It was also dramatic, a classic season of two halves. Fernando Alonso skipped away in the first part of the year in irrepressible fashion. But then came the Ferrari resurgence, and Michael Schumacher's chase, which featured several awesome races, most notably Hungary, China and Brazil. And to top it off came the reality of Schumi's impending retirement; here was the prospect of this colossus of the sport, striding its arena for the last time, and walking away with its greatest prize for the eighth time. It was not to be.

But to label it a season of two halves, though it may have appeared that way, would be to undersell the achievements and the year-long efforts of both these drivers and their teams. Alonso's incredible consistency on the racetrack made him a worthy successor to Schumacher as the best, most relentless driver in the world; in terms of regular error-free performance, the Spaniard may have even surpassed the German legend. After all, he beat Michael in a straight fight to become the youngest-ever double champion.

And this was a Schumacher who showed all throughout the year, and not just in the second half of it, that he still had it all. By that I mean that he still had the hunger, he still had the speed, he still had the greatest skill overall, but he still had that occasional mistake, and he still had the controversy. All season long, from the opening salvos in Bahrain to the last hurrah in Brazil, there was very little to choose between the reliability and performance of the Renault/Michelin and the Ferrari/Bridgestone packages.

Having said that, the performance levels of Renault and Ferrari were also undoubtedly magnified by the fact that so many other drivers and their teams had such middling seasons that fell below their pre-season expectations. McLaren went from having the fastest car of 2005 to their first winless year since 1996, and had the disruption of Juan-Pablo Montoya leaving mid-season. Honda's pre-season speed was never replicated despite Jenson Button's maiden win and a vast overall improvement on last year.

The drama of the season was also aided by what seemed to be rather conspicuous meddling by officialdom in the second half of the year. There was the mass dampers affair that hit Renault at the most inconvenient time, Alonso's qualifying penalty in Hungary, not to mention the ludicrous penalty meted out to the Spaniard after qualifying at Monza. Even if it was all purely and innocently coincidental, it did nothing to quieten the growing number of cynics out there.

Politically it was a comparatively quiet year. The new qualifying system worked a treat. V8 engines meant slower straight-line speeds, but aero advances and the tyre war meant corner speeds increased and lap times changed little. The return of tyre changes was not universally popular but it did even things up between Bridgestone and Michelin. The Grand Prix Manufacturers' Association died a slow death, and the rules for 2008 and the debate over engine freezing were often the topics of the day. Hear the snoring?

Compared to last year, surprises were also few and far between. Prodrive won the right to be the 12th team in 2008, the defection of Alonso to McLaren for 2007 was old news, and Michelin's withdrawal at the end of the year was not unexpected. There were no new tracks this year, no major team buy-outs apart from Spyker taking over from Midland, and there was no rookie who managed to impress with any regularity. Only Montoya's move to NASCAR proved a shock, but to many that was just surreally absurd.

So overall, a very good year, one which many will look back on fondly, but in truth not outstanding. Renault, Ferrari, Alonso and Schumacher were undeniably brilliant, but their performance was highlighted by the ordinariness of their rivals - so much so that we have broken from tradition to base our 'Reject of the Year' podium positions on not just the driver rankings - and by the lack of intrigue elsewhere in the paddock. The best separated from the rest and fighting it out - some will say that that's how it ought to be.

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