This time last year Michael Schumacher had been world champion for almost a month, he was still the only winner of the championship in the 21st century and his team had clinched an extraordinary sixth consecutive constructors' crown. Ferrari's sporting director Jean Todt talked of a "unique chapter" in the team's history and there was not a cloud in the sky above the famous Maranello headquarters.
But nothing, not even Michael Schumacher, goes on for ever in sport and in tomorrow's Brazilian grand prix he will be a frustrated bystander as the 2005 title is fought out by the sport's two outstanding young talents, Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen. Schumacher has less than half as many points as Renault's title leader and the remaining three rounds of the championship will simply be endured as thoughts turn to how to arrest the severe decline in time for next season.
Ferrari's brilliant English technical director Ross Brawn concedes it has been a big comedown for the team. "We had a year of dominating [in 2004] when you can't believe it's so easy, quite honestly," he says. "You turn up at the race, do a good job, win the race and wonder why everybody else is struggling so much."
In contrast, this season's only victory for the prancing horse came when their only opposition in the US grand prix at Indianapolis were the lowly Jordan and Minardi teams. Such poor form suggests a failure of this season's Ferrari F2005 car, but Brawn says he is confident its design was basically sound and that a radical overhaul is not required.
"There have been some highlights and that's what makes me think that the car is actually quite good," he says. "There were a lot of little flashes of promise which gave us encouragement, and what's important for us from now to next year is not to dismantle what we have. We just have to clarify our thoughts a bit and ensure those flashes become a consistent theme in 2006.
"When we were faced with the difficulties we had at the start of the season, suddenly we were running around trying to solve the problems overnight when the situation needed recovering over a modest period of time. That's the lesson everybody has learned. We have to have consistent steps to put ourselves back to where we want to be. There is no overnight switch we can turn, no magic key to the lock."
Brawn refuses to blame the new chief designer Aldo Costa, who took over from Rory Byrne at the start of this season. "It's been a bit of a transition from Rory to Aldo but it's an easier transition than you might imagine. There's been a passing of the baton but they are both still running the race. Aldo and Rory have both been key elements in the design on all the [recent] Ferraris and I know Aldo wouldn't have done anything that Rory objected to."
Nevertheless Brawn admits that modifications to this season's car made as long ago as September 2004 crucially delayed the team's development programme. "It was clear the gearbox we had wasn't the best from an aerodynamic point of view," he explains. "It was quite bulky in the wrong areas. So we made a decision to start again with the transmission."
This meant Ferrari kept their all-conquering 2004 machine in service for the first two races of 2005, when Renault came flying out of the blocks to establish a title lead they have never lost. "We felt, with all the other things going on like the one-race tyre rule and the two-race engine, the first few races of the season would be so challenging that to take a version of the existing car would be fine. We'd done it before and, although everybody was keen to bring forward the new car, it really wasn't the solution. There were other issues connected with the changes to the aerodynamic and tyre regulations"
Ferrari were hard hit by being the only front-running team operating on Bridgestone rubber. "When you operate in isolation you don't quite know where you are," Brawn says. "You don't know whether you've got the best or the worst tyre. There's no cross-reference point."
Above all, he has no criticism for the driver team of Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello - notwithstanding the Brazilian's decision to move to BAR-Honda alongside Jenson Button next season. But he is also quick to brush aside the perennial issue of Schumacher bias within the team. "I know the cars are equal and I think we run a pretty balanced team.
"But Rubens now has to find out for himself whether Michael has something special in terms of harmony with the team. Maybe Rubens thinks he can recreate that for himself somewhere else. And I hope he does so. I think Rubens will do OK. He's occasionally been able to beat Michael so it will be interesting to see how he fares against Jenson Button."
Not that Brawn will expend much energy worrying about his former charge. He will be far too busy trying to restore Ferrari, and Schumacher, to the top of formula one.
