2005 Formula One World Championship

Five constructors entered free practice only drivers over the course of the season. Sauber Petronas were also eligible to enter a free practice driver, but elected not to do so.

Drivers that took part in free practice sessions during the 2005 FIA Formula One World Championship

Constructor	Practice drivers
	No.	Driver name	Rounds
McLaren–Mercedes	35	Pedro de la Rosa Alexander Wurz	1–2, 4–5, 8–11, 14–15, 18–19 3, 6–7, 12–13, 16–17
Red Bull–Cosworth	37	Vitantonio Liuzzi Christian Klien Scott Speed	1–3, 10–19 4–7 8–9
Toyota	38	Ricardo Zonta Olivier Panis	1–8, 11–19 10
Jordan–Toyota	39	Robert Doornbos Franck Montagny Nicolas Kiesa Sakon Yamamoto	1–6, 9–11 7 12–17, 19 18
Minardi–Cosworth	40	Chanoch Nissany Enrico Toccacelo	13 14–16

Renault finally won their first Constructors' Championship as a works team with this R25.

McLaren finished second in the Constructors' Championship with this MP4-20.

Ferrari's streak of 6 consecutive Constructors' Championships came to an end in 2005. Ferrari could only manage third place in this year's Constructors' Championship with the F2005.

• Red Bull Racing, which took over the Jaguar team, ran with Cosworth engines. Red Bull's lead driver was veteran Scotsman David Coulthard, paired with Christian Klien, the 2004 Jaguar driver.
• Toyota-powered Jordan Grand Prix was purchased by Midland Group, although the team continued as Jordan until 2006.
• Sauber switched from Bridgestone to Michelin tyres over the winter, further severing their ties with the Ferrari team.
• The BAR team was banned from the Grands Prix in Spain and Monaco, after both their cars were found to be underweight at the San Marino Grand Prix.
• At the Hungarian Grand Prix, West McLaren Mercedes became Team McLaren Mercedes.
• Shortly after the United States Grand Prix, Peter Sauber announced that Credit Suisse had sold BMW their majority share in his Sauber team, which announced its intention to run as BMW's factory team in 2006.

• Renault partnered Fernando Alonso with the 2004 Sauber driver Giancarlo Fisichella, in a straight swap with Jacques Villeneuve (who had taken over from Jarno Trulli at Renault for the last three races of the season).
• Williams employed an all-new driver line-up in 2005, having signed Jaguar's Mark Webber and Jordan's Nick Heidfeld to replace Juan Pablo Montoya and Ralf Schumacher. Montoya moved to McLaren, in place of the Red Bull-bound David Coulthard (who took Webber's vacated seat), while Ralf Schumacher signed for Toyota. This meant that Ricardo Zonta, who had raced for Toyota in five of the final six races of 2004, returned to a third driver role in 2005. Olivier Panis, who had driven in seventeen out of eighteen races for Toyota in 2004, was retained by the team in the dual capacity of advisor and test driver. Cristiano da Matta, who had started the 2004 season with Toyota, returned to Champ Car in 2005. Jarno Trulli joined as Toyota's second driver.
• Jordan's other driver from the end of 2004, Timo Glock, also switched to Champ Car for 2005, leaving Jordan with two vacant seats. They were taken by Tiago Monteiro (a test driver for Minardi in 2004) and Narain Karthikeyan, both Formula One debutants, who had both competed in the previous year's World Series by Nissan season. Giorgio Pantano, who raced for Jordan for the majority of 2004, left Formula One altogether, joining the Super Nova Racing team for the inaugural GP2 Series season.
• Minardi also ran an all-new line-up in 2005, with their 2004 drivers—Gianmaria Bruni (who switched to GP2 in 2005) and Zsolt Baumgartner—being replaced by a pair of debutants: Patrick Friesacher and Christijan Albers, who had competed in International Formula 3000 and DTM, respectively, during the previous season.

