher's favour and gave him an eight-point championship lead.

The title showdown came at the penultimate round at Suzuka where, despite Hakkinen's best efforts and early lead, Schumacher reeled in the reigning champion. He jumped ahead of Hakkinen at the second round of pitstops to streak across the line with just 1.8s in hand to claim his third title - and Ferrari's first drivers' title in 21 years. Curly red wigs appeared in the wake of victory celebrations at the Malaysia finale, and Schumacher, Brawn and Byrne partied well into the night. But in truth, Ferrari's work had only just begun.

Race record
Starts: 34
Wins: 10
Poles: 10
Fastest laps: 5
Other podiums: 11
Points: 170

Specification
Chassis: Carbon fibre and honeycomb composite monocoque
Suspension: Double wishbones, pushrod-activated torsion bars
Engine: Ferrari 049 90-degree V10
Engine Capacity: 2997cc
Power: 805bhp @ 17,300 rpm
Gearbox: seven-speed manual gearbox
Tyres: Bridgestone
Weight: 600kg
Notable drivers: Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello