The F1.07 was not a particularly complex machine, but a strong engine and numerous innovate aerodynamic tweaks, plus an ability to adjust to the Bridgestone tyres faster than most other ex-Michelin teams, meant that they promised great things in pre-season testing and delivered almost as much. They weren't perfect, though; there were a few gearbox and hydraulic problems throughout the year as expected, their pit crew had the occasional fumbles, and they tried several off-beat strategies that didn't always work.

But those were luxuries they could afford, as was the ability to sign off on developments and start concentrating on next season. The fact is, having scored 36 points in 2006, if you told them before the season started that they would break the 100 mark this year, not ever fail to make Q3, and score points whenever they saw the chequered flag all but twice, the team would have gladly accepted that. Plus additional props for building a car safe enough for Robert Kubica to survive that accident in Canada.

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But this was not a confidence-inducing campaign by any means. The team paid the price for the longer wheelbase at slower tracks, and a wind-tunnel failure set them back badly in the second quarter of the season. They were more unreliable than McLaren, DNFs hitting at crucial moments. They seemed powerless to help Raikkonen overcome his early struggle to come to terms with the tyres, and were caught out by not being able to back either driver as they kept swapping championship positions mid-season.

Without Schumacher, Brawn or Byrne, it was definitely not the Ferrari juggernaut of old. The new technical leadership seemed tentative, and Jean Todt and Luca di Montezemolo didn't always seem to be seeing eye to eye. Despite the win tally, the team never stamped its authority on the season, and in many ways had both titles gifted to them. To top it off, their holier-than-thou attitude towards Spygate was nauseating, especially when it was their own disgruntled employee who started it all in the first place.

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They were able to go toe-to-toe with Ferrari all season; the fact that they dominated on the year's slowest tracks (Monaco and Hungary) as well as the quickest (Italy) said it all. But operationally there were telling errors. They got away with infringements with their gearbox in Hungary and with wet tyres in Brazil, they broke pit lane rules in Canada, they made awful tyre calls in changing conditions at the Nurburgring and in China, and their strategic choice for Hamilton in Brazil arguably cost him the championship.

Then there was Spygate - admittedly the actions mainly of one man, but McLaren didn't do enough to stop him. Then internal harmony fell apart - the team neither placated Alonso nor brought him into line, preferring to maintain an unhealthy tension instead, and their supposed policy of equality was compromised by their paternal feelings towards Hamilton. And then they managed to snatch defeat in both championships from the jaws of victory. A year that looked so good was Ron Dennis' annus horribilis instead.

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Reliability was generally good, although Toyota failures in Malaysia and America for Nico Rosberg cost crucial points. Like Red Bull, they found it hard to strike a balance in terms of strategy between Rosberg who usually qualified inside the top 10, and Alexander Wurz who did not. In their usual idiosyncratic way, they offered little assistance to the Austrian who was clearly struggling to find one-lap pace, but Alex was man enough to cope and his car-development skills remained highly appreciated within the team.

Although they brought in AT&T and Lenovo as major sponsors, it was easy to overlook that Williams was now very much a privateer team. Nothing said that more loudly than the fact that they opposed Prodrive's entry for 2008, and that they were obliged to give a testing role and the drive in Brazil to Kazuki Nakajima, a man whom they would not have considered were it not for the Toyota connection. That they did as well as they did given their current status spoke volumes for the team's inherent fighting spirit.

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In the exact opposite to Honda, which rushed into supposed solutions which didn't work, Renault laudably tried to understand the issues first, but the flaws were so fundamental that this took too long. As a result, their improvements were too incremental, just as everyone else was also coming up with developments. So Renault started the season fighting for minor points, and stayed that way. They called off the development chase relatively early and by the end of the season they had slipped back into the midfield.

Their reliability was brilliant with barely a mechanical failure all season, and this helped the team to score as many points as they did. Flavio Briatore's no-nonsense driver-management style brought the best out of Heikki Kovalainen from the North American races onwards, but it also seemed to leave Giancarlo Fisichella in the cold. As always, Flav was good for a sound-byte, but with Renault now embroiled in their own Spygate saga, he may be wishing that he had kept his mouth shut on occasions.

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But though the inherent speed was there - Mark Webber qualified in the top ten 12 times - and though there were enhancements such as a seamless-shift gearbox, reliability was woeful. There were ten mechanical retirements during the year, especially caused by differential, gearbox and hydraulic problems, and only four times did both cars come home. Worse still, far too often the DNFs came at crucial moments when it looked like the team was set for solid points. Their tally of 24 points could have been 50% higher.

