Two rivalries instantly leap to thoughts in terms of Method One’s nice battles, however there may be one well timed – however usually forgotten – duel that was fierce sufficient to rival the perfect of them.
Senna vs Prost is unequalled for its controversy and depth. Hunt vs Lauda has a barely plausible backstory of human endurance. Others, like Senna vs Schumacher, sadly by no means totally materialised – Schumacher’s first championship coming within the 12 months Ayrton Senna misplaced his life.
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However in 2005, 11 years after the Brazilian’s dying at Imola, Schumacher had grow to be the elder statesman of the grid at 36, with a report seven world championships to his identify, however he and his Ferrari workforce confronted a brand new menace to their unprecedented dominance. That got here within the type of 23-year-old Spaniard Fernando Alonso, driving for Renault, who had simply 53 begins and a single grand-prix victory to his identify.
This battle featured intense glimpses fairly than a chronic battle like the next 2006 season. Probably the most memorable duel of these two years although got here at Imola, when Alonso held off a charging Schumacher – whose entrance wing appeared glued to the rear of the Renault for the ultimate 10 laps – profitable by simply 0.215sec. Schumacher began thirteenth, and was the faster man, however was stymied by Alonso’s decided defensive talents.
What outlined that season was not simply Ferrari and Schumacher being toppled, however the emergence of Alonso and likewise McLaren’s Kimi Raikkonen, 26, as heirs to Schumacher. There was additionally a rising query mark over the good champion’s talents.
Renault resurgent, Ferrari faltering
That intense end at Imola got here amid the backdrop of fluctuating fortunes for Renault and Ferrari. The French outfit have been within the fourth season again as a full works workforce, having withdrawn from F1 on the finish of 1985, and had steadily climbed in direction of the entrance of the grid.
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In Alonso, it was clear that that they had an thrilling driver who in his three earlier seasons had constructed expertise and confidence to go together with his uncooked expertise. In 2005 he had the automobile beneath him to battle for the championship fairly than simply podiums, as confirmed by his wonderful outcomes main into Imola.
Against this, Schumacher had simply delivered 5 titles in a row, the primary driver to take action in F1 historical past, with 2004 his most dominant 12 months as he rattled off a then-record 13 race victories. But Ferrari’s try at a sixth consecutive double championship may barely have begun worse.
The Scuderia began the 2005 season with the F2004M, a modified model of the all-conquering F2004 from the earlier season. The brand new F2005 was not slated for its first race till the Spanish Grand Prix, spherical 5. That was introduced ahead after dire performances early on that deflated the defending champions.
Why have been Ferrari so gradual? There have been modifications to the entrance wing’s clearance top however new tyre rules meant that drivers needed to full your entire race on one set. In 2005 there have been two tyre suppliers, Michelin and Bridgestone. Ferrari have been the main Bridgestone workforce, however Michelin’s tyres have been way more as much as the job.
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That was not the one drawback. The conundrum stretched again to the earlier 12 months, in response to Rob Smedley, who was on Ferrari’s take a look at workforce on the time. “The entire idea was fallacious in 2005,” Smedley tells Telegraph Sport. “The Bridgestone wasn’t as sturdy generally because the Michelin tyre, however then we had the automobile idea fallacious as properly.
“I all the time felt that we didn’t actually perceive why we constructed such a quick Method One automobile [the F2004]. I do know there have been totally different concepts and totally different notions however I’m not positive any of them actually instructed us the total story.”
Ferrari introduced ahead the introduction of the F2005 to spherical three in Bahrain. “There’s no level taking it to Bahrain until it’s sooner. It has additionally bought to be dependable,” Ross Brawn mentioned after spherical two in Malaysia.
The brand new automobile was sooner – Schumacher certified on the entrance row in Bahrain behind Alonso and caught on his rear wing for the opening 11 laps. However it was additionally unreliable. Schumacher retired with a hydraulic situation on lap 12 and Rubens Barrichello solely managed a handful of laps all weekend. With three of 19 rounds gone, Schumacher was already 24 factors behind the Spaniard.
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Heading into spherical 4 at Imola there was tentative optimism that Ferrari may problem on residence soil, particularly given Schumacher’s 5 Ferrari wins within the earlier six years and the 5,000 miles of testing that they had placed on the brand new automobile since late March.
That hope burst on Saturday. After putting third within the first spherical of qualifying, Schumacher made a uncommon mistake on his second timed lap on Sunday morning, which dropped him all the way in which again to thirteenth on combination time. Raikkonen would begin on pole with Alonso second.
Race day: Alonso leads, Schumacher expenses
Because the race started on Sunday, Raikkonen stored his lead and confirmed blistering tempo to stretch his benefit over Alonso and Jenson Button’s BAR. But, as was so usually the case with the delicate 2005 McLaren, its uncooked pace amounted to nothing when the Finn retired with a driveshaft failure on lap 9. Alonso inherited the lead.
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Schumacher’s early progress was restricted, solely up two locations to eleventh by lap 14, earlier than becoming a member of a practice behind Jarno Trulli’s Toyota for 20 laps. The primary indicators that Schumacher’s automobile had podium-contending tempo have been obvious on the opening pit stops from lap 23.
The tip of his first stint was a wonderful instance of the famed “qualifying laps” Schumacher was capable of ship in race trim, with each one pushed to the restrict. This electrical tempo helped him leap from twelfth to 3rd after his first cease on lap 27. At this level, although, he was nonetheless 31 seconds behind Alonso, with 34 laps left.
Inside six laps Alonso’s lead was slashed to 21.9sec, Schumacher sooner by two seconds per lap. Catching and passing Button, in second, whereas the Briton was making an attempt to lap two squabbling Williams vehicles, helped his trigger.
