F1 2006 and beyond

Ahhhh... back to the qualifying shenanigans of yore, 2006 will see wicked free-for-alls once again with "knockout" qualifying - the fastest 10 drivers will have 20 minutes to set the fast lap starting on race fuel. And farewell to that nitwit single set of tires for qual+full race distance. Yup, it probably put my team in the winner's circle this year, but it sure did make for some crappy wins, losses and otherwise.

By the way... "starting on race fuel" means the cars will be weighed before start of qualifying and refueled to the measured weight. Wonder how many 5 gallon drink bottles we'll hear about next year.

Suzuki has a bid in to field an eleventh team!

Oh, yeah... and there'll be an American driver in the field driving for Squadra Toro Rosso... LONG LIVE MINDARDI!

2008? Scope out the new wing design we can expect to see as early as 2007 along with larger wheels bearing treadless tires. Can I assume this means a little more bling? 30 series maybe? Have the teams gotten tired of the tires rolling off the rims with those 80 series sidewalls and 18 psi? Single tire supplier in the 2008 package as well. Well know by January whether the '08 plan starts in '08 or '07.

Don't forget to mark your calendars, set your Tivos and fire up your V8 (boo, hiss!) engines...

Bahrain 12 March
Malaysia 19 March
Australia 2 April
San Marino 23 April
Europe 7 May
Spain 14 May
Monaco 28 May
Great Britain 11 June
Canada 25 June
United States 2 July
France 16 July
Germany 30 July
Hungary 6 August
Turkey 27 August
Italy 10 September
Belgium 17 September
Japan 1 October
China 8 October
Brazil 22 October (Contract pending)

I hope this means we can score some cheap race worn BBS wheels on eBay... it be one helluva conversation piece.

I knew they would ditch the one tyre rule at the least. After the US Gran Prix farce, Mindardi said that half the teams would not return unless major changes were made. Sucks that they still went ahead with the engine change. But lets not get too worried about that, I've heard they already got the V8 engines up to the same hp and at higher rpms! near 22k rpms! I can't wait to hear what that sounds like!

Also from what I hear, teams are going to be able to use v-10s that are handicapped. Only the lower funded teams are going to this year, but in the future big budget teams might go that route also.

2006 Driver line-up

Renault:
Fernando Alonso
Giancarlo Fisichella

McLaren:
Kimi Raikkonen
Juan Pablo Montoya

Ferrari:
Michael Schumacher
Felipe Massa

Toyota:
Ralf Schumacher
Jarno Trulli

Williams:
Mark Webber
Nico Rosberg

Honda:
Rubens Barrichello
Jenson Button

Red Bull:
David Coulthard
Christian Klien

BMW Sauber:
Nick Heidfeld
Jacques Villeneuve

MF1:
Tiago Monteiro
Christijan Albers

Toro Rosso:
Vitantonio Liuzzi
Scott Speed

It'll be fun to watch and see if Rubens can make the Honda motors last the entire race unlike Mr. "I Blow the Motor Every Other Race" Sato. Speaking of, where did he end up?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Treibenschnell

It'll be fun to watch and see if Rubens can make the Honda motors last the entire race unlike Mr. "I Blow the Motor Every Other Race" Sato. Speaking of, where did he end up?

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Mr. "I blow up motors at every race" always sounded a little anxious on the downshift lever to me...

Sato is still in the wings, as the Super Aguri didn't post the required $48 million bond with FIA by the deadline... Unless all ten teams agree to allow them in, we won't likely see much of Sato in 2006.