nascargrandprix

As reported in f1.racing-live.com:

McLaren Mercedes travels to Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya this week for the sixth race of the Championship, the Spanish Grand Prix. The race is the second of the five sets of back to back events this season, coming just seven days after the European Grand Prix at the Nürburgring. McLaren Mercedes has tested at the Circuit de Catalunya a total of 20 days of car running time since the start of the year, covering 6,510km of the Spanish track.

The inaugural Spanish Grand Prix took place at the Pedrables track in 1951. Since then the event has been a sporadic fixture on the calendar, held at a number of locations including Jarama and Montjuich Park, until 1986 when it returned on a permanent basis. The purpose built Circuit de Catalunya, which is approximately a 30 minutes drive from the centre of Barcelona, has hosted the race since 1991.

McLaren Mercedes has won four times in the past eight years. Most recently Kimi Raikkonen took victory at the Circuit de Catalunya having lead the race from pole position. From 1998-2000, Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard took three one-two victories for the team.

Kimi Raikkonen
"Over the weekend at the Nürburgring the car was definitely improving, and I am looking forward to getting straight back on track in Spain, to try and continue to find more pace. The Circuit de Catalunya is a very quick track, not in the same way as say Monza that is all about power, it is because there are a lot of fast corners that keep you flowing the whole way round. This does mean though that you can lose a bit of downforce when you are close behind another car through the quick corners and this can make it quite difficult to pass. The aerodynamics of cars are tested the most here, so set-up is crucial. This can be quite tricky as it can be quite windy on track and something that worked really well in the morning doesn't always work as well in the afternoon."

Juan Pablo Montoya
"It wasn't the best race for me in Europe, but that is racing and you have to move on. There has traditionally been quite high levels of tyre degradation at the Circuit de Catalunya, this was less last year with the resurfacing, but over the course of the past twelve months it has returned to being fairly abrasive. With all the super fast corners there are big loadings on the tyres, so tyre wear is still a consideration, particularly the front left. We have worked hard with Michelin in preparation for the race, and final selection between the prime and option will be our main focus in the early part of the weekend."

Some time ago the FIA asked Formula 1 teams to accept rules which rev-limited V10 engines. The federation argued that this would slow the cars and cut costs. As early as 1996 FIA President Max Mosley proposed an engine rev limiter to be introduced in 2001. The teams argued that Formula 1 is all about performance and pushing the limits. It seemed that Mosley had given up when last year he announced that there would be 2.4-litre V8 engines in 2006 to reduce power and costs. Mosley added that "in order not to prejudice the smaller independent teams" the existing 3-litre V10 engines would be allowed to continue in 2006 and 2007 "subject to a restriction on revs to be determined by the FIA".

The teams were finally forced to accept this change, although several were strongly opposed to the V8 idea.

And so, in theory at least, we will see a 2.4-litre V8 engine formula in 2006 and all the major F1 teams are working on the development of the new V8s. Only Squadra Toro Rosso (aka Minardi) is planning to go into the new season with a rev-limited V10. The stated FIA plan was that "the rev limit will be set at a level which will ensure that the engine is less powerful - but not much less powerful - than the 2.4s."

In recent months, however, it has been clear that the V8s will not be very powerful and, more importantly, will have less robust rev ranges than the restricted V10s and there are some who believe that the rev-limited V10 engine could actually be a better package because with the two-race engine rule revs have been reduced anyway. There has been a lot of talk recently of changing the equivalency factor but if it remains the same we are likely to see teams begin to realise that the V8 is not the way to go and switch to rev-limited V10s instead. There is a precedent in all this as Honda decided in 1988 that rather than switch to new normally-aspirated 3.5-litre engines it would maximise the performance of the older turbos despite a boost pressure cut from 4 to 2.5 bar and a fuel tank capacity reduced from 195 to 150 litres. The result was a dominant car which won 15 of the 16 races.

So be prepared, we may end up with a field full of rev-limited V10s next year.

When you stop to think about it, this is what the FIA wanted all along and all that the manufacturers will end up with are expensive V8s which will be thrown on the scrap heap. Once teams have accepted rev limits, the FIA would then be able to control engine power quite simply by lowering the rev-limits from one year to the next, particularly if the V8 rules were later scrapped. And once the revs are low there would be little opposition to regulations demanding engines which last for six races.

Owning no less than two formula one teams, Red Bull has decided to scrap its 'search for an American F1 driver' programme. Four years into the search, a Monday statement said the programme had 'successfully placed' an American at the pinnacle of racing -- Scott Speed. ''With its primary goal complete,'' the statement read, ''the Driver Search will not continue to operate in its current format for 2006.'' Red Bull's 'search' programme started in 2002.