Team season summaries
Renault
It was like they were 2 different teams this year. One being the title winning one, with Utzer at the wheel. The German won his 2nd title, taking 7 wins over the course of the season, and finishing each race he made to the end in the points. Then there also was Martins' side. The former champion had a horrible year, being the one frequently hit by reliability issues. His pace was by no means bad, but most of the times he was running in decent positions, something went wrong.
Minardi
It looked like they'd walk away with both titles early on, winning the flyaway races. Arriving at Europe though a couple of reliability issues hit them, allowing Utzer to take a comfortable lead in the championship. Thanks to both Goddard and Rinneaho performing equally well, they managed to defend the constructors' title, albeit having taken fewer wins than Renault.
Jordan
The Irish team kept 3rd of the previous season. Engberink was back in form, taking 2 wins and 5th in the standings. Andy Graham turned out to be the perfect replacement for Brugman, him too taking 2 wins and beating Engberink by 4 points in the standings. While the drivers' title was out of reach for both, they ended up only 8 points behind Renault in the constructors' standings.
McLaren
It's been 8 years since the Woking outfit has been performing this well. Although both Ancevski and Laad missed out on the team's first win since 2000, the frequent points results allowed them to take 4th in the standings.
Toyota
A mixed season for the Japanes team. Harvey showed some stellar performances, the highlight being his 2nd career win at the French GP. Laskey on the other hand had a difficult season. While his pace wasn't that bad either, mistakes in the races and bad quali performances often cost him dearly.
Arrows
6th place in the constructors' standing for the Arrows team in their final year in Formula One. Pablo Diehl dragged his car to 3 podiums, finishing 9th in the standings. Rookie Nathan Cornes too with a couple of points results, taken in an impressive manner since most of the times he had started from the back end of the field.
Ferrari
Lacking both a proper pace and reliability, the Italian team had a tough season. Buurlage had some regular points finishes in the first half of the season. Sigoulakis took a while to get used to the new team, despite having finished the opening round in 4th. It wasn't until the German GP when he took points again.
Jaguar
It appeared to be a good season for them, with Noack's 2 podiums in the first few races. However they were the highlights of the season already. Both Black and Noack had a hard time, finishing in the points on a few more occasions only.
BAR
Lintner had a solid season, finishing in the points on a regular basis. Teammate Reed wasn't exactly slow either, however he was often hit by technical issues, denying him some decent results.
Sauber
Massive downfall for the Swiss team, from 2nd to 10th in the standings. They seemed to be off to a good start, with a pole and points in the opening round, however they failed to build on that, taking only a few more points in the following races.
Williams
A disastrous season for the former champions, although they actually had a proper race pace. Quite often both Keranen and Mishra were on the way to a top 8 results, only to have the car break down close to the end. Most famous one being Keranen's retirement at the Monaco GP, where he was leading the race until a technical problem forced him to do an extra stop.
This season's just over, new thread should be up in 1-2 weeks. You can post your sponsors & buys there then. As things stand now, you'll either get a seat at Super Aguri, or you'll take my seat if we can't find a 22nd driver.
