After four seasons of hard work, it was the year that Michael Schumacher finally delivered Ferrari the driver's Championship. The 31-year old took his third Championship after scoring nine wins in the seventeen race series. The McLaren pair of Mika Häkkinen and David Coulthard provided a credible challenge to the German, but could not match his speed on a consistent basis.

BMW returned to Formula 1, supplying engines to Williams, and the Jaguar brand made its debut, with parent company Ford having purchased Stewart Grand Prix.

On the driver front, Rubens Barrichello installed at Ferrari as number two to Schumacher, took a very popular first win at Hockenheim. Whilst it was the final year of Grand Prix racing for Johnny Herbert, British fans had a new hero in the form of Jenson Button who made an impressive debut for Williams.

Winning Driver	Michael Schumacher
Winning Constructor	Ferrari

Another season with Ferrari still dominant. Michael Schumacher scored nine wins and totalled a record number of 123 points in passing Alain Prost's previous highest total of 51 Grand Prix victories. His nearest challenger David Coulthard trailed some 58 points behind in the final rankings

Williams-BMW were back in the business, with Ralf Schumacher scoring three victories, and his exciting new team mate Juan Pablo Montoya registering his maiden win at Monza.

Further down the grid, there was trouble at under-performing Jaguar where Bobby Rahal found himself replaced by Niki Lauda, and over at Prost the beleagured team were struggling to survive.

After just over 200 races, Jean Alesi stepped down from Formula 1 and Mika Häkkinen decided to take a break from Grand Prix racing in 2002.

One of the sport's most charming driver's Michele Alboreto lost his life in an accident testing an Audi Sports car.

Winning Driver	Michael Schumacher
Winning Constructor	Ferrari

Another season of Ferrari domination caused the FIA to threaten extreme regulation changes, although the constructors themselves were still unhappy with proposed costly restructuring.

McLaren and Williams could only muster a single win each against the might of Maranello. Schumacher was so dominant that he could afford to gift a race to his team mate Barrichello in Austria. Ferrari had clearly misjudged the mood of the spectators from across the globe, aghast with such a cavalier approach to racing.

Another heavyweight car manufacturer entered the sport with Toyota involved for the first time, but on the downside, the Prost team failed to make the start of the season and Arrows joined them in extinction by mid-term. Worryingly the Minardi, Jordan and Sauber teams were also under varying degrees of financial pressure.

Bubbling under the racing was still the threat of a breakaway series with the major manufacturers still unhappy with their share of revenue offered by Bernie Ecclestone.

Winning Driver	Michael Schumacher
Winning Constructor	Ferrari

A radical change was put into place for qualifying which were split into two practice sessions and after these were over, cars were placed into parc fermé and refuelling was not allowed before the race. Grids became distorted as race and fuel strategy now came into play. Also the points system was amended with the scoring now 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 down to eighth place.

In end Schumacher and Ferrari still came out on top, but they were far less dominant than in the previous year. Indeed the German's record-breaking sixth title was fought to the very last race with McLaren's Kimi Räikkönen was only two points adrift at the finish. Schumacher scored six wins, but there were seven other victors in an absorbing season. Räikkönen deserved far more than just his Malaysian Grand Prix triumph, whilst Montoya, Barrichello and Ralf Schumacher took two wins each in impressive style. Adding to the unpredictability were wins by David Coulthard, Giancarlo Fisichella and Fernando Alonso, who showed his brilliance with a dominant performance in Hungary.

Winning Driver	Michael Schumacher
Winning Constructor	Ferrari

For the fifth successive season Ferrari and Schumacher were unbeatable. The brilliant Michael continued to rewrite the record books as he swept to his seventh Championship, adding thirteen more wins to take his overall tally to an incredible total of 83 Grand Prix victories. Rubens Barrichello claimed another two wins for the Prancing Horse, which left just three Grands Prix races to fall into rival hands. Jarno Trulli had his day of days for Renault at Monaco, but found himself out of favour before the end of the year, whilst Kimi Räikkönen and Juan Pablo Montoya both put in storming performances to win in Spa and Rio respectively.

Although a win was just beyond them, BAR and Jenson Button both came of age in 2004 racking up points on a consistent basis. Indeed, with the help of the feisty Takuma Sato, BAR finished second only to Ferrari in he Constructors championship.

By contrast, the perennially under-performing Jaguar team was sold off to Red Bull by the parent Ford Motor Company who also disposed of Cosworth Racing as it abandoned Formula 1.

The calendar grew to eighteen races as Formula 1 ventured into new countries, embracing Bahrain and China for the first time.

Winning Driver	Michael Schumacher
Winning Constructor	Ferrari

A new set of rules came into place which introduced qualifying times on aggregate from two sessions with the second on race morning requiring teams to run with race fuel on board and no topping-up allowed pre-race. Of more significance was the stipulation that tyres used for final qualifying had to be kept on the car for the entire race distance. Only a damaged tyre could be changed at pit stops. The one race engine per weekend rule was now extended so that power plants would be expected to last for two race weekends. A change of engine would bring the loss of ten grid positions.

Michelin emerged with a much more competitive tyre than in 2004 and the Bridgestone-shod Ferrari were on the back foot as Renault with Fisichella and Alonso (3) won the first four races. McLaren emerged as mid-season pace-setters with Räikkönen taking three wins, but the excellent season's racing was overshadowed by the fiasco at Indianapolis when the U.S. GP was reduced to a farce after Michelin withdrew its runners on safety grounds.

Winning Driver	Fernando Alonso
Winning Constructor	Renault

Reigning champion Fernando Alonso and Renault seemed set to repeat their stranglehold on the title as the brilliant Spaniard scored six wins in the first nine races. However Ferrari and Michael Schumacher - aided by Bridgestone’s ultra -competitive tyres – altered the picture in the most emphatic manner with the seven-time champion notching up five wins by mid-season to lead. However, Alonso held his nerve despite mid-season drama when the Renault team was obliged to redesign their car. The Spaniard collected his second consecutive Championship at the season’s finale in Brazil after Schumacher’s spirited challenge was halted by puncture.

Winning Driver	Fernando Alonso
Winning Constructor	Renault

Bridgestone have taken over as the only tyre supplier to Formula 1 and Michael Schumacher’s retirement brings about a driver reshuffle, Kimi Räiikönen now leads the Ferrari team and World Champion Fernando Alonso takes up the number one seat at McLaren-Mercedes.

The new season bring with a three year freeze on engine development, but there is dissent amongst the Formula 1 teams. Both Williams and Spyker consider protesting the legality of both the 2007 Toro Rosso and Super Aguri cars, claiming they are not original designs, but merely updated chassis from their parent teams.

Winning Driver	Kimi Räikkönen
Winning Constructor	Ferrari

The fallout from the McLaren-Ferrari ‘spying’ controversy saw Fernando Alonso return to Renault, whilst Heikki Kovalainen went the other way to partner Lewis Hamilton. Two new drivers joined the Grand Prix ranks to make their debuts in Melbourne; Nelson Piquet junior and Sébastien Bourdais, a four-time Champ Car and F3000 champion. Also two new races will join the schedule, with Singapore hosting a night-time race under floodlights and a ‘street’ circuit in Valencia under the banner of the European Grand Prix.

Current Leading Driver	Lewis Hamilton
Current Leading Constructor	Ferrari