Mid-season changes

• BAR test driver Anthony Davidson raced in Malaysia in place of an ill Takuma Sato. Sato returned to the seat for the next race.
• Following a shoulder injury to Juan Pablo Montoya, McLaren reserve driver Pedro de la Rosa raced for the team in Bahrain, with Alexander Wurz taking on third driver duties in place of de la Rosa. For the San Marino Grand Prix, de la Rosa and Wurz swapped roles. Montoya returned for the following race.
• Vitantonio Liuzzi and Christian Klien were both contracted to Red Bull Racing to participate in at least three races, and agreed to share their race seat for the season. While Klien, who had raced for the team's forerunners Jaguar in 2004, drove in the first three races, Liuzzi replaced him for the San Marino, Spanish, Monaco, and European Grands Prix. Klien returned for the Canadian Grand Prix, and completed the remainder of the season.
• Robert Doornbos was Jordan's third driver for nine of the first eleven races of the season. Franck Montagny replaced him at the European Grand Prix, while Jordan were banned from using a third car at the Canadian Grand Prix after using too many tyres at the previous race. Nicolas Kiesa replaced Doornbos for the German Grand Prix onwards, when the Dutchman replaced Patrick Friesacher at Minardi due to sponsorship issues.
• Chanoch Nissany became Minardi's third driver for the Hungarian Grand Prix. He was replaced by Enrico Toccacelo for the Turkish Grand Prix and Italian Grand Prix. Nissany was the first Israeli to participate in a Formula One weekend.
• Antônio Pizzonia replaced Nick Heidfeld at Williams for the Italian Grand Prix, when Heidfeld decided to withdraw after complaining of a severe headache. Earlier in the week, he had crashed heavily during a test session at Monza. Heidfeld had been due to return for the Brazilian Grand Prix, but after having a motorcycle accident he was forced to sit out the remainder of the season, with Pizzonia continuing to race for Williams in Heidfeld's absence.

• With the Brazilian Grand Prix being run in late September, the Chinese Grand Prix became the final race of the season.

• A major change in 2005 was the outlawing of tyre changes during pit stops. Now a driver had to use one set of tyres during qualifying and the race itself. The reason for this rule change was to motivate the teams to select harder tyre compounds with less grip, reducing cornering speeds, which was intended to improve safety.[7] Tyre changes were allowed for punctures and for wet weather, under the direction of the FIA. The FIA had to post a "change in climatic conditions" notice in order for tyre changes to occur normally as a force majeure. After Kimi Räikkönen's disastrous accident at the Nurburgring when his suspension collapsed after a flat-spotted tyre ripped the carbon fibre suspension apart, team principals and the FIA agreed that a single tyre change per car could be made without penalty, provided it was to change a tyre that had become dangerously worn like Räikkönen's had. Preserving a single set of tyres for the entire race became a new challenge for drivers; the challenge for tyre manufactures was to produce more durable, long-lasting compounds. Michelin-shod runners had a distinct advantage over their Bridgestone counterparts.
• Formula One engines had to last two race weekends, double that demanded by 2004 regulations. A driver who needed to change an engine was subject to a 10-place grid penalty for the race. Designed to limit revs and power outputs demanded by greater reliability, this regulation was also a cost-cutting measure for engine manufacturers. After the initial race of the season, the FIA acted to close a loophole in this new regulation exposed by BAR, who deliberately pitted their cars rather than finish the race.
• The technical aerodynamics regulations were modified to improve competition, especially for cars travelling in another car's air flow wake in order to overtake. By changing the size and placement of both front and rear wings, as well as requiring higher noses, the new rules attempted to reduce downforce by roughly one-quarter, but teams developed other chassis innovations to reclaim much of that "lost" downforce, which made following another car even harder than the previous season. Front wings have been lifted by 5 cm (50 mm), to reduce downforce, while the rear wings have been brought forward 15 cm (150 mm) relative to the centre line between the rear wheels.[8][9]
• This was the final season in which the 3.0-litre V10 engine configuration was used by all teams. New changes in the technical regulations saw a 2.4-litre V8 engine configuration being introduced by the FIA for the 2006 Formula One season; however, the FIA granted an exemption for teams who were unable to re-engineer or could not afford a V8 engine in time for 2006. Budget or resource-limited teams were allowed to run a rev-limited 3.0-litre V10. Ten of the eleven teams ran with a conventional 2.4L V8 for 2006, with the exception of Scuderia Toro Rosso, who continued and were permitted by the FIA to use a rev-limited Cosworth TJ2006 3.0L V10 powerplant.

