2004 Formula One season

The 2004 Formula One season was the 55th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 2004 FIA Formula One World Championship, which was contested over an eighteen event series which ran from 7 March to 24 October 2004. The championship was dominated by Michael Schumacher and Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro with the German driver winning the Drivers' Championship for the fifth consecutive year and the Italian constructor winning the Constructors' Championship for the sixth straight season. Also notable were the success of BAR and Renault, and the relatively poor performance of Williams and McLaren.

Michael Schumacher won 12 of the first 13 races and eventually scored 13 race victories, breaking his own record of 11 race wins in a season, set in 2002. He also won a record seventh Drivers' Championship with his teammate Rubens Barrichello winning two of the last four races and finishing second in the title. Jenson Button, though failing to win a grand prix, secured ten podium finishes and one pole position to finish third in the Drivers' Championship. Along with Japanese team mate Takuma Sato, Button delivered BAR an impressive second place in the Constructors' Championship behind Ferrari.

Four of the ten teams, Ferrari, Renault, Jaguar, and Toyota, were subsidiaries of major car companies and one, BAR, was a division of a tobacco company. Williams and McLaren, both privately owned teams, had engine supply agreements with major car companies, BMW and Mercedes-Benz respectively, and Honda produced engines for BAR. The other three teams, Jordan, Sauber and Minardi, were also privately owned but received little substantial sponsorship, and consequently tended to end up toward the back of the grid. Sauber received Ferrari engines badged under the Petronas name, and also received sponsorship from the Malaysian oil and gas company.

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