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.