A new champion and renewed competitiveness. Alonso wins the drivers championship and Renault wins the Constructors title to make it a double. The Renaults' certainly were the most consistent cars on the track and the most powerful. In the end this proved to be Kimi's undoing as many thought he was actually the best driver this year. Keep in mind that Kimi won the most races and would have won a couple others until he was forced to withdraw while holding commanding leads in those races. He had to retire from 5 races altogether while Alonso retired from only 2, Alonso won at least a couple of the races Kimi withdrew from. This would have been enough to tip the scales in Kimis' favor to win the title. But that is only an if, and we should not take credit away from Alonsos' incredible driving this year. He is the youngest to win the title I believe and looks to have a bright future ahead of him.
McLaren Mercedes had a great year finishing just behind Renault in the constructors title and with Juan Pablo fourth in the Drivers Championship. Ferrari took third as their championship run finally ended due to a somewhat dissapointing performance from the 2005 car which left Schumi well behind Alonso and Raikkonen in the Drivers Championship at third place, only two points ahead of Montoya. The Ferrari clearly wasn't the best car on the track.
Rubens Barrichello is gone and Felipe Massa is to replace him. He will have one short year to learn from the master as Schumachers contract is over after 2006 unless he decides to extend for a year or two. The money is great obviously but there is speculation that his age is catching up to him a bit and he may want to retire while close to the top. Schumachers next milestone to look for will be another 1st place in qualifying as it will tie him for the all time mark in pole positions with Senna.
Toyota had a respectable fourth place finish in the Constructors as Ralf Schumacher seems to have designs on following his older brothers success. Toyota had a $400 million dollar budget this year, enough to make George Steinbrenner jealous!!!
Next year will be interesting as some teams will be using V-8 engines(including Ferrari). Other things to look for next year which will be discussed over the coming months are the possible return to slicks, allowing tire changes during the race again. Michelin has said it will provide tires for only 6 teams next year. The last race has been run by Minardi, Sauber, and Jordan which will leave Williams BMW as the last group to not be totally corporate.
BAR has been bought out by Honda as well. Speaking of Honda, Goodbyes are in order to Takuma Sato who absolutely SUCKED and was responsible for several bullshit incidents on the track this year, dittos' to Karthikeyan who just doesn't seem to have the talent to drive competitively at this level. Monteiro blew as well. Red Bull will have even more cars on the track next year as they try an expensive "success in numbers" strategy, maybe the first two cars will run over the current champion and top contenders on the way to the starting grid and allow the other car to race, LOL!
Personally I would like to see Scott Speed get a chance to drive but I wonder if his being American won't get him blackballed. I'm looking forward to Montreal in June and if you have already bought your tickets(grandstand 1 this time) as I have then you will have a nice Christmas present under your tree soon.
McLaren Mercedes had a great year finishing just behind Renault in the constructors title and with Juan Pablo fourth in the Drivers Championship. Ferrari took third as their championship run finally ended due to a somewhat dissapointing performance from the 2005 car which left Schumi well behind Alonso and Raikkonen in the Drivers Championship at third place, only two points ahead of Montoya. The Ferrari clearly wasn't the best car on the track.
Rubens Barrichello is gone and Felipe Massa is to replace him. He will have one short year to learn from the master as Schumachers contract is over after 2006 unless he decides to extend for a year or two. The money is great obviously but there is speculation that his age is catching up to him a bit and he may want to retire while close to the top. Schumachers next milestone to look for will be another 1st place in qualifying as it will tie him for the all time mark in pole positions with Senna.
Toyota had a respectable fourth place finish in the Constructors as Ralf Schumacher seems to have designs on following his older brothers success. Toyota had a $400 million dollar budget this year, enough to make George Steinbrenner jealous!!!
Next year will be interesting as some teams will be using V-8 engines(including Ferrari). Other things to look for next year which will be discussed over the coming months are the possible return to slicks, allowing tire changes during the race again. Michelin has said it will provide tires for only 6 teams next year. The last race has been run by Minardi, Sauber, and Jordan which will leave Williams BMW as the last group to not be totally corporate.
BAR has been bought out by Honda as well. Speaking of Honda, Goodbyes are in order to Takuma Sato who absolutely SUCKED and was responsible for several bullshit incidents on the track this year, dittos' to Karthikeyan who just doesn't seem to have the talent to drive competitively at this level. Monteiro blew as well. Red Bull will have even more cars on the track next year as they try an expensive "success in numbers" strategy, maybe the first two cars will run over the current champion and top contenders on the way to the starting grid and allow the other car to race, LOL!
Personally I would like to see Scott Speed get a chance to drive but I wonder if his being American won't get him blackballed. I'm looking forward to Montreal in June and if you have already bought your tickets(grandstand 1 this time) as I have then you will have a nice Christmas present under your tree soon.
