Two of the changes in particular were key to Ferrari's downfall. One was the further reduction in downforce in the front wing and diffuser sections. Although initially it did slow the cars down somewhat, one of the stories of the season was how much downforce teams could generate initially and how much they could claw back as the year wore on. This, more than anything else, marked the difference between McLaren and Renault on one hand, and Ferrari, BAR, Toyota and Williams on the other.

The other was, of course, tyres. The move to a single set of tyres in qualifying and race caught Bridgestone seriously on the hop, even despite Ferrari's disregard for any testing limits throughout the season. The Japanese rubber simply could not generate enough heat for one lap, nor could they consistently last a race distance. Michelin could do both. Only on highly non-abrasive surfaces like Imola, where Bridgestone could run close to a 2004 compound, could Ferrari in particular prove competitive.

Conversely, the fact that Michelin supplied 70% of the field with a tyre that could largely last a race distance without a problem meant that the show-spicing aspect of the one-tyre rule proved a bit of a damp squib, just like some of the other changes for 2005. Drivers' tyre conservation skills were hardly put to the test as much as they could have been. Only Monaco and the Nurburgring provided notable late-race action brought about by the one-tyre regulation.

2005 was also the final year of full-bore V10s before the switch to V8s or rev-limited V10s next year, and if having to keep an engine for two races was designed to foster unpredictability as well as cut costs, then that experiment failed. As the required durability increased, so too did the super-reliability; Monza was the first race since 1961 not to register a single retirement. But in playing it safe on engine wear, teams often limited their running in free practice, robbing spectators of action even more.

Although at the start of the season the question of which driver was on an engine into its second race provided some novelty and confusion in equal measure, by year's end it was a largely irrelevant matter, especially after the FIA had clamped down on deliberate retirements in the wake of Melbourne anyway. Even the ten-place grid penalty for engine changes was less rife than last year, and would not have caught much attention were it not for the fact that a championship contender was all too regularly suffering this fate.

Politics continued to dominate the paddock in 2005. The battlelines were a little clearer, although Machiavelli or Bismarck would still have been proud of the Realpolitik. Mainly it was a case of Ferrari and the FIA on one side, and the manufacturers and the 'Group of 9' teams on the other, but the non-manufacturer outfits were gradually - inevitably? - shifting to Bernie and the FIA. But, with BMW and Honda substantially increasing their involvement, the manufacturers were also strengthening in presence if nothing else.

For there remained a sense of a phoney war, that the breakaway threat was a mere bargaining tool. As with all political games, appearances counted for much. There just had to be personal jibes whenever Max Mosley, Paul Stoddart or Ron Dennis recorded a sound-byte. At the Indianapolis debacle, no-one could be seen to relent, even when the issue at stake was a comparatively apolitical one, namely the fact that Michelin had stuffed up royally and had left most of the field in a lurch.

In the end it was a generally good season on the track, even if there was not quite the variety of 2003. For much of the year there was the fastest car with arguably the fastest man on board playing catch-up; in the third quarter there was the points leader playing safe; there was the amazing race at Suzuka, plus other memorable moments and an awesome new venue in Turkey to boot. And through it all, to complete the sense of change, thoroughly deserving new champions emerged in Fernando Alonso and Renault.

Some say that it marked a changing of the guard, although bear in mind that the likes of Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen and Juan-Pablo Montoya have been in F1 since 2001. Perhaps it was more the establishment of the next generation as the headline stars of the sport, taking over that mantle from Michael Schumacher. Which was just as well, for this year's rookie line-up was as comparatively weak as last year's, although through the likes of Nico Rosberg, a new 'next generation' may already be appearing in 2006.

And so the evolution of F1 continues into 2006, with V8 engines, the return of tyre changes, another new qualifying system, four new team names and maybe a new team altogether, but all that's a different story. In the meantime, we thank you for reading our race reviews and other profiles throughout the season, and for recently supporting our podcast experiment. Stay tuned for more throughout the off-season. But now, brace yourselves for our driver and team reviews and rankings, sure to provoke controversy...

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