The streets of Monaco have over the years brought about some strange results, and the 1996 edition was definitely no exception. In a crash filled two hours the race fell to Olivier Panis, giving the Ligier team their first win since 1981. It was a freak result, but it was good to see someone different at the top of the podium.

After putting his Ferrari into the armco barrier on the first lap at Monaco, Michael Schumacher bounced back in spectacular fashion, with probably the best drive of the season, in the rain at Barcelona. Still, some of the Tifosi were not converted and it would take an emotionally charged win at Monza for the Italian fans to finally believe that Schumacher was worth twenty million dollars.

The Williams duel returned to the fore in Canada, where to the dismay of the partisan crowd, homeboy Villeneuve was squarely beaten by Hill. Damon won again in France before Jacques returned the favour by beating Hill at the British GP. The two exchanged wins in Germany and Hungary, before Schumacher won first in Belgium and then in Italy.

Damon Hill's grip on the Championship appeared to be slipping - in Italy he threw away the chance to wrap it all up when he spun out of the lead early - and with Villeneuve's win in Portugal, the Championship came down to the last race. Villeneuve kept up the pressure by taking pole position, but Hill lead the race from flag to flag - a great way to capture the Championship.

Ferrari just squeezed into second place, due largely to Schumacher's late season charge. The reliability was awful at times - just ask Eddie Irvine! - but the team has made tremendous strides and will be a force in '97.

Benetton started their PS (Post Schumi) era without a win, mainly due to the fact that neither Jean Alesi nor Gerhard Berger could come to grips with the twitchy B196 that was designed for Scumacher. The team had already turned their attention to the design of the B197 before the season was over. It should see both drivers up at the front next year.

McLaren improved from the disasterous '95 season (and chassis) with the nimble MP4/11 and a steady performance from Mika Hakkinen. Somewhat more erratic was David Coulthard, who needs to re-establish himself next season after a number of unforced errors.

Jordan got off to a spectacular start with Martin Brundle somersaulting his car in Australia (and then jogging back to the pits for his spare!) but that was one of the only times the gold cars were the centre of attention. The Peugeot engine provided plenty of power and was reasonably reliable, but the 196 chassis lacked grip through the corners, which no end of straight line speed could make up for. Rubens Barrichello was generally disappointing, often being outrun (and out-qualified) by Brundle.

Ligier got off to a shaky start, with Pedro Diniz's car exploding into flames in Argentina and a spate of mechanical breakdowns. But at Monaco, a great performance by Olivier Panis was rewarded with the teams first win in 15 years. Unfortunately, the rest of the season was much like the beginning with more reliability problems, particularly with the Mugen engines, although Diniz silenced many critics with some good showings.

The biggest let down of the year must have been the Sauber team, which struggled with the Ford V10 engine - both in terms of reliability and power - throughout the season. Heinz-Harald Frentzen and with Johnny Herbert rarely qualified in the top 10 and were never in the hunt for more than consolation points. Their best showing was in Monte Carlo, but the 3rd/4th finish was more to do with the demise of other cars than the speed of their own.

Also disappointing was Tyrrell, who struggled all year with a lack of straight line speed - they tried 4 front tyres on the car during qualifying at Hockenheim to reduce drag - as well as the mediocre performance of the Yamaha V10. Mika Salo showed well early on, but by mid-season due to the poor chassis/engine combination he had joined his teammate Ukyo Katayama in the bottom half of the field.

No matter which name you use, it was obvious that the TWR / Arrows / Footwork team had given up on 1996 long before the season ended. Jos Verstappen made a good impression early on, but too many mechanical breakdowns and too many silly mistakes, may have had a serious impact on his chances for the future. Meanwhile the reverse was true of Riccardo Rosset, who took a while to find his feet but turned in some workman-like, if not earth-shattering performances as the season progressed.

The little Minardi team, made the most of what they had - which wasn't much! Unfortunately it was money which forced them to replace the talented Gianni Fisichella with Gianni Lavaggi, who's sponsorship was much better than his driving skill. Pedro Lamy had the budget for the whole season, but the under-developed chassis and engine combination meant nothing more than the back of the field all year.

When they did manage to beat the 107% rule, the Forti Corse course cars were more than making up the numbers. By Germany they were gone, proving once again how hard it is to step up to F1 from the lower formule.