RENAULT

After supplying engines to the Benetton team for a number of years, Renault were given the green light by its board to purchase the team and in 2002, Renault hit the track for the first time under their own name since 1985. Renault's first foray into Formula One came in 1977 and with it came the introduction of the turbo charged engine. Making it debut in the official championship (Renault raced prior to the inception of the championship in 1950) the yellow 1.5 litre turbo powered RS01 qualified 21st at Silverstone with Jean-Pierre Jabouille behind the wheel. The Renault team failed to finish at Silverstone and would retire from the other four races contested that year, but with the new turbo engine, Renault had kicked off a whole new era in the sport.
The team persisted with the then unreliable turbo engine and at Dijon in 1979; Jabouille took Renault's first victory in the RS11 on the way to sixth position in the championship. Three victories would follow in the 1980 with Alain Prost joining the team in 1981 from McLaren and helping scoring two of Renault's three wins.
Renault finished second in the championship in 1983 with Prost missing out on the title by just two points from Nelson Piquet in the Brabham BMW. Prost would move on to McLaren the following season and Renault began to slide. After finishing fifth and seventh in the championship in 1984 and 1985, Renault had competed in 123 Grand Prix, recording an impressive tally of 31 Pole Positions and 15 race wins. Pulling out of the sport for the time being the team had not won the title and would have to wait until 2005 to achieve its ultimate goal.
Renault returned as an engine supplier in 1989 with Williams supplying the squad with its fabulous V10 powerplant and would achieve multiple championships with the team and later with Benetton. However, 2002 saw Renault return to Grand Prix racing under its own name having taken over the Benetton team. Jenson Button continued with the outfit alongside Jarno Trulli. A few strong performances scattered throughout the 17-race calendar saw them move up to fourth place overall, Team principal Flavio Briatore decided to replace Button with rising Spanish star Fernando Alonso for 2003. Renault would finish the 2003 season fourth in the Constructors' championship once again with Alonso taking his first victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix. The driver line up remained unchanged for the start of the 2004 season with Trulli taking a textbook victory around the streets of Monte Carlo.
It would be a bitter-sweet season for Trulli as he recorded the team's single win of the season but he and Briatore fell out and by the end of the season, the Italian was racing with Toyota. Jacques Villeneuve was drafted in for the final races of the year but made little impact while the team went one better than the previous two years by finishing third in the title race. 2005 was the season that Briatore's plans all came together. Armed with the effective R25 chassis and teamed up with Giancarlo Fisichella, Alonso secured seven wins and claimed the Drivers' title from Kimi Raikkonen. The season finale in China also saw Renault beat season-long rivals McLaren Mercedes to the Constructors' Championship. It had been a while in the making, but Renault had finally achieved its ultimate ambition. Renault had retained all of its key players and started the 2006 in dominant style. Three straight wins at the start of the season indicated the raw pace of the R26 package. The rule changed and the move to 2.4 litre V8 engines seemed to do little to slow Renault down and at mid-season it seemed the titles were all but done and dusted. However, some controversial re-evaluation of the rule saw Renault loss its Mass Damper system that they had first introduced at the end of 2005. This technical change combined with a strong challenge from Ferrari ensured that the title went right down to the wire.
Alonso's first half of the season was stunning, winning six of the first nine races. However, some bad luck and errors ensured that he would win just one more round and a critical race that was too. Heading to Suzuka for the penultimate race of the season, Alonso was tied with Schumacher in the championship standings but the Ferrari V8 failure at Suzuka took the pressure off and next time out in Brazil, Alonso took the drivers' title and Renault the constructors' title. Alonso quit Renault for McLaren in 2007. Giancarlo Fisichella had not proven to be a regular race winner and with rookie team-mate Heikki Kovalainen being promoted from test to race driver, it was not surprising that the team struggled in 2007. Renault had enjoyed a close relationship with tyre supplier Michelin, but with the series moving to spec-Bridgestone rubber, the team scored just one podium over the whole season.
Fisichella's season started relatively strongly but tailed off mid-season while Kovalainen had a tough start to his Formula One career but put in a strong second half of the year culminating in a fine second position at the rain hit Japanese Grand Prix. The team are regrouping for the forthcoming season and have regained the talents of Alonso following his turbulent single season at McLaren. Alonso will be partnered by Nelson Piquet who steps up to the race seat from his test role with the team. It remains to be seen if the team can turn around its poor 2007 performance…

BMW SAUBER

BMW Sauber headed into the 2006 season as a constructor in its own right after purchasing the Swiss-based Sauber Petronas team. BMW supplied its V10 engines to Williams in what was a technical partnership between the two parties and under the BMW Williams banner, would secure ten race wins with the squad over five years. Perhaps restless at not being able to gain Championship glory, the Board at BMW announced mid-way through the 2005 season that they would take control of Sauber Petronas.
Nick Heidfeld joined the BMW Sauber team from Williams while Jacques Villeneuve was retained from the Sauber contract to partner the German. Mario Theissen remained in charge of BMW's motorsport activities, increasing staffing levels and investing heavily in the engineering side of the team led by Will Rampf. Rampf worked with BMW South Africa between 1989 and 1993 and invited to attend Peter Sauber's first Formula One race at Kyalami in '93, Rampf jumped at the chance to join the team as a race engineer before returning to BMW in 1997 to run the Paris-Dakar programme. Two years later he was back to Sauber as Technical Director and with BMW taking over the squad, it was little surprise that the Bavarian would oversee the F1.06 for BMW's debut season.

