2006 Season

Driver changes

Ferrari replace Rubens Barrichello — Michael Schumacher’s long-time teammate — with Felipe Massa, who moves from Sauber. Massa’s seat at the newly renamed BMW Sauber is taken by Nick Heidfeld, who drove for Williams for much of 2005, alongside 1997 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve. Robert Kubica joins BMW Sauber as third driver. Poland’s Kubica becomes the first Polish driver in Formula One history.

Barrichello moves to Honda Racing F1 Team, replacing Takuma Sato. Sato joins the new Super Aguri outfit alongside fellow Japanese driver Yuji Ide. Williams promote GP2 champion Nico Rosberg — son of 1982 World Champion Keke Rosberg — to a race seat alongside Mark Webber. Alexander Wurz joins as Williams’s third driver.

Jordan, now renamed MF1 Racing, replaces Narain Karthikeyan with Christijan Albers. Vitantonio Liuzzi moves from Red Bull Racing to sister team Toro Rosso, partnering American rookie Scott Speed.

Alonso has already committed to moving to McLaren for 2007, the deal announced in December 2005.

Team changes

Three teams disappear under their former names for 2006. Minardi, purchased by Red Bull, becomes Scuderia Toro Rosso — Italian for Team Red Bull. The Sauber team, purchased by BMW, is renamed BMW Sauber. Jordan, bought by the Midland Group, becomes MF1 Racing. BAR, with Honda completing their takeover, becomes the Honda Racing F1 Team. A new Japanese outfit, Super Aguri F1, founded by former driver Aguri Suzuki, enters at the last moment after being confirmed by the FIA on 26 January 2006, with support from Honda.

Williams switch from BMW to Cosworth V8 engines following the BMW-Williams split. Red Bull Racing switch from Cosworth to Ferrari engines. Williams and Toyota both switch to Bridgestone tyres, while Toro Rosso switch from Bridgestone to Michelin in line with parent team Red Bull. Michelin have announced they will withdraw from Formula One at the end of this season; from 2007 Bridgestone will be the sole tyre supplier.

Mercedes-Benz officially rename their engine operation to Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines following DaimlerChrysler’s full acquisition of the Ilmor UK division.

Calendar

The season runs to 18 races. The Belgian Grand Prix is absent from the calendar — local authorities began major repair work at Spa-Francorchamps, leaving insufficient time to complete improvements in 2006. The race is expected to return in 2007.

The Australian Grand Prix moves later than its traditional season-opening slot, to 2 April, to avoid a clash with the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. As a consequence, Bahrain hosts the opening Grand Prix for the first time. Japan and China have also swapped their calendar dates compared to 2005.

Regulation changes

The headline change for 2006 is the reduction of engine displacement from 3.0 litres and 10 cylinders to 2.4 litres and 8 cylinders. Peak power is expected to fall by around 200 bhp. Scuderia Toro Rosso are granted a special exemption to continue running 3.0-litre V10 engines fitted with rev and air-intake limiters, as their STR1 chassis is carried over from the Red Bull RB1. This is the first season since 1997 to feature more than one engine displacement in the field.

Tyre changes return to Formula One for the first time in recent seasons. Each driver is limited to 14 sets per race weekend — seven dry, four wet and three extreme. All cars must use a mandatory 7-speed plus reverse semi-automatic gearbox configuration. Fuel tank capacity is standardised at 150 litres.

A new three-part knockout qualifying format replaces the previous arrangement. A 15-minute opening session eliminates the six slowest cars into grid positions 17–22. A second 15-minute session eliminates the next six into positions 11–16. A final 20-minute session determines the top ten, including pole position. The top ten cars are required to start the race on their qualifying fuel loads. Saturday free practice is consolidated from two 45-minute sessions into a single 60-minute session; Friday retains two 90-minute sessions.

Pre-season testing

The pre-season test was originally scheduled for the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya from 24–26 February but was moved to the Bahrain International Circuit and held from 3–5 March — immediately before the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix at the same venue — following the Australian Grand Prix’s rescheduling to avoid the Commonwealth Games.