• The first six races of the 2005 season used a new qualifying format, marking the third year in five with sharply revised qualifying rules. Grid position was determined by aggregate times from two single-lap flying runs, one Saturday afternoon and one Sunday morning. Refueling was allowed after the first qualifying run Saturday; however, the car must have been fuelled for the race for Sunday's qualifying. (Although some rules changes are brought about to even the playing field or to reduce costs, this rule change was prompted by the typhoon which rescheduled qualifying for the 2004 Japanese Grand Prix). Adverse weather conditions affecting either qualifying session impacted the final, aggregate time. On 24 May, the ten team bosses met with Max Mosley and recommended a return to a single, one-lap qualifying run on Saturday on race fuel and race tyres, which, having been approved by the FIA World Motor Sport Council, took effect at the European Grand Prix on 29 May.
• If a driver stalled his car while entering the final grid, the other cars were sent instantly to a new warm-up lap, instead of all drivers stopping their cars and waiting a couple of minutes for a new start. The stalled car is pushed to the pit lane and the grid is clear when the drivers return.
• When the race was red-flagged, the timekeeping system would not stop. The drivers would stop on the start/finish straight, and the restart would take place behind the safety car instead of a standing start which was used earlier. Although this rule came in effect in 2005, it was first used at the 2007 European Grand Prix.
• Also in safety car situations, the rules were changed to allow the safety car to use the pit lane if necessary. This rule change was made following Ralf Schumacher's accident in 2004 United States Grand Prix.

Points were awarded to the top eight classified finishers.[14]

Pos. Driver AUS MAL BHR SMR ESP MON EUR CAN USA‡ FRA GBR GER HUN TUR ITA BEL BRA JPN CHN Points 1 Fernando Alonso 3F 1P 1P 1 2 4 1F Ret DNS 1P 2P 1 11 2 2 2 3P 3 1P 133 2 Kimi Räikkönen 8 9F 3 RetP 1P 1P 11† 1F DNS 2F 3F RetPF 1F 1P 4F 1 2F 1F 2F 112 3 Michael Schumacher Ret 7 Ret 2F Ret 7F 5 2 1F 3 6 5 2P Ret 10 Ret 4 7 Ret 62 4 Juan Pablo Montoya 6 4 7 5 7 DSQ DNS Ret 1 2 Ret 3F 1P 14P† 1 Ret Ret 60 5 Giancarlo Fisichella 1P Ret Ret Ret 5F 12 6 Ret DNS 6 4 4 9 4 3 Ret 5 2 4 58 6 Ralf Schumacher 12 5 4 9 4 6 Ret 6 WD 7 8 6 3 12 6 7F 8 8P 3 45 7 Jarno Trulli 9 2 2 5 3 10 8 Ret DNSP 5 9 14† 4 6 5 Ret 13† Ret 15 43 8 Rubens Barrichello 2 Ret 9 Ret 9 8 3 3 2 9 7 10 10 10 12 5 6 11 12 38 9 Jenson Button 11† Ret Ret DSQ 10 RetP DNS 4 5 3 5 5 8 3 7 5 8 37 10 Mark Webber 5 Ret 6 7 6 3 Ret 5 DNS 12 11 NC 7 Ret 14 4 NC 4 7 36 11 Nick Heidfeld Ret 3 Ret 6 10 2 2P Ret DNS 14 12 11 6 Ret WD 28 12 David Coulthard 4 6 8 11 8 Ret 4 7 DNS 10 13 7 Ret 7 15 Ret Ret 6 9 24 13 Felipe Massa 10 10 7 10 11† 9 14 4 DNS Ret 10 8 14 Ret 9 10 11 10 6 11 14 Jacques Villeneuve 13 Ret 11† 4 Ret 11 13 9 DNS 8 14 15 Ret 11 11 6 12 12 10 9 15 Christian Klien 7 8 DNS 8 DNS Ret 15 9 Ret 8 13 9 9 9 5 9 16 Tiago Monteiro 16 12 10 13 12 13 15 10 3 13 17 17 13 15 17 8 Ret 13 11 7 17 Alexander Wurz 3 6 18 Narain Karthikeyan 15 11 Ret 12 13 Ret 16 Ret 4 15 Ret 16 12 14 20 11 15 15 Ret 5 19 Christijan Albers Ret 13 13 Ret Ret 14 17 11 5 Ret 18 13 NC Ret 19 12 14 16 16† 4 20 Pedro de la Rosa 5F 4 21 Patrick Friesacher 17 Ret 12 Ret Ret Ret 18 Ret 6 Ret 19 3 22 Antônio Pizzonia 7 15† Ret Ret 13† 2 23 Takuma Sato 14† WD Ret DSQ 12 Ret DNS 11 16 12 8 9 16 Ret 10 DSQ Ret 1 24 Vitantonio Liuzzi 8 Ret Ret 9 1 25 Robert Doornbos 18 Ret 13 18 13 Ret 14 14† 0 — Anthony Davidson Ret 0 — Ricardo Zonta DNS 0 Pos. Driver AUS MAL BHR SMR ESP MON EUR CAN USA‡ FRA GBR GER HUN TUR ITA BEL BRA JPN CHN Points Source:[14][15]

