The 2004 formula-one season was a case of one red car beating another red car as Michael Schumacher and Ferrari ran their rivals ragged.
In capturing 13 of the 18 grands prix, Schumacher surpassed even his highest standards to waltz off with his seventh world title with four legs of the season to go.
With the German’s ever-faithful sidekick Rubens Barrichello grabbing a rare slice of the spotlight in Italy and China, Ferrari were celebrating their sixth consecutive constructors’ title.
Their domination came as something of a jolt out of the red after the 2003 season when Schumacher was only ensured of a record sixth title in the season-closer in Japan.
This time, the title race proved about as gripping as a formula-one car running on slicks in a rainstorm.
Ferrari’s near-total monopoly can be attributed to the Italian team’s brilliant organisation allied to the latest technology, the best driver of all time and rapid improvements to their Bridgestone tyres.
Their superiority was also down to their rivals backfiring badly — they had a virtual clear-run until late in the season when McLaren’s newly introduced car came good at Spa-Francorchamps.
Kimi Raikkonen may have halted Schumacher’s run of seven straight wins in Belgium, but the German ace wasn’t complaining as his second place was enough to hand him his seventh driver’s championship.
Like the end of a Hollywood thriller, there was an unexpected twist to the 2004 programme served up by Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya in Brazil — the perfect parting gift for Sir Frank Williams on his last drive before joining McLaren in 2005.
Up to Montoya’s last hurrah, the British outfit had suffered a desperately quiet campaign. Touted as serious challengers to Ferrari’s supremacy in the run-up to the opening salvo in Australia, their highly touted, walrus-nosed FW26 proved something of a flop.
With the front rankers fluffing their lines, the door was open for some of the smaller outfits to punch above their weight — step forward BAR.
David Richards’s Honda-fired stable surpassed all expectations with a second-place finish in the constructors’ championship.
BAR’s success was in no small part down to Jenson Button’s emergence as one of the grid’s star performers.
Although outright victory was to elude the Briton, he can look back on the year with pride.
A career breakthrough in Malaysia in March secured his first-ever podium, and he went on to claim nine more top-three finishes, with four second places in San Marino, Germany, Monaco and China.
And he said he will give his all for BAR in 2005 despite being forced to stay with the team against his wishes, having been blocked from joining Williams by formula one’s Contracts Recognition Board.
While exquisitely equipped new venues in Bahrain and China meanwhile suggested formula one was awash with money, the reality is better represented by the decision by Ford to pull the plug on the Jaguar team after four years in the sport.
Last-ditch attempts to sell off the famous British marque’s racing arm to a fresh investor are being made before the November 15 deadline for entries.
Typhoon Ma-on played a dramatic walk-on role in Japan, forcing qualifying to be held on the morning of the race, and such was the success of that arrangement that pole will now be decided on Sunday mornings throughout the 2005 season.
Whether qualifying will take place at all at Silverstone, home of the sport’s oldest grand prix, is questionable with Bernie Ecclestone’s axe hanging over its inclusion in the 2005 calendar.
Silverstone’s owners, led by three-time world champion Sir Jackie Stewart, are desperately looking for a way to save the event — although the signs are not particularly encouraging, with Ecclestone ready to hand the slot to Mexico.
Drab action on the track was in no way replicated off it, where proposals drawn up by Max Mosley, president of the sport’s governing FIA body, to inject some fizz into the sport provoked heated debate among the teams. — Sapa-AFP