In terms of race strategy, the team struggled to find a balance between running Webber on two-stop stints that weren't long enough, and David Coulthard on one-stop stints that were too cumbersome. Gone was the impression of youthful exuberance, the team fielding one of the oldest line-ups in the paddock, but with it came experience. With experience came results in places like Barcelona, the Nurburgring and Fuji, and a sense that this was a team that was really starting to get serious.

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Indeed, Vitantonio Liuzzi went nine races from Bahrain to Hungary without seeing the chequered flag. He and Scott Speed had a frosty relationship with team management, the American especially, but rather than letting it simmer the unpleasant blow-up after the Nurburgring which saw Speed depart was probably a good thing. Franz Tost and Gerhard Berger knew that tough decisions had to be made. Drafting in Sebastian Vettel gradually revitalised the team and brought the best out of Liuzzi as well.

Although both the Red Bulls and Toro Rossos were developed by Red Bull Technologies, Toro Rosso had to build and adapt the STR2s by themselves and, compared to the senior team, progress was slow and the team seemed consigned to the bottom of the midfield. It was not easy to see where points finishes were going to come from. But then came the glory races in Japan and China which, along with their proactive signing of Sebastien Bourdais for 2008, affirmed that here was a team heading in the right direction.

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But running last year's Honda meant that there was less scope for development. Plus despite last year's efforts, they only attracted one main sponsor for this year - and one which stopped paying midseason. And an embarrassed Honda started cutting off the life-strings, such that by year's end finances were rather tight. As a result, Super Aguri slid backwards as the year progressed, and they seemed powerless to do anything about it. It was unfortunate that here was a team that could not take charge of its own destiny.

That was reflected in the performance of their drivers. Takuma Sato's form slipped along with that of the car, and Anthony Davidson spent the entire year not making use of his speed and fully grasping his opportunities. By the second half of the season, sadly this was no longer a team really seizing the initiative with gusto as they had done in 2006. Their tally of four points, only two fewer than Honda, plus the fact that they made it out of Q1 14 times was definitely good, but their season really lost momentum.

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That instability, plus Super Aguri's move up the grid, meant Spyker had to adjust to life at the back of the F1 field with its bevy of paying race and test drivers. Although their F8-VII chassis looked moderately attractive, and despite Ferrari engines, they only managed to qualify higher than 21st six times all season. Colin Kolles and co did not necessarily respond to their status as backmarkers well, expending precious resources on fighting the customer car battle that only Williams seemed to half-heartedly support.

They had their moments of glory, though: namely Adrian Sutil topping the timesheets in Saturday free practice at Monaco, Markus Winkelhock leading at the Nurburgring, their only point of the season in Japan, and of course Sutil's efforts in Belgium. That was the only race where Mike Gascoyne's ability shone through in an otherwise disappointing B-spec car that was meant to lift Spyker into the midfield. Overall, the team spent more of 2007 dealing with problems than really moving forward, and fell short of expectations.

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Last year we said in our review that inspiration was in short supply at the Cologne team, and this year was no different. Reliability was decent enough, but neither driver had good, consistent seasons, and this contributed to the directionlessness of the team and lack of sustained improvement throughout the season. For example, they scored 9 of their 13 points in the first seven races, 7 of them to Jarno Trulli, before a brief mid-season upsurge by Ralf Schumacher but only one point in the last six races.

The team is now filled with faceless bureaucrats, which is probably the way that Toyota head office likes it, but the problem is that they continue to make changes when change is not necessarily, but refuse to do so when it is. Now would probably be a good time for a fresh injection of energy. Otherwise they may as well concentrate on being engine suppliers for Williams, which scored 20 more points this year. Because currently they're squandering a budget that could bring several third world countries out of debt.

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Instead, right from the beginning of the season it was clear that the RA107 was a handful. Front aero grip was the big problem, and team could not understand the root cause, and had not since 2005; which is why developments like the 'dumbo' wings and the mid-season update package largely proved fruitless. Eventually there were some gains, and front-end stability improved, but both drivers still moaned that the car wasn't quick enough. Too many times they were beaten by Super Aguri using last year's RA106.

The team ended up having a few semi-good and/or lucky weekends in Monaco, France, Italy and China, and poor strategic calls in other races like Canada cost them points, but from mid-year they were looking towards 2008 and aggressively recruiting. The likes of Geoff Willis and Gil de Ferran departed, and the biggest coup was the snaring of Ross Brawn, the team finally admitting the Shuhei Nakamoto had no idea what he was doing. All in all, six points for the season was a catastrophe of environmental proportions.

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