Fernando Alonso before being overtaken by Daniel Ricciardo only a couple of laps before the finish. Alonso finished sixth in the championship, with only one other podium, a third-place finish in China. In spite of his worst championship position during his time with Ferrari, he was far ahead of teammate Kimi Räikkönen in the championship. Alonso had severe disagreements with team director Marco Mattiacci. In November 2014 both Alonso and Scuderia Ferrari announced that the season would be his last with the team, with former title rival Sebastian Vettel replacing Alonso at Ferrari for the following season, both drivers leaving their previous
Toyota Racing (Formula One team) said he was more likely to still win the F1 title with Toyota than any other team, and that Toyota would be the team of the future. On 1 October, Schumacher announced that he would be leaving Toyota at the end of the 2007 season for a new challenge, but did not clearly state what this challenge would be. Being Toyota's first recruitment of a top driver and Grand Prix winner, Jarno Trulli's move from Renault was big news. It was late during the 2004 season, and Trulli was dropped from Renault's race line-up despite matching his team-mate Fernando Alonso,