Key Colour Result Gold Winner Silver Second place Bronze Third place Green Other points position Blue Other classified position Not classified, finished (NC) Purple Not classified, retired (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not practice (DNP) Excluded (EX) Did not arrive (DNA) Withdrawn (WD) Did not enter (empty cell) Annotation Meaning P Pole position F Fastest lap

Notes:

• † – Drivers did not finish the Grand Prix, but were classified as they completed more than 90% of the race distance.
• ‡ – Teams supplied with Michelin tyres elected to withdraw from the United States Grand Prix before the race started due to safety concerns.

Pos. Constructor No. AUS MAL BHR SMR ESP MON EUR CAN USA‡ FRA GBR GER HUN TUR ITA BEL BRA JPN CHN Points 1 Renault 5 3F 1P 1P 1 2 4 1F Ret DNS 1P 2P 1 11 2 2 2 3P 3 1P 191 6 1P Ret Ret Ret 5F 12 6 Ret DNS 6 4 4 9 4 3 Ret 5 2 4 2 McLaren-Mercedes 9 8 9F 3 RetP 1P 1P 11† 1F DNS 2F 3F RetPF 1F 1P 4F 1 2F 1F 2F 182 10 6 4 5F 3 7 5 7 DSQ DNS Ret 1 2 Ret 3F 1P 14P† 1 Ret Ret 3 Ferrari 1 Ret 7 Ret 2F Ret 7F 5 2 1F 3 6 5 2P Ret 10 Ret 4 7 Ret 100 2 2 Ret 9 Ret 9 8 3 3 2 9 7 10 10 10 12 5 6 11 12 4 Toyota 16 9 2 2 5 3 10 8 Ret DNSP 5 9 14† 4 6 5 Ret 13† Ret 15 88 17 12 5 4 9 4 6 Ret 6 DNS 7 8 6 3 12 6 7F 8 8P 3 5 Williams-BMW 7 5 Ret 6 7 6 3 Ret 5 DNS 12 11 NC 7 Ret 14 4 NC 4 7 66 8 Ret 3 Ret 6 10 2 2P Ret DNS 14 12 11 6 Ret 7 15† Ret Ret 13† 6 BAR-Honda 3 11† Ret Ret DSQ 10 RetP DNS 4 5 3 5 5 8 3 7 5 8 38 4 14† Ret Ret DSQ 12 Ret DNS 11 16 12 8 9 16 Ret 10 DSQ Ret 7 Red Bull-Cosworth 14 4 6 8 11 8 Ret 4 7 DNS 10 13 7 Ret 7 15 Ret Ret 6 9 34 15 7 8 DNS 8 Ret Ret 9 8 DNS Ret 15 9 Ret 8 13 9 9 9 5 8 Sauber-Petronas 11 13 Ret 11† 4 Ret 11 13 9 DNS 8 14 15 Ret 11 11 6 12 12 10 20 12 10 10 7 10 11† 9 14 4 DNS Ret 10 8 14 Ret 9 10 11 10 6 9 Jordan-Toyota 18 16 12 10 13 12 13 15 10 3 13 17 17 13 15 17 8 Ret 13 11 12 19 15 11 Ret 12 13 Ret 16 Ret 4 15 Ret 16 12 14 20 11 15 15 Ret 10 Minardi-Cosworth 20 17 Ret 12 Ret Ret Ret 18 Ret 6 Ret 19 18 Ret 13 18 13 Ret 14 14† 7 21 Ret 13 13 Ret Ret 14 17 11 5 Ret 18 13 NC Ret 19 12 14 16 16† Pos. Constructor No. AUS MAL BHR SMR ESP MON EUR CAN USA‡ FRA GBR GER HUN TUR ITA BEL BRA JPN CHN Points Source:[15][14]

Key Colour Result Gold Winner Silver Second place Bronze Third place Green Other points position Blue Other classified position Not classified, finished (NC) Purple Not classified, retired (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not practice (DNP) Excluded (EX) Did not arrive (DNA) Withdrawn (WD) Did not enter (empty cell) Annotation Meaning P Pole position F Fastest lap

Notes:

• † – Drivers did not finish the Grand Prix, but were classified as they completed more than 90% of the race distance.
• ‡ – Teams supplied with Michelin tyres elected to withdraw from the United States Grand Prix before the race started due to safety concerns.