The top 10 F1 cars, 2000-2009

10. Ferrari F1-2000

2000
Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello

Starts: 34
Poles: 10
Wins: 10
Titles: 2

This was the car that stopped the rot for Ferrari and gave Maranello its first drivers' title since Jody Scheckter in 1979. It had a revised V10 with the vee angle up from 80 to 90 degrees, giving a lower centre of gravity and better aerodynamics.

After narrowly losing out to Mika Hakkinen and McLaren in '98/9, Ferrari had the measure of Woking in 2000 but had to survive a mid season spell when Schumacher scored just 12 points to Hakkinen's 42. An emotional Monza win prompted a recovery and Michael got the job done in Suzuka with Sepang still to go.

9. Renault R26

2006
Fernando Alonso, Giancarlo Fisichella

Starts: 36
Poles: 7
Wins: 8
Titles: 2

The R26 was an evolution of the successful R25 adapted to take the new 2.4-litre V8s demanded by the F1 rules. The team got off to a great start, winning seven of the first nine races but then Michelin, understandably given '05, took a conservative tyre to Indy and post North America there was a dramatic swing to Ferrari.

Renault lost 0.3s a lap when its mass damper was banned but the team responded. Alonso didn't make a mistake all year, he and Schumacher winning seven times each as Fernando pipped Michael to the drivers title and Renault edged Ferrari 206:201 in the constructors.

8. McLaren MP4-23

2008
Lewis Hamilton, Heikki Kovalainen

Starts: 36
Poles: 8
Wins: 6
Titles: 1

With aerodynamics the main driver of performance in F1, flick-ups, winglets, flaps and turning vanes were ever-evolving before the governing body stepped in and banned them as part of a new aero package for '09.

You realise just how big a difference that made when you view an '08 car alongside an '09 chassis. Some objected to all the appendages on the grounds of aesthetics but when you look at the '08 cars, the McLaren being one of the best examples, they truly do look like works of art as well as symbolising the end of a particular era.

7. Red Bull RB5

2009
Sebastian Vettel, Mark Webber

Starts: 34
Poles: 5
Wins: 6
Titles: 0

The RB5 was the second quickest car at the start of '09 despite the team not being among the initial three with a double diffuser. That wasn't wholly unexpected given that Adrian Newey led the design team in a year which saw more wide-ranging aero changes than any time for the previous 25 years.

Newey was the only one to apply pull-rod suspension to the new layout and in its post-Silverstone double diffuser guise the RB5 was the class of the field, winning six races in total. "It was frustrating to be tripped up by the regulations," Newey admitted, "but there's no point lamenting it."

6. Brawn BGP001

2009
Jenson Button, Rubens Barrichello

Starts: 34
Poles: 5
Wins: 8
Titles: 2

Not the quickest car in every circumstance throughout '09 but the car that did the best job over the season. The Brawn was central to the double diffuser controversy but there was a lot more to its success than that.

The team put a lot into the front wing design and getting the endplates right was key to the aerodynamic performance - something McLaren didn't crack until mid season for instance. Suffered tyre warm-up problems which hampered Button more than Barrichello, but a superb effort from a team with reduced numbers after Honda announced its withdrawal.

5. Ferrari F2001

Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher, 2001 San Marino Grand Prix © LAT

2001, 2002
Michael Schumacer, Rubens Barrichello

Starts: 39
Poles: 13
Wins: 10
Titles: 2

The season's regulations saw a raised front wing allied to a smaller rear wing and Ross Brawn thought that the F2001 was the best car that Ferrari had produced in the five years since he went to Maranello.

Schumacher won nine times with it, finishing the year with 123 points to nearest challenger David Coulthard's 65. Michael had it all wrapped up by Hungary in August. The core of Rory Byrne, Aldo Costa, Giorgio Ascanelli and Paulo Martinelli had, like Brawn and Jean Todt, all been at Ferrari five years or more and, bad news for everyone else, were all committed to more.

4. McLaren MP4-20

Kimi Raikkonen, 2005 Belgian Grand Prix © LAT

2005
Kimi Raikkonen, Juan Pablo Montoya, Alexander Wurz, Pedro de la Rosa

Starts: 36
Poles: 7
Wins: 10
Titles: 0

McLaren didn't make a good start to the year, troubled by unreliability, but for maybe 14 of the 19 races the MP4-20 was the quickest car on the track.

To win 10 races and not take either the drivers or constructors championship was a pretty bitter pill for the team to swallow. There was bad luck like Raikkonen's tyre blow out on the last lap at Nurburgring and they weren't helped by Juan Pablo Montoya's early season broken shoulder in a 'tennis' accident. At Interlagos Montoya led the team to its first 1-2 in five years.

3. Renault R25

Giancarlo Fisichella, 2005 Australian Grand Prix © LAT

2005
Fernando Alonso, Giancarlo Fisichella

Starts: 36
Poles: 7
Wins: 8
Titles: 2

The car that ended five years of Ferrari domination, Renault's R25 went as well as it looked and was the product of inventive thinking with its distinctive vee keel and attractive swooping bodywork.

"Other people had gone with the twin-keel idea which was good aerodynamically but terrible structurally," Pat Symonds explained. "The vee keel was a lovely solution to two conflicting requirements." The R24 had been difficult to drive but Alonso and Fisichella loved the R25. The only downside was that McLaren's MP4-20 could be even quicker. Alonso didn't have one failure, his only DNF being self-inflicted in Canada.

2. Ferrari F2002

Rubens Barrichello and Michael Schumacher, 2002 Hungarian Grand Prix © LAT

2002, 2003
Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello

Starts: 35
Poles: 11
Wins: 15
Titles: 2

Ferrari did such a good job in '02 that they were accused of making fans switch off. Much transmission work had been done and the gearbox was substantially lighter and smaller, allowing for aerodynamic gains at the back end.

When the car appeared in Brazil its pace was so strong that everyone assumed Ferrari was two-stopping. They weren't... The car went on to win 15 of the 18 races (11 with Schumacher and four with Barrichello) and in the constructors championship Ferrari matched the combined total of all the other teams put together.

1. Ferrari F2004

Michael Schumacher, 2004 Monaco Grand Prix © LAT

2004
Michael Schumacher, Rubens Barrichello

Starts: 36
Poles: 12
Wins: 15
Titles: 2

It's hard to distinguish between those dominant Ferraris in the first half of the decade but the Ferrari F2004 allowed the team to win 15 of the 18 races with 12 pole positions, 14 fastest laps, and 262 out of a possible 324 points scored.

After dominating in 2002, Ferrari was pegged back in '03 but the '04 season was demoralising for the opposition. Bridgestone's tyre development was a large part of it and while Ferrari didn't always have the quickest one lap tyre, they had the best race tyres. At Magny-Cours Schumacher even made a four stop strategy work.

The top 10 F1 cars, 2000-2009

AUTOSPORT's top 10 drivers of the decade