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INDEPTH: FORMULA
ONE 2006 Can Fernando Alonso repeat?
All eyes will be on the young Spaniard
to see if he'll be able to win a second straight world title. CBC
Sports Online || March 10, 2006
Go surfing through the endless Formula One websites
and you come up with a pretty good idea of how Fernando Alonso feels
about this season.
Let Renault boss Flavio Briatore worry about the future, Alonso is
going for another world championship.
Formula One bearing no relationship to real life, of course, it's
hardly a surprise that the 24-year-old Spanish wonder, who last year
became the youngest ever world champion, has already signed to leave
Renault at the end of this season.
And that has set tongues wagging in 30 languages, wondering if the new McLaren contract he inked last December (for around $14 million – double the already ridiculous amount he's making this season) would be a distraction.
(FULL STORY: CAN
ALONSO REPEAT AS WORLD CHAMPION?)
| FIVE THINGS TO
KEEP AN EYE ON THIS SEASON |
THE NEW RULES
Last October, Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile
(FIA) approved changes to the qualifying system and the one-tire
rule.
For the 2006 Formula One season, qualifying will take place in three
stages. All 22 drivers will clock their fastest time during an opening
15-minute session. The bottom six cars will be eliminated from the
rest of the qualifying procedure and will be assigned the last six
positions on the starting grid.
The remaining 16 cars will have their first times wiped out as they
attempt to clock their fastest times in a second 15-minute session.
The slowest six from that pack will take up positions 11 through
16 on the grid.
The remaining 10 drivers will then duke it out for the pole position
in a final 20-minute qualifier.
FIA also agreed to eliminate the one-tire rule in which a tire could
only be changed if it went flat. Last season, teams were forced
go the entire race weekend on one set of tires.
SUPER AGURI TEAM JOINS F1
For the first time in four seasons, 11
teams will take to the grid in Formula One: 22 drivers, including
three world champions, ten Grand Prix winners and three rookies,
will take the green flag and be vying for glory on the track.
Formula One welcomes a new team, Super Aguri, for the 2006 season.
Former BAR-Honda driver Takuma Sato and Japanese compatriot Yuji
Ide have signed with the new team, which will use Honda engines
and Bridgestone tires for its two cars.
Sato finished eighth in the 2004 season, but is coming off a disappointing
2005 campaign in which he only earned a single point. Ide will be
making his Formula One debut.
Super Aguri is co-owned by former F1 driver Aguri Suzuki, who made
his debut on the circuit in Japan with the Larrousse team in 1988.
In 1995, after 88 races, he crashed heavily in qualifying for the
Japanese Grand Prix injuring his neck and decided to retire from
the sport.
Super Aguri is the first new team to join Formula One since 2002
when Toyota entered the series.
THE JACQUES VILLENEUVE WATCH
It's been said so many times before, but Canadian Jacques Villeneuve
needs to have a strong 2006 campaign to repair his damaged reputation.
The 34-year-old native of Iberville, Que., has 11 career victories
to his credit and won the world title with Williams in 1997, but
he failed to win a single race in almost five seasons with BAR-Honda.
Villeneuve left the team with one round remaining in the 2003 season
after BAR decided not to re-sign him to a new contract. He made
an unexpected comeback with Renault for the final three races of
the 2004 campaign.
Villeneuve returned for Sauber full-time last year, but struggled
all season and failed to reach the podium in 18 races. His best
result was a fourth-place finish at the San Marino Grand Prix.
Villeneuve knows he can't afford to falter in what could be his
final season with the new BMW-Sauber team in 2006.
"I am still working hard on it," Villeneuve told Autosport.com.
"A lot of it is the results you get, but another big part of
it is just the perception.
"You have drivers who have never had results
and people think they are great – just because the teams have
always been behind them and always have excuses for them.
"Some other drivers have been winning and still get their legs
cut because the perception is bad. There is very little you do about
that. If you get on the wrong side of someone at the wrong time
then you are screwed."
MICHAEL SCHUMACHER TO RETIRE?
Don't be surprised if Michael Schumacher calls it quits before the
end of the season.
The Ferrari legend said he would announce his retirement midway
through the schedule if he can't win another world title.
"I will decide at mid-season whether to continue or not in
2007. It depends on how competitive we are," Schumacher said
at Ferrari's annual winter retreat.
After winning five straight world titles, the German struggled to
a third-place finish last season behind champion Fernando Alonso's
Renault and Kimi Raikkonen's McLaren-Mercedes.
His only victory in 2005 was at the controversial U.S. Grand Prix,
where only five other cars ran, and Ferrari struggled with its setup
last season and had to rush the new car into use after poor results
in the first three races.
"I made some errors and on certain things we didn't work together
as best we could," Schumacher said. "It woke everyone
up a bit. It's normal though after winning five consecutive years."
THE LAST STAND FOR MICHELIN
Michelin will leave the series at the end of the 2006 season, leaving
Bridgestone as the sole tire supplier for Formula One.
Michelin's decision comes in the aftermath of a bitter dispute with
the FIA over the fiasco at last July's United States Grand Prix.
Following two accidents in the practice session, the tire manufacturer
recommended that the teams using its tires not race at Indianapolis.
Michelin warned the teams that it could not guarantee the quality
of their tires and air-freighted a new compound tire to replace
the old ones.
However, the teams were not allowed to
use them as F1 rules at the time required a team to race on the
same tires they used during practice and qualifying.
Michelin and the teams then requested a chicane be built to slow
the cars through a particularly challenging corner on the track,
but Formula One refused their request.
As a sign of protest, the seven teams
that used Michelin tires did not compete in the race, pulling out
from the starting grid following the parade lap. The race was run
with just six cars, all who use Bridgestone tires.
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