Event Features
SpeedArena F1 2006 Season Preview
By by: Anooj Shah
Mar 9, 2006, 11:49

Pressure is a common theme in Formula One. The drivers face it during the final races of the Championship, the teams face it, and even the team owners face it as they scramble to get sponsorship. Senna & Prost faced it as they battled for the World Drivers Championship in the late 80s and early 90s and Benetton & Williams faced intense pressure as they fought for the World Constructors Championship in the mid-90s. Pressure was a good way to separate the greats from the decent.

As the Formula 1 2006 season gets underway, certain entities will face more pressure than others. Jenson Button, who completed the most mileage in winter testing and set extremely competitive times, is one of them. He is expected to break his winless streak in 100 race starts. This time he faces stiff competition from his experienced team-mate, a certain Rubens Barrichello, who is no doubt looking to prove his worth to the world, and more importantly, to himself. He won't make it easy for Jenson, and so far in testing they have been almost equal in pace. Till now, the excuse Jenson had was the car was never good enough for wins; but this time around it’s proved to be competitive and reliable in winter testing. If he doesn't win this season, he may not get another chance. It will be interesting to see how he deals with the pressure; and it will give great insight into his character as a race-driver.

The team facing the most pressure at the start of the season will be Toyota F1. This is the second season with Mike Gascoyne on board and probably the first season that will feature a car designed under Gascoyne's supervision. Apart from him, Toyota is also the team with the biggest budget and after last year's impressive performance, they only have one way to go and that’s moving up the WCC ladder. If they come below 3rd place in the WCC standings or don't win a race, this season will be a disappointment to them and their Toyota execs that are financing the operation in hopes of wins. Their biggest rival is Honda for obvious reasons and it will be a huge motivation to the entire team if they could beat Honda to getting that first win. Unfortunately, Toyota has not set the Winter testing on season even though they were the first team to debut their 2006 challenger; allowing them to iron out the mechanicals & electronics as they worked on developing the aerodynamics package. They recently rolled out their much-vaunted aerodynamic update but it didn't have the pace of the Hondas or McLarens. Another factor could be their recent switch to Bridgestone tires, it will be interesting to see how much of the deficit is related to the tires and how much to the car itself. Regardless, the Toyota PR machine seems to be spinning out a positive and confident outlook on the 2006 season so it will be interesting to see what Toyota is hiding up their sleeve. If it ends up being hot air, expect the heads to roll and Toyota question their involvement in F1.

Renault has been the champions of winter testing, consistently setting fast times and showing infallible reliability in the process. Even with Alonso set to move to McLaren at the end of the season, expect him to get the team's full support as they try to defend their championship. Fisichella is expected to step up his game from last season and they will be expecting him to battle Alonso for wins on a regular basis. Expect them to be in contention for the WCC till the very end, but I doubt they will run away with it.

McLaren-Mercedes has had a tough winter testing season with their initial lack of pace and unreliable powerplant but they seemed to have turn things around in the past few weeks. Kimi has set some impressive times and will most likely be challenging Alonso for wins. However if his car lets him down as it did in 04 and 05, expect him to switch over to the Scarlet team at the end of 06. The other question mark is JPM. While he had some great races last season he was fairly inconsistent and was probably the reason why McLaren lost out on the WCC. He knows he has a slim chance to stay at McLaren with Alonso coming aboard. He had the excuse last season of the car not being setup for him, but this time around he has had ample testing time to refine the car to his needs. He has to prove to them that he is a consistent race winner and hopefully he will. It will be very entertaining to see his battles with Kimi and others.

Ferrari will be facing some pressure from the tifosi to deliver after a lackluster campaign last year. Unfortunately weather has not been kind to them (after all those years of being in their favor!) during the latter stages of the testing season as they opted to test privately at their tracks at Mugello & Fiorano Optimism is high at the Scarlet camp and Michael Schumacher has gone on record of saying they will be fighting for wins. It will be up to Felipe Massa to deliver strong results to help them in the WCC fight. He should be able to live up to the pressure also knowing that he is merely warming up the 2nd driver seat for a year should Rossi make the switch to Ferrari.

Williams will be facing a season of transition. They lost their Works engine partner, they switched from Michelin to Bridgestone, signed a promising young rookie named Nico Rosberg, and replaced their test driver with the talented and experienced Alex Wurz. This season will be all about dealing with the many changes and building up for a strong 2007. So far their Cosworth engine looks to be very promising and their times seem to put them in the competitive midfield. The only problems they have faced in winter testing are with their new seamless gearbox, which removes any disruption in power delivery during gear changes. If they manage to fend off Red Bull and BMW-Sauber this season could be considered a success for them. That said, don't be surprised to see them being on contention for wins; they could be the surprise of the season!

Red Bull is expected to build on their success last season so expect to see more podiums from them. They have shown impressive pace during testing but have also shown their reliability problems. Earlier in the winter they faced serious cooling issues with their Ferrari V8 engine but they have stated its been fixed with their updated bodywork. Regardless, the failures still occurred during testing and they have not managed to complete two race distances on one engine yet. Regardless, expect DC to be fighting hard to earn his place in the F1 circus for 2007.

BMW-Sauber has shown impressive strength considering the short preparation time they have had since announcing they bought off Sauber. Their reliability has been very strong and their pace puts them in the midfield. Luckily they now have the resources that allow them to test continuously and that will no doubt allow for better preparation. JV has gotten lots of testing time, something that he lacked last season with Sauber, so he has no excuses for not delivering this season. Expect him to have tough competition from the underrated Nick Heidfeld who impressed many last year. It has been interesting to note that he hasn't had as much testing time as JV this season. Expect BMW to do better than Sauber did last year and it will be a huge plus to them if they can beat Red Bull.

We are now left with Midland F1, Scuderia Torro Rosso, and Super Aguri F1. Expect a battle on and off the track between Midland F1 and STR if STR seems to have the upper hand on the track. Midland has vowed to question the restricted V10 rule that STR is currently taking advantage of. Midland claims the extra torque of the V10 will give STR an unfair advantage. Apart from that, I'd give the nod to 'Tonio Luizzi to get the better of his much-hyped teammate Scott Speed as well as give Midland a fight. If STR does seem too competitive, I'd expect a drastic change to the engine equivalency rules. It has been an achievement in it self for Super Aguri F1 to make it to Bahrain ready to race. I don't expect much from them this season. Their first few races will be a learning experience for them; their fortunes should turn for the better when they release their new car at the European leg of the world tour.

The change in qualifying will favor certain drivers, such as DC who was an ace during the 12-laps qualifying system but not as good at putting a fast lap during single-lap qualifying, and reduce the advantage of other drivers such as Jarno Trulli and JPM who were aces with cold tires during single-lap qualifying. The change in engine displacement and type will also shuffle up the order and expose how good the teams are at reacting to change. The 2006 season looks to be the best yet and I hope you all enjoy it with us.

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