F1: 2005 season deflates as it closes.

The headline from Shanghai is that Fernando Alonso won the race and with it the constructors' championship for 2005. And, frankly, in terms of actual racing, that was pretty much the only point of note. It was hard to see this as the same sport as had delivered the incredible racing of just a week earlier in Japan.

But it was not the only event of note: first, Michael Schumacher driving to the grid slowed his car right down on the exit from a corner and turned across the track. Albers, blatting around the outside of the bend, found the track full of red that shouldn't have been there. Albers clouted MS's car, knocking the front left wheel off, and doing terminal damage to both cars. MS raced back to the pits, doing part of a lap in the half a car he had left, and both he and Albers started from the pit lane in the T car. For Minardi, who no doubt intend to auction their cars off to try to recoup some of the last year's expenses, the near total loss of a car will have been a bitter blow.

And it was especially so as it is Minardi's last race. They have been plucky competitors but, in the supersport that is F1, they never had the resources to compete. Now they will become Red Bull II, or possibly Torro Rosso - they will remain an Italian team and so it's sort of sense for them to have the Red Bull name in Italian, even though the drink is known as Red Bull everywhere.

It was also Jordan's last race. Already owned by Alex Schneider, the team will be rebranded Midland for next year.

BAR bow out: they've sold the whole team to Honda. There's not much point in tobacco companies owning the car when they can no longer put their brand on them for most of the races. Even the single Chevron of Marlboro has gone missing from Ferrari's logo.

HP have said goodbye to Williams but equally importantly so have BMW. And as a consequence the Sauber name will disappear as BMW now own the team. It's even possible that the Petronas insignia will go.

And Sato, having had a remarkably interesting to watch but undistinguished time in F1 is one of several drivers without a ride for next year.

It's been a season where luck has played a big part: Montoya's broken shoulder cost him several races plus a recovery period where he was not up to speed - literally. But the most consistent bad luck has been reserved for Raikonnen. Despite being fit and despite having the fastest car at most circuits, the repeated engine failures that dropped him 10 places definitely cost him the Championship and cost McLaren the constructors' crown.

That's not to take anything away from Alonso and Renault: they won both titles despite a car that was not as fast, nor as well balanced, as the McLaren but the Renault was bulletproof.

Which is more than can be said for Montoya: his days of expecting to be a World Champion must be coming to an end: ironically, this year may well have been his year - if he had not spent several weeks laid up - because he had had almost no breakdowns. But in the last six races, he's been punted off three times, won two and - in the Shanghai race, a drain cover lifted as the cars ran over it, and it punctured the front right tyre, the floor, the radiator and several other things.

Following that incident, in which Montoya was in no way to blame, we saw one of the silly applications of the rules. This year, tyres may be changed only if they are damaged and if a tyre is changed, then no other work may be done to the car. So with the safety car out whilst the Chinese marshals stamped on the drains to try to make them lie down and tested others with the fingertips to see if they would come loose, Montoya had to pit once for his tyre, and then once a lap later for his routine fuel stop. Surely, the stewards should have authorised a waiver as the puncture was the fault of the circuit. But in the end, it didn't matter because the car had been terminally damaged by the impact and as soon as it came up to racing speed, it bled to death.

That was just as bad a stewards' decision as the one that cost Alonso the Japanese GP win.

Next year, this year's cars will be junk.

Changes in aerodynamics will, It is hoped, result in better airflow over the cars so that it is possible to chase, get close and overtake. Given Alonso's admission that he thinks he won the Championship with three or four passing moves all season, something needs to be done.

There remains outstanding what will happen to tyres and whether a change will be permitted. Michelin have complained that the decision is being left too late - how can the manufacturers do a development programme if they don't even know how long the tyres are going to have to last, they quite reasonably ask.

But Michelin aren't in anybody's good books after they managed to produce a complete rance of tyres that would not go safely around the banking at Indianapolis - the only race MS won, and one they really didn't want to take the credit for. There is also discussion about returning to full slicks - a sensible move bearing in mind how, this season, the ribbed tyres have worn to the point of near slick, anyway.

Next year, all the cars will run V8 engines in an attempt to slow them down. It won't work for long for the V10s are already producing more power than any other F1 engine in the past.

One of the longest running partnerships in F1 comes to an end as Rubino moves over to Honda to take equal billing with Button.

Coulthard is staying at Red Bull: he and Klien have consistently brought the car home better than it really deserved this year - something that must really bite Ford which sold the Jaguar team at the end of last year. What's been the main difference between the two years? The truth is simple: Ford kept interfering. Red Bull pumped money in, were available when needed to talk to, but otherwise kept out of most of what was going on, except where there was fun to be had. The Red Bull team laughed a lot this year and it's made a difference. Even so, it's now pretty certain that Coulthard will join the ranks of those afforded the accolade "the best driver never to have been world champion."

Rubino and Montoya are probably in that category, too, or will be very soon.

Next year will be fascinating: new cars, new engines, new teams and new regulations.

It's almost a new sport.

Which is, at its heart, the point of the changes for the teams are still threatening to start their own series in 2008 if Ecclestone does not distribute the purses more fairly. Minardi, Jordan and Sauber did not have the political (for which read financial) muscle to challenge Bernie, even as part of a larger "rebellion."

The team changes have consolidated ownership and development know-how in the hands of the people who spend the money: it will result in them earning the money, too, in one way or another. It's not a surprising demand: on some estimates the teams spend a combined USD50 million every race. That's a lot to try to raise through sponsorship where both cars must wear the same livery and must remain in broadly the same livery all season and even be the same both sides of the car: compared to the USA's IRL series where pretty much anything goes in terms of livery, it seems restrictive but there is a great attraction to seeing cars racing in team colours. It's not so long ago that they used to race in national colours, an idea resurrected by the A1 GP series.