But the second half of the season told a rather different story, which was that Juan Pablo Montoya delivered on the potential everyone thought he had and put his team-mate firmly into perspective.

Most observers believed that Montoya would outshine Schumacher at Williams this year, but it took the Colombian longer than expected to get to grips with F1.

While he was struggling to do that, Schumacher was making the most of his new Williams-BMW, the team's best car since 1997.

Schumacher won in Imola and Canada - as well as inheriting a win when Montoya's engine failed at Hockenheim - and drove consistently and well everywhere else.

The German had the upper hand in the first 10 races, outqualifying Montoya nine-one. But in the last seven races, Montoya turned that around, and they went six-one in favour of the new boy.

It was uncomfortable for Ralf - and he did not handle it well. He particularly annoyed his team owners with a suggestion that they risked losing the championship in 2002 if they did not impose priority status on one of their drivers.

Williams do not go in for that sort of thing, which is surely a good thing for Ralf, since they could hardly fail to plump for Montoya in 2002 if they were going to.

This is not to do Ralf down. He is a fast and consistent driver who has good fitness and races well. Given the right car, he could become world champion.