F1 season 2006

[Kassiopeia]

Originally posted by Zoid
Doesn´t anyone watch F1 anymore?

When the race is on at seven o'clock in the morning? NO.

[Locutus]

It was a good race, lots of stuff happening, but I was zapping back and forth between it (or rather a rerun of it -- I like F1 but not so much I'll get up at 6:00 in the morning for it) and the Ronde van Vlaanderen.

[Kassiopeia]

In my opinion, races in that corner of the globe should be held in late afternoon or early evening local time. Viewership for the races in Japan, Australia, and Malesia is no doubt abysmal because the primary audience here in Europe will prefer to sleep in early Sunday morning. Since it's a Sunday, I doubt local spectators would have trouble showing up a few hours later than they do now. Why they have to start the race at 15:00 (or is it 14:00?) local time no matter where they are, I have no idea.

[Zoid]

I taped it since it started at 6 AM... And it was a spectacular and action packed race Biggest disappointment Button and Fisichella. I don´t know what Fisi was doing out there... And Button...Honda just lacks that last bit of speed. Bari was stuck behind Sato for quite a few laps for christ sake And Red Bull was upstaged by its rookie team as well...

[Richelieu]

Honda, Ferrari and BMW all said they had problems getting the tyres warm after each restarts - obviously more of a problem for Honda. They will definitely have to deal with this before getting to Europe. When Schumacher finally managed to get enough heat Michael made one of the few mistakes i've seen him make and put himself in the wall.
All in all, an action packed GP.

[BlackCat]

I know that this is pretty close to thread neccromancy, but tomorrows race may be interesting.

One thing is to have pole position, but when Schumi is second and first turn is a right one, wouldn't you be a bit nervous ?

Maybe this weeks race won't be as boresome as the previous.

Funny thing - Schumi has the record on this track - 1 second faster than todays qualificaiton.

[Richelieu]

It lives!

[Frozzy]

Funny thing - Schumi has the record on this track - 1 second faster than todays qualificaiton.

More powerful engine.

[Zoid]

Originally posted by Richelieu
It lives!

But for how long?

I´m enjoying the season so far. My initial predictions were a bit off (Especially that bit about Toro Rosso beating BMW ) But I got caught up in the Toro Rosso V10 hype

And Mclaren and Honda aren´t doing any way near as good as I predicted... But that´s F1 for you. So many variables it´s almost impossible to tell...

[BlackCat]

Originally posted by Kalius


More powerful engine.

Nope.

http://www.formula1.com/insight/rulesandregs/13/995.html

Engines
For 2006, engines are reduced in size from the previous 3-litre V10s to 2.4-litre V8s. The aim is to reduce costs and improve safety. With similar engine speeds, the change is expected to cut peak power by around 200bhp, which in turn is likely to add around three to five seconds to lap times at most circuits. The FIA may allow some teams to use 2005-spec V10s if they do not have access to competitive V8. The FIA will enforce a rev limit on any V10s to ensure performance is comparable with that of a V8.

[Thorgal]

How nope? Are you reading your own quote?

It says that current low budget teams can keep V10, while all other teams use much less powerful new V8. V8 is so underpowered respecting V10 that they must limit slow teams V10s engines to make them in fact slower than big team with V8.

Even with current limitations big teams are claiming that small teams are too fast, so they should limit V10s evn more. An unlimited V10 Midland could surely fight even with a V8 Ferari.

2006 Ferrari V8 engine is about 200 hp less powerful than 2004-05 Ferrari V10 engine when the lap record was stablished.



About the race, not much to comment. Ferrari is again there. Not much to do against them today. If they manage to maintain current level in next races the championship is going to be an Alonso-Schumi interesting fight.

[BlackCat]

Sure I did - especially the part that the reduction was expected to "cut peak power by around 200bhp". In normal terms that usually means a less powerful engine. What is it I'm missing ?

The race today was a bit boring - too much pitstop strategy allthough it was brilliantly executed.

[Thorgal]

Now i am confussed You said that it was funny that Schumacher has the lap record in nurburgring (it was in 2004) somebody pointed that it was becuase then the engines were more powerfull, you said "nope" but it is "yep". The things are roughly as follows:

Last years:

Everybody using unrestricted V10 engines----> about 1000 to 800 hp depending of the team.


This year:

The big teams use V8 unrestricted-----> around 700 hp

The small teams that have no money to design a new V8 use old V10 but restricted-----> 800+ hp minus 200 hp due to the restrictions = about 600+ hp

[BlackCat]

Yeah, this discussion is a bit confussing

What I meant in my first posting was that despite the reduction in power, they still were able to get as close as a second to the former record.

Kalius (and you) of course has a point in that Schumis car back then was more powerfull than today's, but that wasn't really my point

It though seems that race times are worse than qual - fastest lap was 1:32 - some three seconds slower than the old record.

Hope I make sense

[Thorgal]

Booooring race, as usual in Barcelona. Montmelo is a crappy track. Bring back Jerez!!!! or at least try Valencia.

BTW Alonso controlled the race totally since the first lap. Incredible regularity for him until now: 1-2-1-2-2-1. This way it is impossible to lose the WDC.