Motors The Official Bit-Tech F1 2006 Thread

Not long before the first race of the season now, and the teams have been beavering away over the winter to produce cars to the new V8 specs (Well, those that could be bothered... ). All of the teams have announced their drivers for this season (even late-comers Super Aguri F1), and everything's set.

However, we do seem to be losing circuits - Spa is off, Brazil has yet to finalise contracts and the German GP may be called off due to lack of funds...

Regardless, It's going to be an interesting year - Max has given the GPMA a deadline to shut-up or put-up; We're going to have the most cars on the track since the late 90's; Some teams running restricted V10's, and others using V8's; Tyre Changes; New liveries for Martin and James to mistake; And a new line up of presenters on ITV-F1, now that Jim Rosenthal has left (He's been replaced by Steve Rider), and Tony Jardine has been given the heave-ho (allegedly).

2006 Runners & Riders:

Renault
Fernando Alonso
Giancarlo Fisichella
Heikki Kovalainen (test driver)

McLaren (Bling Bling Baby! Chrome Cars!)
Kimi Raikkonen
Juan Pablo Montoya
Pedro de la Rosa (test driver)
Gary Paffett (test driver)

Ferrari
Michael Schumacher
Felipe Massa
Luca Badoer (test driver)
Marc Gene (test driver)

Toyota
Jarno Trulli
Ralf Schumacher
Ricardo Zonta (test driver)

Williams
Mark Webber
Nico Rosberg
Alex Wurz (test driver)
Narain Karthikeyan (test driver)

Honda Racing We'd better not get beaten by Super-Aguri...
Jenson Button
Rubens Barrichello
Anthony Davidson (test driver) Poor 'ole Ant. Always the Bridesmaid...

Red Bull Racing We'd better not get beaten by STR...
David Coulthard
Christian Klien
Robert Doornbos (test driver)

BMW Sauber
Nick Heidfeld
Jacques Villeneuve
Robert Kubica (test driver)

Midland F1 How many test drivers?!
Christijan Albers
Tiago Monteiro
Markus Winkelhock (test driver)
Giorgio Mondini (test driver)
Adrian Sutil (test driver)
Roman Rusinov (test driver)

Scuderia Toro Rosso AKA RBR2 Take two teams to the races? Well yes, acctually...
Vitantonio Liuzzi
Scott Speed
Neel Jani (test driver)

Super Aguri F1 AKA HR2 If Redbull can have two teams, so can we!
Takuma Sato
Yuji Ide

2006 FIA Formula 1 World Championship calendar:

Mar 12 Bahrain
Mar 19 Malaysia
Apr 02 Australia
Apr 23 San Marino
May 07 Europe
May 14 Spain
May 28 Monaco
June 11 Great Britain
June 25 Canada
July 02 United States
July 16 France
July 30 Germany
Aug 06 Hungary
Aug 27 Turkey
Sep 10 Italy
Oct 01 China
Oct 08 Japan
Oct 22 Brazil*

*Still to be confirmed pending contract negotiations

 

I've not been paying attention to the engine changes... whats up with the V8s and V10s both running?

 

The V10s will have two pistons removed to make them V8s, but those loose 0.1litre because they end up as only 2.9s. (that's me guessing)

So many people I havent heard of, this should be a good season hopefully.

If Jims left, who does the pit walk?! NOooo

 

Some teams complained when the new V8 regs came in, saying that they didn't have the time or the resources to get a competative V8 developed in time for the new season.

Because of this the FIA have allowed V10's to compete, but only if they're detuned or restricted to broadly similar power outputs that are expected from the new V8 lumps.

It's a bit of a contentious issue with those teams that have developed their own engines - they've had to get a competative V8 sorted, and their argument is that even though a V10 can be restricted in this manner, it'll still have advantages over their power plants in areas like torque.

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

 

Er.... No. They'll be rev limited, and or a restricter will be put in the airbox to decrease airflow into the engine.

Martin Brundle, as always. Jim was the anchor man.

 

the FIA changed the engine specs to aid in kepping the cost of F1 down and slowing the cars down a bit too, hopefully allowing the lesser funded teams to catch up the bigger teams, but this caused a problem in its self, where as the bigger teams could afford to completly re-design an engine, gearbox,software, telemetry, chassis to accomodate the new rule changes (as they have more money to redesign the machinerey and alot more space) the smaller teams couldnt afford to so the FIA have allowed some teams to run a modified 2005 spec V10 engine that is down on power (to the same as the V8's) so they can start racing on march 12th

i cant wait for the new season im so looking for to it, very interest in BAR again this year

edit-bugger too late again

 

Why dont they just remove two pistons though, that'll make em V8s at least.

