F1 2006 season

Hi.

I thought I'd get in 1st

What do you think of the new rules?

V8's with 6-700 bhp.

Different rear wings to reduce turbulance & alow overtaking. May be contested & introduced in 2007

It's a knock out quali sessions (3 phases. Slowest 5 out after 1st 15 min session; another 5 out after 2nd stint. Remaining 10 cars to go for it in the final 20mins. Should be exiting on TV.

Tyre changes are back. Good. No more nursing the cars to save the tyres.

Should see my man to his last c'ship before he manages Ferrari in 2007!
Slicks will be back in 2007 as well!!

Roll on next season. A1 is not doing it for me sorry

Cheers for now,

Just about anything would be better than the existing situation.
The current regulations have lead to cars which cannot run close enough to each other that passing readily possible.

I also suspect that the current cars are too large for many of the tracks they are running on. Especially street circuits like Monarco.

Proposed car configuration for 2008 or earlier if possible (2007), is below

Tyre changes to pander to Bridgestone. Wonder how much was in Bernie and Max's brown envelopes for that one?

Originally Posted by Nigel S

Tyre changes to pander to Bridgestone. Wonder how much was in Bernie and Max's brown envelopes for that one?

There were quite a few circuits where the Michelins suffered too and post race, drivers from the "other" teams said they couldn't push 'cause of their tyres. Monaco springs to mind! Bridgestone are in a 14 to 6 minority too, remember!

Hi.

A few people ask me if my Avitar is actually a tattoo well here is a photo of me enjoying the good life near Monaco last year. There is no question about where my loyalties lie

I've loved Ferrari's since I was a kid watching Magnum and the when our Nige drove for them after Williams. El Leonni I beleive the Tiffosi called him!

Cheers,

I like the sound of the new qualifying sessions with the fuelling rules in the middle of the rules, it should make things quite interesting.


Can't believe the F1 officials needed to do a survey though to find out the public actually want to see some overtaking!

Michelin are not happy about the tyre rules. I for one hope they take the ruling to court and win. It's a blatent nod to Bridgestone and their favourite red team.

Originally Posted by Nigel S

Michelin are not happy about the tyre rules. I for one hope they take the ruling to court and win. It's a blatent nod to Bridgestone and their favourite red team.

And your problem is???

As I said before, it's a 14:6 ratio in favour of the French tyred teams. Anything to stop MS & Ferrari winning

This years champioship was devalued in my opinion. A well fettled GTA could have given a decent showing Given equalish cars, MS & F would still be on top....by a mile!!

How was this year devalued?

This year was the start of the future of F1.

The FIA are blatently favouring Bridgestone and their runners. Remember in 2003 when Michelin were on top, the FIA changed its rules to suit Bridgestone just at a time when Ferrari looked like they weren't going to win anymore.

The reason Ferrari didn't win in 2005 is because they weren't good enough. Simple matter of fact.

Well I do not know what Michelin are *****ing about. I suspect that if they hadn't cocked-up Indianapolis then we may still have one Tyre rule.
The cost savings made by using only one tyre for the race was easily cancelled by the public relations disaster caused by Michelin.

However I cannot help but think that the one tyre rule is incompatable with F1 safety aims.

There is no such thing as a safe tyre failure. They are generally catastrophic failures and when a tyre fails or are damaged, anything can happen.
When a tyre is worn it is also more likely to l suddenly fail without warning.
Most of us have presumably experienced the more regular punctures that come with tyres that are well worn and close to safety limit.
Also racing drivers and teams want to win and so will put themselves and others at risk to do so by pushing tyres beyond their limits. ref Raikkonen suspension failure.

Originally Posted by sbaddison

As I said before, it's a 14:6 ratio in favour of the French tyred teams. Anything to stop MS & Ferrari winning

And who was to blame for that? Bridgestone and Ferrari dug thier own hole over the past few years. Ferrari wanted exclusive tyres and be paid $30 million just so Bridgestone could have the 'honour' of giving them tyres. Yet when the other teams got fed up of Ferrari spec tyres only they went to Michelin who were happy to give choices. Ferrari start to ***** about it, test non-stop and still get literally nowhere.

It wasn't just about tyres, Ferrrai just created a dud car that was always chasing it's tail no matter what the conditions were, and if the budget cuts within FIAT are true then 2006 could be more of the same.

Some updates on the Ferrari side pre-2006.

MS comes back early to rally the troops as he feels he doesn't deserve a holiday and states he's "hungry"

Massa going well in testing this week but using a restricted V10

Badoer was fast last week in the V8 but kept crashing

Vodafone will switch to McClaren in 2007

Cheers for now,

Originally Posted by sbaddison

Hi.

A few people ask me if my Avitar is actually a tattoo well here is a photo of me enjoying the good life near Monaco last year. There is no question about where my loyalties lie

I've loved Ferrari's since I was a kid watching Magnum and the when our Nige drove for them after Williams. El Leonni I beleive the Tiffosi called him!

Cheers,

Il Leone indeed. Enjoyed watching every race he drove for Ferrari. Thought Nigel was the only one that could give Senna a run for its money in terms of pure speed.

Shame we never really got to see Senna vs Schumi

Originally Posted by sbaddison

Hi.

I thought I'd get in 1st

What do you think of the new rules?

V8's with 6-700 bhp.

Different rear wings to reduce turbulance & alow overtaking. May be contested & introduced in 2007

It's a knock out quali sessions (3 phases. Slowest 5 out after 1st 15 min session; another 5 out after 2nd stint. Remaining 10 cars to go for it in the final 20mins. Should be exiting on TV.

Tyre changes are back. Good. No more nursing the cars to save the tyres.

Should see my man to his last c'ship before he manages Ferrari in 2007!
Slicks will be back in 2007 as well!!

Roll on next season. A1 is not doing it for me sorry

Cheers for now,

Ferrari 05 was a slow car with or without the new regulations. They went backwards even though they were testing like maniacs. MS singled out Bridgestone for the underperforming Ferrari – they even retired twice because the tires had no threads half way into the race. When Bridgestone finally composed itself and delivered good tires, guess what: the Ferrari was still slow and of course MS changed his mined and admitted that Ferrari dropped the ball as a team. MS should definitely help out in 06 testing; god knows they pay him enough. Despite the relatively slow Ferrari, MS was making unusual mistakes that never used to happen to him. I firmly believe that he was out of form in 05.

As for the new rules: Finally!! We’ve discussed on so many occasions the stupid tire and qualification rules. I’m so glad they are gone. And I think despite everything 05 was an exciting year. It was full with drama and good racing. What a stellar performance by Alonso/Reno enormous talent, speed, maturity and confidence – I honestly was very surprised by his driving. I predict another exciting year in 06 despite the drop in HP and a couple of cylinders. Already there are some interesting testing stories.

Originally Posted by BigFoot

Shame we never really got to see Senna vs Schumi

It’s a no contest. Nothing comes close to Senna. I don’t care how many championships MS has won or will win in the future or any one else of the present F1 drivers for that matter.

Originally Posted by PeterWolf

It’s a no contest. Nothing comes close to Senna. I don’t care how many championships MS has won or will win in the future or any one else of the present F1 drivers for that matter.

Not sure mate, not sure. Senna was probably F1's fastest man ever but did have a tendency to lose concentration and get overly passionate (crashing out several times whilst overtaking/being overtaken). Plus, given how often cars and regulations changed, it would have been interesting to see if Senna would have been capable of adopting succesful race strategies...