Changing of the Guard

Formula One entered the 2005 season in a position of growing unease and instability. With the threat of the manufacturers' breakaway series looming, and the sense of keen competition eroded by five years of Michael Schumacher and Ferrari domination, it looked likely that the sport would shed fans to other racing series. As brilliant as Schumacher is, the sport needed more winners, more thrilling wheel to wheel racing, and greater competition.

On the positive side, the calendar was fuller than ever before, with a new high of 19 Grands Prix. And on track, there was no shortage of younger talents queueing up to claim Michael Schumacher's crown if Ferrari faltered. F1, in its current guise, still hasn't managed to secure a unified and certain future, but the crowning of a new champion driver and team in 2005 has been a refreshing change from the established order.

As is so often the case in F1, eventual WDC Fernando Alonso built his Championship-winning advantage by the end of April, securing three wins and a podium finish before his home GP in Spain. Without the head start from those first four races, Alonso and main title challenger Kimi Raikkonen would have waged one of the closest WDC battles ever, swapping the Championship lead four times. For the first thirteen races, the gap between them would never have been more than eight points.

Alas, those first four races did count, affording Alonso the luxury of driving conservatively thereafter to win the title on attrition rather than outright speed. That was a pity because, as Renault showed in China, they did have the speed potential to go toe-to-toe with McLaren, but chose the safe and steady option instead.

Alonso showed the speed, maturity and consistency to rate as a worthy successor to Michael Schumacher. If anything, the new champion merely continued the relentless pressure approach that Schumacher had perfected in 2001, 2002 and 2004. Still, it was surprising that the young Spaniard was given such an easy ride to the Championship, considering the potential among the competition. Raikkonen at least did enough to maintain moderate pressure and keep Alonso focused. For the rest, though, there was little to celebrate.

McLaren's Juan Pablo Montoya sidelined himself for two races early on with a shoulder injury, and was out of Championship contention by the time he reached top form again. Michael Schumacher and Toyota's Jarno Trulli threatened early on, but couldn't maintain consistently challenging pace. Alonso's Renault teammate Giancarlo Fisichella couldn't buy a lucky break, BAR's Jenson Button only really got started at mid-season, and the promising Williams pairing of Mark Webber and Nick Heidfeld stuttered and stumbled into the minor points placings all year without ever looking like winning.

Even the Raikkonen-Alonso duel didn't reach the heights that it could have. Thanks to McLaren's engine failures and Renault's preoccupation with reliability, the two rivals seldom shared the same track space at a similar race pace. Alonso will need a sterner challenge to prove his mettle but, in the context of the season, he drove as wisely and as well as anybody could expect.

The sport's attempts to tighten up the competition - via reduced downforce, a single set of tyres for qualifying and the race, two-weekend engines and the continuation of single-lap qualifying - didn't have the desired effect. Even circuits designed with key overtaking spots, like the new Hockenheim and Shanghai, produced dull races with little passing. 2005 proved, as has every season this millennium, that entertaining racing is a function of weather rather than engineering.

There was no better example than the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka. A qualifying shower resulted in a topsy-turvy grid, some memorable overtaking moves and unquestionably the most entertaining race of the year, if not the decade.

The single lap qualifying, two-race engines and super durable tyres will probably be dropped by F1. However, one new wrinkle introduced in 2005 looks set to become an annual favourite - the four apex Turn 8 at designer Hermann Tilke's new circuit in Turkey. For once, Tilke didn't rely on a V-shaped hairpin at the end of a monstrous straight, introducing instead a truly unique and challenging extended left-hand corner that tested (and caught out) the world's top drivers.

Unfortunately, none of the rookie class of '05 looks likely to become a star in the Fernando Alonso or Mark Webber mould. Jordan's Tiago Monteiro impressed with his consistency, but there was no standout talent to fire the imagination. That is perhaps just as well, as there is already a glut of new driving talent in F1 and limited competitive seats available.

2005 saw the development of these young talents, as well as the changing of the guard, from the established elder statesmen of the Nineties (Michael Schumacher/Coulthard/Barrichello/Villeneuve) to the new young stars of the 21st century headed by Alonso, Raikkonen, and Montoya. The in-betweeners - Fisichella, Trulli, Ralf Schumacher - serve as F1's lost generation, denied their place at the head of the sport by Michael Schumacher's decade-long tenure.

2005 will ultimately be remembered as the season in which Michael Schumacher's streak of five successive WDC titles came to an end. But F1 seasons are remembered as much for individual moments as for monumental achievements. Three such moments stand out in 2005, and have already passed into F1 legend.

The first was on the final lap of the European Grand Prix at Nurburgring. With his car rendered almost undriveable by a badly flat-spotted right front tyre, and defending a dwindling race lead against Championship frontrunner Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen was faced with two choices - change the tyre and sacrifice the win, or go for broke. With his Championship position already seemingly hopeless, Raikkonen opted to gamble it all on the win. And, for the last ten laps of an increasingly tense race, it seemed that he would pull off the impossible. When the front suspension did finally fail just a few kilometres from the chequered flag, there was the instant feeling that this moment would serve to sum up Raikkonen's entire season - a valiant charge derailed by mechanical failure. And so it was.

The second memorable moment - for entirely different reasons - was the mind-numbing realisation (as the Michelin-shod teams pulled into the pits after the formation lap at Indianapolis) that two days of frantic negotiation and discussion by the sport's brightest minds had failed to concoct a solution to Michelin's tyre problems. That we were about to witness a Grand Prix contested by just six Bridgestone-shod cars. It wasn't a moment to cherish, but it certainly gave the F1 world plenty to talk about afterwards, and nobody who witnessed it will forget it.

The third 'instant classic' moment came at Suzuka in Japan. If Raikkonen's suspension failure at Nurburgring had summed up the Finn's season in a snapshot, then Fernando Alonso's pass on Michael Schumacher at 130R encapsulated the essence of the whole 2005 season. The newly-crowned champion passing the old would have been a poignant and symbolic moment in any situation. That Alonso pulled it off with such improbable style, nailing the throttle to force his way past on the outside of the Ferrari, turned it into the passing move of the millennium.

There were many other thrilling or shocking incidents throughout the year. But for those three moments alone, 2005 will stand out as a special year and a new beginning for F1.

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- The Autosport.com Team

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