 

Because:

• It's easier to rev limit.
• By taking two cylinders out, you'd have to replumb the whole engine for air intake, exhaust and fuel
• If you could do it, you'd end up with a very heavy V8 compared to a true V8, as the cylinders, heads and crank would all still be the same size as when it was a V10
• Engine Management would have to be re-written
• It's silly.

That and the fact that the modifications would take as long and probably cost as much as developing a V8 from scratch

 

cos its a little bit more complicated than that, you've got the injectors that need remapping and 4 of them removed (2 per cylinder) or you'll get 2 cylinders filling up with fuel thats not getting burnt off.

the exhauset would have to be redisegned to accomodace the difference in air/exhaust from the engine.

the air intake would have to be redesigned to allow the air to be split differently to each cylinder

the oil pipe lines and computer controled pump would have to be redseigned to stop theoil going to the missing cylinders and not over fill the other 8

the ignition system would need chaging to adjust the timing to fire 8 cylinders and not 10

the onboard computer would need re-desiging so that it doesnt think the engne has fained as it cant detect 2 cylinders and tried to shut the engine down.

the telemetry would need redesigning for the same as above.

the cran shaft would be out of balance so a new crank would have to be designed.

to allow for the new crank a new bottom end and head would need to be designed

anew rockercovers would need designing, as well as engine mounts wireing looms etc



oh wait ive just designed a completly new engine a V8 and its cost £5,000000 to do so

Edit: Great old one has beating me to it again

 

There there, Monkey. No harm in coming 1st of the also-rans.

 

Fairynuff. I just wondered if they would have to whip out two pistons, plug the holes and change a "10" to and "8" in their management programs and all is hunky dory.
Yea, it would weigh more and be an inperfect V8 but that's their fault for not getting a new engine in time. You cant have people not conforming to the rules by being late and then having an advantage.

 

Its not all about time, its money thats causing the problem ,you have teams like ferrari that can afford to throw £20m at redesigning the engine and machinery needed to build the engine, they also have their own test tracks to test the engine etc.

teams like midland F1 dont have those resourses available they proabably have £20m budget for the whole season to build 2 cars, pay 3-5 drivers and all the staff associated with it.

i agree with the "everyone should conform the the regulations" but some times it impractical, or the time scale they have to do it is too short. but they are doing their best by limiting the engines.

i can understand why the other teams who have produced a V8 is moaning about being down on torque but from the spectator i think its better as it mainly the smaller/slower teams that will have the torque advantage and it will show on some circuits, which should make for some interesting races (in theory)

 

But then, what stops Ferrari and the top teams turning around saying "Our engine actually isnt ready yet, we're still gonna use the rev-limited V10 which has more torque til we have to change".

 

cos they would get fined, i know thats a contradiction on what ive said but hear me out.

the smaller teams have to prove that they can not meet the deadline for what ever reason, up untill this time last year if your car wasnt inline with the regulations you cant race....... simple.......... yep but Paul Stoddart
(boss of Minardi now RBR2 AKA Scuderia Toro Rosso ) didnt beleive it and the weekend the Aussue GP started (last year) his car didnt conform to the regulations IIRC it was something to do with the front wing, he contested that he didnt hasve the time and money that the big boys have. the FIA wouldnt budge so he went to the high court of aussie land and then to the high high court of FIA and all things motorsport and they ruled that they could race, i cant remember too much about it and all the ins and outs but the funny thing was once Paul Stoddart got the ruling he wanted he magically produced the correct wings and said he wanted to prove a point.

i will miss him now Minardis gone, the same as Eddie Jordan

 

I don't think there's anything to stop them from doing so.

That said, I don't think they will - they've paid $M developing the V8's, so they'll use them (they do have their benefits - smaller, lighter - the engineers and designers have more flexibity in where they place it to get better weight distribution). Plus the V10 guys won't have the luxury of an ongoing development programme, so even if they're comparable now, the V8's will be leagues ahead of the V10's by mid season.

Won't stop the arguments though. Especially if the V10 boys start well and (heaven forfend) they get on the podium.

 

Ahhh. All these people are gettin me confused. Names dont mean anything, I only put names to faces. None of them are a Murry

 

Yay for Gary Paffet!

 

WTF?

I know that Silverstone needs investment, and that the BRDC are looking to lease the circuit out to developers for 150 years - but why the hell are they planning on building houses on the circuit? And even more alarmingly, why does this mean the end to Club, Abbey and Bridge corners?

FABLED SILVERSTONE CORNERS FACE AXE

I'm all for investment in the track, and keeping the Brit GP there - but this just sounds completely mental...

 

OK, I think i've finally lost faith in Silverstone. Thats just stupid.

 

Why the hell is Jacques Villeneuve still employed?