Inexperience takes 2nd Ferrari off the podium

Start of race. Schumi is first. Mansa 2nd, Alonso 4th. 5 lights illuminate and they go off. Alonso starts off fast. Mansa feels pressure. Almost looses his place in the straight. Corner 1, Alonso easily overtakes Mansa. Mansa is frustrated. Mansa tries everything to get ahead of Alonso. Now Mansa would try overtaking maneuver near the turn at the end of long straight. Mansa and Alonso go wheel to wheel. All of sudden Mansa applies brakes. Mansa spins. Alonso survives by fraction of a second. Mansa damages his tyres. Pits. Rear tyre on the ill-fated Ferrari gets jammed. Pit stop takes 44 seconds. Its almost race over for Mansa.

Although I am not denying the excellent driving skills Mansa has.
This incident clearly shows inexperience of Filipe.

Alonso continues winning rally. Schumi joins second.

2005 Champion Fernando starts 2006 season by winning Bahrain GP. Renault proved their dominating performance once again today. But Ferrari were not far back. The two drivers, Michael and Fernando were playing cat and mouse for almost 16 final laps of the race. They were absolutely matching each other's speed to 100th of a second. This clearly shows that Ferrari are back.

Bahrain GP: Qualifying results

1 M. Schumacher
2 F. Massa
3 J. Button
4 F. Alonso
5 JP. Montoya
6 R. Barrichello
7 M. Webber
8 C. Klien
9 G. Fisichella
10 N. Heidfeld
11 J. Villeneuve 12 N. Rosberg 13 D. Coulthard 14 J. Trulli 15 V. Liuzzi 16 S. Speed 17 R. Schumacher 18 C. Albers 19 T. Monteiro 20 T. Sato 21 Y. Ide 22 K. Raikkonen

Its a Ferrari 1-2, Schumi on the pole.

Michael Schumacher put Ferrari's woes of last year behind him and claimed pole position in qualifying for the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix. His best time was 1:31.431 but he came close to losing pole to his new teammate Felipe Massa. The Brazilian was just a few hundredths behind to make it a Ferrari front row.


FERRARI ARE BACK.

Kimi starts, Completes warm lap, Suspension collapses, Comes back to the garage

Kimi Raikkonen came to grief after 10 minutes when the McLaren spun at turn 10 and the right rear wheel came adrift and the rear wing flew off. It was a rear suspension lower wishbone failure that was the problem; the session was red flagged and the car limped back to the pits, quite badly damaged at the rear.

New engines for new season

FIA has restricted engine choice to 2.4 lit V8 engines which are compact and lack power as compared to V10s that were being used till 2005.
This has required all teams to design and develop their cars keeping in mind the restrictions imposed by FIA.

Tyre changes are back.

Drivers are now allowed to change their tyres as many times as they want during the qualifying and race sessions. This will definitely help Bridgestone to be competitive with Michelins.

New Qualifying Format for 2006

FIA has changed the qualifying pattern for 2006 season,
The new format is,
Total qualifying session is of 1 hour.
a)
For first 15 minutes, all cars will be permitted on the track and at the end of this period the slowest five cars, taking into account only laps which were completed before the end of the period, will be prohibited from taking any further part in the session. Lap times achieved by the fifteen remaining cars will then be deleted.
-- 5 minutes break
b)
For next 15 minutes, the fifteen remaining cars will be permitted on the track and at the end of this period the slowest five cars, taking into account only laps which were completed before the end of the period, will be prohibited from taking any further part in the session. Lap times achieved by the ten remaining cars will then be deleted.
-- 5 minutes break
c)
For remaining 20 minutes, the ten remaining cars will be permitted on the track.

F1's back

Formula One 2006 season starts with Bahrain GP.
The schedule of 2006 season is as below,

12 March - Bahrain GP
19 March - Malasian GP
02 April - Australian GP
23 April - San Marion GP
07 May - European GP
14 May - Spanish GP
28 May - Monaco GP
11 June - British GP
25 June - Canadian GP
02 July - US GP
16 July - French GP
30 July - German GP
06 August - Hungarian GP
27 August - Turkish GP
10 September - Italian GP
17 September - Belgian GP Cancelled
01 October - Japanese GP
08 October - Chinese GP
22 October - Brazilian GP (Season Finale)