As far as debut seasons go in Formula One, the team were content with its 36 points and fifth position in the championship standings ahead of Toyota. The season started well with Villeneuve and Heidfeld proving fairly evenly matched with the duo picking up points on a regular basis. The German Grand Prix would prove to be Villeneuve's final race for the team as he and the team management fell out over a first lap collision that eliminated the former champion and team-mate Heidfeld. This promoted test driver Robert Kubica up to the race seat and allowed the squad to draft in the little known F3 racer Sebastian Vettel. The combination worked well from the outset with Vettel impressing in his Friday practice role while Kubica proved to be something of a star in the making.
Heidfeld took a solid third in the Hungarian Grand Prix but more impressively, Kubica took his first podium in just his third Grand Prix at Monza. Were it not for an incorrect call for dry tyres in China, Kubica would undoubtedly have taken another podium the very next time out in China. After an impressive debut season, the team remained largely unchanged for 2007 and would go on to score 101 points and finish second to Ferrari in the constructors' championship. The highlight of this most successful season was Heidfeld's second position in the Canadian Grand Prix, but it was a disaster for Kubica who was fortunate to escape serious injury after a massive accident. The Pole would not score a podium, with his best result being fourth position. While the team scored solid points all season, they could not challenge Ferrari or McLaren for pure pace. The team are aiming to close the gap on the top two teams in 2008 with Heidfeld and Kubica again charged with the driving duties.

