The Observer

After the first Grand Prix of 2006 I genuinely thought we had a four-way team battle for the world championship on our hands.

Yes, the race in Bahrain was all about an Alonso versus Schuey duel, a strategy game between Renault and Ferrari. But only qualifying fragility had thwarted Kimi Raikkonen's McLaren from making it a three-way fight, while Jenson Button's Honda looked promising in fourth.

But the optimism soon turned to despondency. A few more races in, the F1 season had provided some thrills and intrigue, but it was no classic. Alonso and Renault were consistently quick and I feared it was going to be a long summer.

A couple of classic Schuey/Ferrari performances at Imola and the Nurburgring revived hopes that we had a fight on our hands, but a string of four Alonso wins snuffed that out.

Then at the US Grand Prix in July the tide turned. Thank God.

Nothing against Renault or Alonso, but the Ferrari revival witnessed at Indy, Magny-Cours and Hockenheim was most welcome - from a journalist's point of view. From a foregone conclusion we had a true world championship duel to savour. McLaren and Honda had failed to make it a four-way thriller, but Schuey versus Alonso would do just fine.

Race winner Michael Schumacher on the Indianapolis podium © LAT

Now, in the warm afterglow of that special Sunday at Interlagos, we can look back on a memorable F1 season.

But for me the memories are mixed. Yes, the Ferrari comeback made for a great story, as did the realisation that we were watching Schumacher, the greatest driver of his generation, in the final throes of an incredible career. It's been a privilege to witness his era.

But not even Michael's wonderful - and I'd say perfectly apt - final performance, including a hard-as-nails pass on Raikkonen, can take away a bitter taste for me. The story has been a good one, but it's been artificially created.

And from what Pat Symonds said to autosport.com's Jonathan Noble last weekend, I don't think I'm the only one to feel that way.

"I think as a sporting challenge I would look back on it and say it was one of the best I have been involved in," he said. "But there are other aspects of it that perhaps don't make it my favourite year."

Two decisions stick in the throat: banning mass dampers ahead of the German GP for suddenly being a movable aerodynamic device (and one that Ferrari had failed to make successful use of), and Alonso's penalty for 'holding up' Felipe Massa in qualifying at Monza.

You can understand why Renault, Flavio Briatore and Alonso felt persecuted. The further away we get from these events, the harder it becomes to believe they actually happened. Crazy.

The same is true of Schumacher's cynicism in Monaco. In the paddock that weekend, events developed rapidly. I remember the immediate reaction in the press room, incredulous laughter - and the sharpening of the journalistic knives as a feast of a story landed in our laps! It had been an extremely quiet news weekend up until then...

It dawned on Schuey just what he had got himself into during the official press conference, when a British tabloid journalist asked him if he had cheated today. Michael's face was a picture - his expression morphed from typical self-satisfaction to a stony glare.

The FIA announcement sending Michael Schumacher to the back of the grid for the Monaco Grand Prix © LAT

But still, I was surprised by the strength of feeling in the paddock that afternoon. Yes, of course Jacques Villeneuve wasn't about to miss an opportunity to have a dig, but Mark Webber and Pedro de la Rosa are not the axe-grinding sort. But they were very frank - this was a big deal.

It was as if Schuey's parking stunt was the last straw for most people in the paddock. Everyone had witnessed this great driver's questionable tactics before and knew he would stretch sporting codes and ethics to breaking point. Now the elastic had snapped.

In what turned out to be his final season, years after having driven into title rivals, fixed race results with his team at finish lines and had run-ins with almost every driver (even his brother!), they'd had enough.

The exasperation with Schumacher was still evident a few months later at Monza when he announced his retirement. For someone who had been the biggest name in motor racing for so long, who had pulled off so many great performances, who had been so consistently good for so long, the news and his emotion in the press conference was greeted coldly.

At least he signed off properly. Imagine if he had added to the list of 'Schuey crimes'...

So I hate to end the season on a sour note, but for me 2006 will not be remembered, in F1 terms at least, as well as I had hoped when the season kicked off back in March.

There were some great moments - and we were treated to one proper year of Schumacher versus Alonso in pretty equal cars, creating some fantastic and fascinating battles (Imola should go down as one of the great modern duels). And the right guy did at least win the title.

But a great year? No. Good - but not great.