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Alonso consigns Schumacher era to history
(China Daily/Agencies)
Updated: 2005-12-29 07:31
Fernando Alonso became the youngest driver to win the Formula One world
championship and, along with flying Finn Kimi Raikkonen, breathed new life into
a sport strangled by years of Ferrari dominance.
World champion
Fernando Alonso of Spain waves during a charity event in Oviedo, northern
Spain December 24, 2005. McLaren stunned Formula One last Monday by
announcing that world champion Alonso will leave Renault to race for them
in 2007. [Reuters] | In breaking the Ferrari and Michael Schumacher monopoly, the Spaniard's
Renault injected much-needed fizz into a spectacle in danger of becoming flat.
With Raikkonen pushing hard in his McLaren, Alonso was made to wait till the
third-last race of an enthralling season in Brazil before claiming a title he
had been chasing since opening the campaign in Melbourne in March.
In the end, they both scored seven victories each.
Renault wrapped up the constructors' title at the final race in Shanghai,
with McLaren having to settle for second.
The decline of Ferrari was not the only shockwave running through the
money-rich sport.
A fiasco at the United States Grand Prix in June badly tarnished the Formula
One image, with 14 drivers boycotting the event amid safety concerns after
Michelin brought incorrect tyres to Indianapolis.
Disgusted spectators pelted missiles at the remaining drivers from the three
teams running Bridgestone tyres. Many walked away from the race demanding their
money back.
By the end of the year, Michelin had announced that they would quit the sport
at the end of the 2006 world championship.
The move followed the decision by the FIA to opt for a single tyre
manufacturer to supply teams from 2008 and came just months after the debacle at
Indianapolis.
Michelin's withdrawal means Bridgestone will be left as the sole tyre
supplier.
The future of Formula One was also plunged into uncertainty when the threat
of a breakaway series emerged.
Some teams complained that Formula One's commercial boss Bernie Ecclestone
was not giving them a big enough share of the millions of dollars made from the
marketing and TV rights of the sport.
The dispute was defused to a certain extent in December when Williams pulled
out of a breakaway threat.
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