The 2000's

The first half of the first decade of the new millennium was to be the beginning of an unprecedented domination in Formula One by one team and one driver, that of Michael SCHUMACHER and Ferrari. In 2000 after having fully recovered his form from the previous seasons unfortunate incident at Silverstone, a healthy Michael SCHUMACHER was now poised to come off the starting line at full throttle. Still though, no one could have anticipated the extent of the teams unequaled domination over the course of the next several seasons. Michael was to gain the consummate professional Team mate Rubens BARRICHELLO who would fulfill the supporting player role to it's maximum for SCHUMACHER and Ferrari. Rubens came over to Ferrari when Eddie IRVINE defected to the newly formed Jaguar Racing Team. Rubens arrival paid immediate dividends as Rubens dedicated support role was to be an immeasurable benefit to the overall success of the team as he promptly did his part to boost Michael to the inaugural Formula One World Title of the new Millennium over McLarens Mika HAKKINEN.

The next couple of seasons SCHUMACHER continued to repeat his mostly dominating performance while gaining a reputation as a merciless competitor even with his own team mate with which he would have several on track skirmishes. Still, they forged ahead with SCHUMACHER taking the 2001 title as well as matching FANGIO's previously thought to be unbeatable record of five Formula One Titles the following season in 2002. There was a notably distinct sign of new things to come in 2001 though as a young, inexperienced, 21 year old, relatively obscure Karting, Formula/British Renault Champion by the name of Kimi RAIKKONEN with a controversial 23 total races to his credit and no F3 or F3000 races caught the eye of Sauber Team Principal Peter SAUBER of the Swiss based Sauber Petronas team in 2001. Kimi rewarded the Teams faith in him by bursting onto the scene with some inspiring drives to elevate the teams performance to it's highest ever season ending result of 4th place overall in the Constructors Championship. His strong performances were not to go unnoticed as the following season of 2002 he was promoted to a contract with McLaren to fill the vacated seat of fellow countryman and Two time World Champion Mika HAKKINEN. 2002 Kimi was to just miss out on his first F1 win in Adelaide due to an oily circuit that caught him out. The following season of 2003, Kimi would be seen dominating at the onset with him rising to his first top step F1 podium at Malaysia as well as being the primary antagonist to harass Michael for the title that ultimately came down to the final race. That was to be Schumi's (as he has affectionately become known over the years) 6th title, besting and effectively personalizing FANGIO's long standing record with his own moniker. 2004 picked up where 2003 left off except McLaren's challenge had faded slightly with mixed results leaving a mostly uncontested title to SCHUMACHER and Ferrari with team mate Rubens BARRICHELLO filling in the top 2 seeds at the season ending checkered flag for Ferrari.

Rule changes in the 2005 season finally seem to have dimmed Ferrari's ability to out-spend their competition and effectively laid lame the famed Prancing Horse. Will this be the beginning of a new era? Well, this will yet to be determined as history is about to be written but the first chapter published has already uncovered a reincarnated contender in Renault and their promising, newly crowned, F1 World Champion in Fernando ALONSO. He has already set several milestones including being the youngest Champion ever at age 24 and the first Spaniard ever to win a title, so sit back and watch the exciting and ever developing future of F1 which we are also destined to be a part of in 2014.

2000	Michael Schumacher	Germany
2001	Michael Schumacher	Germany
2002	Michael Schumacher	Germany
2003	Michael Schumacher	Germany
2004	Michael Schumacher	Germany
2005	Fernando Alonso	Spain
2006	Fernando Alonso	Spain
2007	Kimi Raikkonen	Finland
2008	Mika Häkkinen	Finland
2009	Mika Häkkinen	Finland