FERRARI

Ferrari was racing in the pre-war days of Formula One, and after the World Championship as we know it began in 1950, Enzo Ferrari's team emerged as a major force. The first year in of the Championship proved fruitless, but Alberto Ascari and Jose Froilan Gonzalez fought Alfa Romeo in 1951 with Ascari only losing marginally to Juan Manuel Fangio in the final race of the season. Ferrari was ready when the sports governing body ran the races to two litre regulations. Ascari dominated in 1952 and 1953, but then fell behind Maserati and Lancia when 2.5 litre regulations were introduced. At the end of 1955, they took over the Lancia's with Fangio using the D50 to score three wins and secure his fourth title. Fangio switched to Maserati in 1957, and unfortunately, Ferrari failed to win a race without the Argentinean ace.
In 1958, the new car, the Tipo146, christened 'Dino' after Enzo's son, put Ferrari back on the F1 map. Many fans believe that Stirling Moss was the rightful champion that year, but the title fell to Mike Hawthorn and Ferrari in the finale of the season. The next two years saw the Cooper team dominate but Ferrari returned with vengeance in 1961 with the new 1.5 litre Tipo 156 'shark nose'. Tragedy struck as their driver, the great Wolfgang von Trips was killed in the Italian Grand Prix. The teams other driver, Phil Hill, went on to clinch victory for the team.
John Surtees was the next driver to win the cup for the Italian marquee, in 1964, making him famous for being the only man to win the championship on both two wheels and four. 1966 saw the introduction of the three litre and Ferrari were once again struggling, this time trying to match Cosworth's superb DFV which was introduced in 1967. For the following 8 years, Ferrari were mid field at best, apart from limited success by Jacky Ickx and a win by his team mate Clay Regazzoni at the Italian Grand Prix in 1970.
A quick, but inexperienced Niki Lauda joined the team in 1974 and although he lost out to Emerson Fittipaldi and McLaren that year, he made amends by winning the title for the team in 1975 and he would have won again if not for his near fatal accident at the Nurburgring, losing to his team mate, James Hunt by a solitary point. He won for Ferrari again in 1977. Jody Scheckter won the title for them in 1979 beating team-mate Gilles Villeneuve that year, despite only winning two races to the Canadian's three.
In the latter part of that season their 312T4's were outshone by the Williams of Alan Jones and the following season, their T5 was a disaster. The 1.5 litre turbo charged engines were beginning to appear at this stage, and Ferrari produced the agricultural 126C. Villeneuve did have some remarkable wins with it though, in both Monaco and Jarama. The team employed a British designer by the name of Harvey Postlethwaite and their 1982 design, the 126C2 was the class of the field. Once again tragedy struck the Italian outfit as Giles Villeneuve was killed in practice at Zolder and Didier Pironi was injured at Hockenheim while leading the championship. Although Ferrari won the Constructors' title that year and the next, the drivers' title was awarded to another team.
After a dip in fortunes Michele Alboreto was competitive with the team in 1985, but 1988 saw the death of the beloved Enzo at the ripe age of 90. Enzo wasn't present to witness the undignified barging between Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna in 1990 as Prost won five races in the season, yet lost to the Brazilian in controversial circumstances in Japan. When Michael Schumacher joined the team in 1996, the Tifosi didn't initially greet him with delight. However, many believe that he has galvanized the team and with the support of Jean Todt, turned the then failing team around and put them back on the pace by the end of the year. Five wins in 1997 saw Schumacher in contention for the title, but he lost out when he drove into Jacques Villeneuve in the year's finale.
1998 saw the Tifosi's hopes for a driver's title in 19 years revamped, but once again, at the finale of the season, Schumacher saw his chance of victory fall away as he stalled the F300 on the grid. McLaren Mercedes was still dominant the following season and Schumacher was fighting hard until an accident at the British Grand Prix saw the German sidelined with a broken leg for all bar the final two races of the season. Team-mate Eddie Irvine carried the team flag but was unable to pip Mika Hakkinen to the title but the team did take the Constructors' title. The 2000 season saw their dreams finally realized when after a very dominating start to the season in Australia, Schumacher went on to take the drivers crown for the team in the second last race of the year. This was followed by the constructor's title in the following race, making it a double victory for the Italian team. 2001 produced a dominating championship victory with Michael Schumacher taking his fourth drivers crown, his second successive with the team and the first since 1953, in the 13th round of the season. This victory also saw the teams' third consecutive constructors' trophy.
2002 was a dominating season by Schumacher and the Italian marque by anyone's standards. The German driver clinched his fifth driver's title by the eleventh round of the season and together with Barrichello's efforts, the team wrapped up their fourth consecutive constructors crown soon afterwards. Record after record fell during the season as they took 15 of the possible 17 victories. The 2003 season, though, was not another record-breaking season as a host of new regulations were introduced by the FIA aimed at slowing down Ferrari and Schumacher. Although the battle was taken down to the wire at the season-ending Japanese Grand Prix both the team and the German succeeded in retaining their titles. There are probably not enough superlatives left to praise Ferrari enough following the 2004 season. 15 wins from the 18 races, 29 podium positions, 32 points paying finishes and just two failures to finish. The Ferrari F2004 was a stunning chassis, so much so that it kept on winning long after development shifted away from the car to the 2005 design.
The season got off to a perfect start with Michael Schumacher taking a relatively easy win from Rubens Barrichello. Schumacher went on to win the next four Grand Prix before a coming together with Juan Pablo Montoya in the Monaco tunnel ended his run of wins. The next seven races all fell to Schumacher and heading to Spa Francorchamps, another solid result would secure him his seventh World Championship. Second position behind Kimi Raikkonen did the job for the German star and he was Champion again. The run could only continue so long and after six years Ferrari string of Constructors' Championships came to an end as did Michael Schumacher's five successive Drivers' titles. It was a poor season from the defending champions, never able to challenge main rivals Renault and McLaren for race pace. Ferrari's long-term relationship with Bridgestone hit trouble as the Japanese tyre giant was firmly beaten by rival Michelin. As a result, Schumacher would score just one race victory in a race where only the Bridgestone runners took part. The US Grand Prix fiasco, Ferrari struggled through the season and would end up third in the standings.
Ferrari bounced back strongly in 2006 with Schumacher putting in back-to-back wins at Imola and Nurburgring. Wins would follow at Indianapolis, Magny Cours and Hockenheim putting both Schumacher and the team in contention for more championship glory. Felipe Massa took his first Pole Position and victory for the team in Turkey while Schumacher rattled off wins at Monza and China. The Japanese Grand Prix saw Schumacher's engine fail as he led the race. In one cloud of smoke, his chances of an eighth Championship were over. Massa would dominate his home race in Brazil to finish off his first season with Ferrari in style, while Schumacher drove a stunning race to finish fourth after problems in qualifying and a puncture early in the race. Ferrari now had to face life after Schumacher with the German star retiring from the sport. The team recruited Kimi Raikkonen to join Massa while behind the scenes Technical Director Ross Brawn has ended his time at the team with his position being taken by Mario Almondo. Stefano Domenicali took over as Sporting Director.
Despite the changes, Ferrari had a strong season making best use of its extensive Bridgestone knowledge as the series moved to a single tyre supplier. Raikkonen kicked off his Ferrari career in style by winning on his debut in Melbourne and then taking further victories in France, Britain and Belgium. The title still seemed a long shot but with back to back wins in China and Brazil as rivals Lewis Hamilton slipped up, handed Raikkonen his first world championship. The F2007 proved ultra competitive on the longer sweeping circuits, but not as nimble as its rival McLaren on the shorter more technically demanding circuits. Felipe Massa won three Grand Prix on his way to fourth in the championship while the team won the constructors' championship after McLaren were thrown out following the espionage scandal involving Ferrari employee Nigel Stepney. Back on top with Raikkonen, the team remains largely unchanged heading into the new season and pre-season testing has indicated that the F2008 will be a tough car to beat.