2006 (Japanese Grand Prix)

[Blake]

What are the new Friday rules?

There are not going to be any third cars on Fridays (or Thursday for Monaco). Teams will be allowed to run their two cars free of engine restrictions. Also, teams will be allowed to run any drivers that they want to on Fridays, assuming they have a super licence.

How will it help reliability if after 3 races you find a problem with the engine that cannot be fixed under the rules?

19,000rpm rev limit.

 

[<_Spike_>]

Who's to say that's going to stop reliability issues

 

[Sureboss]

They barely do more than 20,000 revs at the moment anyway, do they? Rarely see it go above that when seeing the graph on ITV.

 

[Lee]

Yes but what do most cars do halfway through a race? They tune down their engines to keep the risk of wear to a mininum..

 

[Blake]

Who's to say that's going to stop reliability issues

The Mercedes engine, for example, was hitting close to 20,000 rpm in race conditions. That engine has been very very reliable this season, so for an engine like that it will just make life easy.

For some other engines it may not help, although I&#8217;m sure all engines hit well over 19,000rpm in qualifying. So, if nothing else, the engines won&#8217;t be pushed as hard in qualifying.

Plus there are no engine restrictions on Friday, so that&#8217;s less running that the race engines have to do.

They barely do more than 20,000 revs at the moment anyway, do they? Rarely see it go above that when seeing the graph on ITV.

You&#8217;re right, but 1,000rpm is a pretty big deal in terms of reliability. If they don&#8217;t go above 19,000 during any session over two race meetings it has to be good for reliability.

Not that we have many engine failures these days, anyway.

 

[darkfinal]

Talking about the mercedes engine, it's obvious it's one of the most high-revved engines and they are still a step behind Ferrari and Renault, whose apparently go faster at lower revs.

If they have to run that engine at 19,000rev... Something tells me Alonso and Hamilton will have a very reliable car, but serious speed issues....

 

[Blake]

I think it&#8217;s more of an aerodynamic issue for the McLaren, rather than a significant lack of power in the Mercedes engine.

 

[darkfinal]

I think it’s more of an aerodynamic issue for the McLaren, rather than a significant lack of power in the Mercedes engine.

I hope their spoilers don't go KABOOOM in a desperate attempt to provide Alonso with a fast car, like what happened with Raikonnen back in 2004...

 

[amp88]

Michael has had 9 engine retirements in his F1 career. The McLaren team had 9 in 1994 alone.

 

[Digital-Nitrate]

Other than that, I believe Schumi's chances of winning the championship are quite high, first of all, Alonso has a high chance of retiring from the final race, secondly, Schumacher has a high chance of winning the race.

History may suggest otherwise.

Since 1995 Schumacher has only one it twice (2000 & 2002).

Last Three Brazilian Results (Alonso - Schumy):

2005 = 3 - 4
2004 = 4 - 7
2003 = 3 - DNF

I'm fairly sure Schumacher wants to go out on a high, championship or no, without any controversy. A 92nd win will do just fine.

Excellent point, and a win in Brazil would be a very impressive ending to a remarkable career.