Seasonal Goodbyes

If some of the Formula One teams are riled about the FIA's frequent rules changes, I can't blame them. Rules juggling had a lot to do with the way this season panned out. It certainly caught BAR on the hop. The team that was on a dramatic rise in 2004 tumbled into the also-rans with revised aerodynamics that weren't up to the best of the rest. My colleagues at Autosport tipped Jenson Button as the driver who'd be the spoiler at the end of 2005, whose successes would decide the race between McLaren and Renault - one of the season's major miscalculations.

Now of course the British press is all steamed up about the potential of Jenson in 2006 with the Honda-owned BAR operation. He went straight to Japan, they said, after the race in China, to huddle with the Honda engineers. They thought this was pretty impressive. Seems to me they're overlooking the arrival at BAR of a pretty handy Brazilian race driver. The Rubens versus Jenson show will be one of the most interesting of 2006. I must be one of the few who doesn't think it'll go all the Englishman's way.

Toyota has the potential to be a power in the land of 2006. This year they showed great qualifying form - sometimes with help from a light fuel load - and by the end of the season they were getting their race pace up to speed. I agree with Mike Gascoyne: Toyota needs to start winning next year. But I have my doubts. I don't know if Toyota is hungry enough. I don't see a Briatore, Dennis or Todt at the top of the Toyota operation, a man for whom winning is everything. Toyota is just too darn corporate. Corporations don't win races and championships, people do.

Speaking of men and teams for whom winning is everything, the Williams-Cosworth combo may just surprise a lot of people. Certainly the Cosworth V10 hasn't been disgracing Red Bull Racing, and the V8 is 80 percent of that. By the way, isn't it amazing how the press is now calling the older V8s "Cosworths" when in fact they've always been "Fords"? Talk about fickle! Keith Duckworth always tried hard to make sure that the press called his engines by their rightful names. "I won't be able to get sponsorship for my engines," he said, "if the press don't use the right names."

As for Red Bull, do they have someone at the top who really wants to win? Or is the whole operation no more than a mid-field billboard for Dietrich's energy drink? I think the latter. And there'll be two more billboards in 2006 with the junior team, formerly Minardi. That's all they'll be. Even Ferrari-powered, Red Bull will have no podium aspirations. We can discount them as a factor in future seasons.

The other Ferrari-powered team has every chance to regain its momentum in 2006. If the Maranello crew can maintain their testing advantage, and with Bridgestone getting added input from Toyota, they'll be back on the pace. New rules that allowed tyre changes would work in their favour, of course, and they may just be on the agenda. Ferrari fans will have plenty more to shout about next season.

As for BMW fans, the jury is out. Will they have lots to cheer or will the takeover of Sauber prove to be one of the worst decisions since Porsche's alliance with Footwork Arrows in 1991? The answer hinges on one of the great unknowns of the Formula One world: just what is Dr. Mario Theissen made of?

We know Theissen is a heck of a salesman, because it can't have been easy to get BMW to shell out to buy Sauber. We're not sure how good he is as an engineer, because somebody in the back room has always been designing the V10s. Is Theissen a racer? We know he has an ego, but is it one that won't be satisfied until BMW is a championship winner? We and the BMW board will give him 2006 to settle in, but by 2007 he'd better be producing.

It's been a frustrating year for one of the proven winners, Ron Dennis, with alarming echoes of 2003 - so near and yet so far. The Woking campaign was grievously undermined by poor reliability, especially in the engines supplied by part-owner Mercedes-Benz. We await with interest and curiosity the shape of the 2006 McLaren campaign, with a new sponsor and renewed motivation. Much will depend on the intensity of commitment to the new car and program by Adrian Newey. Based on past performance, that commitment is by no means to be taken for granted.

I have to smile at Flavio Briatore's comment that he really took an interest in the manufacturers' championship after Ron Dennis said how important it was! Certainly he and his Renault team ended the season with phenomenal flair, splattering egg on the faces of the many who said that Renault had lucked into its titles with a car inferior to the McLaren. It didn't look inferior in China!

What Renault had was a beautifully balanced car and engine, managed by an experienced and resourceful team and piloted by two of the best drivers. Theirs was a phenomenal achievement by the least "corporate" of the corporate teams, a squad run with great verve and vigour and eyes on the main chance. It's a welcome reminder that Grand Prix success doesn't always go to the biggest battalions.

I couldn't be more pleased with the quirk of history that finds Renault holding both championships in 2006, the year in which we'll celebrate 100 years of Grand Prix racing. And who won that first Grand Prix in 1906? Held over the two days of 26-27 June on a 64-mile triangular road course east of Le Mans, six laps each day, its total distance amounting to 770 miles - akin to the distance from Berlin to Paris? None other than Renault. They were the first Grand Prix winner and, as of the end of 2005, the last.

I'll be watching the new season unfold along with the rest of you, with close attention to autosport.com, but I won't be commenting on it. To my amazement I've been writing my column for six years now. I've enjoyed it a lot and especially appreciated the reactions I've had from my readers. But lately I've been getting more and more into writing books and developing my journalism, so I just can't give the same time and attention to the races and their significance.

So I'm saying my goodbyes to active Internet involvement with the sport. I'll still be writing about Formula One; I'm too much of a fan to give up a lifelong interest in the top level of motor racing. Let's hope it stays that way!

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- The Autosport.com Team

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