Renault Displace Ferrari
- See 2005 season and 2006 season.
In 2005, Formula One saw Ferrari fade out of sight, as the works Renault team dominated the early part of the season, and Fernando Alonso forged a clear championship lead. In the latter part of the season McLaren were significantly the stronger team, with consistently better results and a win tally of 6 from 7 races. However, their early record of poor reliability had meant that catching Renault in either Drivers' or Constructors' Championships was a tall order.
For a while it looked close between Räikkönen and Alonso, but by Brazil Alonso had become Formula One's youngest ever champion. The Constructors' Championship looked even more likely for McLaren, widely regarded as the faster car and with reliability much improved. However, a retirement for Juan Pablo Montoya in the season finale at Shanghai secured the Constructors' title for Renault. One statistic proved the two teams' dominance: they together won all but one of the races, the controversial US Grand Prix, (in which neither of the two teams participated) which was Schumacher and Ferrari's only win of the year.
Arguably, the final small specialist racing team disappeared with the September 2005 purchase of Minardi by Red Bull to be renamed as Scuderia Toro Rosso and run as a separate entity alongside Red Bull Racing. Jordan had been bought by Russo-Canadian steel company Midland early in 2005 and was renamed Midland F1 for the 2006 season. In June 2005, BMW bought a majority stake in Sauber, which became their factory entry. The Williams team ceased their partnership with BMW as a result, entering a commercial arrangement with Cosworth instead. From 2006 manufacturer teams have an unprecedented level of involvement in the sport. Honda also bought BAR.
2005 marked the end of the V10 era in Formula One. After the banning of turbocharged engines in 1989, V10 became the most popular engine configuration in Formula One. To keep costs down, the configuration was made mandatory in 2000 (although only V10s had been in use since 1998, Toyota were planning on entering with a V12 and had to delay their entry by a year to redesign) so that engine builders would not develop and experiment with other configurations. Over this period, the statistics show a supremacy of the Renault and Ferrari engines, with Renault clinching six Constructors and five Drivers championships as engine suppliers for Williams and Benetton from 1992 to 1997, and their first ever Drivers and Constructors Championships in a 100% Renault car in 2005. Ferrari also enjoyed great success in the V10 era, winning six Constructors' championships and five drivers' championships from 1999 to 2004.
2006 was the last season with two tyre manufacturers: Japanese manufacturer Bridgestone and French company Michelin. In December 2005, the FIA announced that from the 2008 season, there would be only one tyre supplier. Five days later, Michelin announced it would quit Formula One at the end of the 2006 season, leaving Bridgestone as the sole supplier from 2007.
Renault and Fernando Alonso established early leads in both the Constructors' and Drivers' Championships. By mid-season Ferrari appeared to be making a comeback, however.
The Italian Grand Prix saw Schumacher reduce Alonso's lead to only two points as Alonso suffered an engine failure. The race also saw Ferrari pull ahead of Renault for the first time in 2006. However, the race results were largely overshadowed by Schumacher announcing, during the post-race press conference, that he would retire at the end of the season.
However, an engine failure for Schumacher at the Japanese Grand Prix, along with costly puncture in the final round in Brazil allowed Alonso to secure the Driver's Championship for the 2nd year running, with Renault also securing the Constructors Championship.
Read more about this topic: History Of Formula One