Alonso stopped for a remaining time on lap 42 and Schumacher put in one other burst of qualifying laps in clear air – at some factors 2.5sec a lap sooner than the Renault – earlier than stopping for a second and remaining time, rising from the pit lane a number of seconds behind Alonso.
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What got here within the remaining 11 laps is an instance of F1 racing that’s tough to think about within the DRS days of 2025 as Alonso’s willpower and guile within the lead stored his rival behind regardless of the Ferrari’s far superior tempo. Even watching the race again 20 years later it feels inevitable that Schumacher will attempt to stick his automobile up the within, regardless of the penalties, as was his fashion.
Alonso holds off Schumacher’s Ferrari within the remaining laps of the 2005 San Marino Grand Prix – Getty Photos
By the ultimate lap, Alonso’s Renault was so gradual that he couldn’t catch the backmarkers forward. For a short second he left the door open on the double left-hander at Tosa. Schumacher half-heartedly tried to dive up the within, however once more the Renault’s superior traction denied him. A minute later, Schumacher locked a front-right tyre on the remaining chicane and Alonso drove throughout the road two tenths forward, denying Schumacher a report seventh win at Imola.
If there was any doubt that Alonso was made from world champion materials, this exact and defensive drive beneath the best stress from the best driver ended it. But it additionally raised questions on Schumacher.
Schumacher ‘essentially the most boring champion ever’
The efficiency of Schumacher’s Ferrari at Imola felt just like the Ferrari of outdated – all aside from standing on the highest step of the rostrum. Not everybody was impressed. Schumacher’s former Ferrari team-mate Eddie Irvine advised the German lacked a killer intuition and made too many errors.
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“Michael is essentially the most boring world champion ever,” the Northern Irishman mentioned on the subsequent race in Monaco. “I couldn’t imagine Michael at Imola. All he needed to do was move him [Alonso] down the within. There was no level ending second to Alonso. Perhaps he’s getting previous it. Three years in the past he would have completed it.”
The exhibiting at Imola did elevate hopes that Ferrari, with the brand new F2005, may problem Alonso for the remainder of the season. But the promise that emerged on an overcast Sunday in Emilia-Romagna by no means materialised. Regardless of the Bridgestone tyres – lastly – working properly that weekend, it was a false daybreak.
Ferrari chairman Luca di Montezemolo decried the scenario after the Spanish Grand Prix in Could, when a tyre failure brought on Schumacher’s third non-finish of the season. “It’s extra of a world championship for tyres than for vehicles,” he mentioned. “We’ve a really aggressive automobile however we have now a giant drawback with the tyres.”
Any hope of an eighth drivers’ title shortly turned forlorn. Alonso adopted his San Marino victory with wins on the Nürburgring, Magny Cours and Hockenheim to depart Schumacher trailing by 40 factors, with Raikkonen between them. A run of 4 podiums in Turkey, Italy, Belgium and Brazil clinched the Renault driver a maiden drivers’ title, making him the youngest-ever world champion.
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In that very same interval Schumacher managed simply 4 podiums. His solely win was the farcical United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis the place issues over tyre security meant that not one of the Michelin runners raced. There was now little question as to who F1’s pre-eminent driver was.
Alonso’s audacious overtake: ‘Michael has two children’
If Imola was a chronic demonstration of the idea that Irvine espoused, it was once more highlighted in direction of the top of the season at Suzuka, with Alonso’s championship secured on the earlier race in Brazil.
The 2005 Japanese Grand Prix continues to be seen as one of many best F1 races within the twenty first Century. It wasn’t simply that Raikkonen and Alonso began in sixteenth and seventeenth – courtesy of a rainstorm halfway via qualifying – and charged via to take first and third respectively. It was the style of the overtakes that bought them there that was putting, and significantly so Alonso’s on Schumacher.
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By lap 18, Schumacher, who had began 14th, was forward of Alonso and Raikkonen, all three males inside 1.5sec on monitor and making progress via the order. Schumacher and Alonso had not often battled on monitor since that race however resumed hostilities with the championship determined. Maybe that’s the reason the Spaniard pulled off probably the most audacious and memorable overtakes within the sport’s historical past.
Suzuka is the final word driver’s monitor, a circuit the place the person within the cockpit makes extra distinction via dedication and bravado than some other F1 venue. In 2005 there was no better demonstration of that on the monitor’s 18 corners than the high-speed left-hander at 130R. It was a 180mph nook requiring an unblinking belief in your personal capability and machine, even with out one other automobile alongside.
Alonso, proper on the Ferrari’s rear wing, pulled out of the slipstream and went to the surface. Schumacher took a defensive inside line. Alonso dedicated to his line and dashed previous the appropriate facet of the Ferrari at 180mph, the 2 vehicles toes from a high-speed crash. It was an announcement of intent from the brand new world champion who completed third as Raikkonen took victory with a surprising overtake on the final lap.
Talking later in regards to the overtake to journalist Nigel Roebuck, Alonso’s intent and no-nonsense perspective on and off the monitor was additional underlined. “At occasions like that, I all the time do not forget that Michael has two children,” he mentioned.
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Schumacher would go on to take pleasure in a resurgent 2006 – his remaining at Ferrari earlier than his first retirement – ending second within the championship as Alonso claimed a second title for Renault. Twenty years later, he’s nonetheless in F1.
For Schumacher, regardless of taking seven grand prix victories in 2006 to finish up with a then-record profession complete of 91, there was no getting away from a way that 2005 was the season the place he misplaced his edge.
