17 Races, 11 teams, 25 drivers, 1065 laps - The 2007 FIA Formula One World Championship turned out to be one of the most memorable of all time for both all the right and wrong reasons. We witnessed a great championship battle between McLaren and Ferrari and their drivers. On the driver front, for the first time in modern F1, we had a realistic four-way battle for the title between Fernando Alonso, Lewis Hamilton, Kimi Raikkonen and Felipe Massa. This was reduced to three after a poor run of results and a retirment at Monza left Massa mathematically out of the running, and the three-way battle went right down to the wire.
On the constructor's side of things we had a close battle all season between McLaren and Ferrari and it was settled in a way that no-one imagined at the start of the season when McLaren were disqualified from the constructor's standings after being accused of espionage and illegal holding Ferrari documents. It tainted what was a very close battle and handed the championship to Maranello. It was a sad end to what had been a very tense battle.
Further back and there was contriving fortunes for the rest of the field. BMW Sauber, who had been no more than a midfield team and very rarely ever near the pace in their previous guise, had a stunning season. Nick Heidfeld scored three consecutive 4th places in the first 3 races (including out-racing Alonso at Bahrain) and scored a few podiums on his way to 5th in the championship. His team-mate Robert Kubica was always close to him and apart from a frightening shunt at Montreal had a great season. BMW finished a solid second in the championship and had the luxury of switching their focus to 2008 before the season had even finished.
Reigning champions Renault had a disappointing season compared to their previous two. It took them 15 races to score a podium and never looked like getting a win, despite scoring 8 wins in 2006. Giancarlo Fisichella drove well all season without standings out, and despite struggling at the start, Heikki Kovalainen showed he could cut it in F1 with a succession of point finishes including his maiden podium at Fuji. Williams looked to improve on 8th place from 2006, and did so with new Toyota engines. Nico Rosberg led the team well and was unlucky not to score more. Alex Wurz, on his return to F1 racing, struggled with qualifying yet scored a lucky podium at Canada.
For the two Red Bull teams this was a season of high promise with their first Adrian Newey-designed cars, but it was to be a huge disappointment. They both struggled to improve to 2006 (STR even sacked Scott Speed after round 11) but it all turned round at the Far Eastern races. They looked strong in the wet and racked up a large handful of points, despite having a Red Bull and STR driver crash into each other.
As for the Japanese teams it was a mixed season. Toyota started off with high hopes for their new car, but yet again it was a disappointing campaign with only occassional points and no poles or podiums. Super Aguri, using the 2006 Honda, had a great first half to the season, even managing to out-score a McLaren at the Canadian GP, but lack of funds seen the team fall back as the season went on. But for the senior Honda team this was a season to forget. They miscalculated their wind tunnel results on their new car resulting in embarrassing results before Button saved their blushes at the final rounds
And finally Spyker entered their first season in F1 with new hope, yet couldn't progress from the back of the grid. They had found a superstar in Adrian Sutil, but sacked their lead driver Christijan Albers after a poor run of form and lack of sponsorship. His replacement, Marcus Winkelhock, sensationally led a race on his only outing before being replaced by Sakon Yamamoto. By the end of the year, the former Jordan team had been sold on yet again to a consortium led by their former chief executive Michel Mol