2005 F1 Season
19 races · Renault R25
The 2005 season ended Ferrari's reign and gave birth to a new star. A rule change — a single set of tyres for the whole race — sank Bridgestone and Ferrari and opened the door to Renault and McLaren.
Aged just 24, Fernando Alonso drove the solid, reliable Renault R25 with maturity beyond his years and became the youngest world champion in history at the time, breaking Schumacher's stranglehold. His great rival, Kimi Räikkönen, was often faster with the McLaren MP4/20, but disastrous reliability squandered his chances.
The year was also marred by the embarrassing United States Grand Prix at Indianapolis, where safety problems with Michelin tyres left only six cars on track, one of the most awkward episodes in the sport's modern history.
Drivers' Champion
Fernando Alonso
Renault R25
Constructors' Champion
Renault
19 races
Key moment
"Alonso celebrates the title in Brazil — the youngest champion in history at that point."
What if 2005 had been raced 100 times?
We took the real 2005 grid — every car with its performance and reliability, every driver with his rating — and re-ran the full 17-race championship 100 times.
| Driver | Avg. finish | Titles |
|---|---|---|
| Fernando Alonsoreal championRenault | P1.3 | 73% |
| Kimi RäikkönenMcLaren | P1.8 | 27% |
| Juan Pablo MontoyaMcLaren | P3.1 | 0% |
| Michael SchumacherFerrari | P4.4 | 0% |
| Giancarlo FisichellaRenault | P4.5 | 0% |
| Rubens BarrichelloFerrari | P6.1 | 0% |
Fernando Alonso takes the title 73% of the time: one in every 4 simulated championships goes to somebody else, almost always Kimi Räikkönen. It was not a dominated year, it was a won one.
Tags
What if Senna, Hamilton or Alonso had driven the 2005 championship-winning car?