F1 – anticipated 2006 line-up

December 1, 2005 by
Filed under: Uncategorized 

This is a post I’ve been working on in the background since the end of the season, tracking which drivers are moving where. Well, finally today the FIA have released the (still somewhat incomplete) list: [Note: bold means it's confirmed; italics indicates a strong rumour/likelihood.]

Team Driver#1 Driver#2 Test Driver Engine
Mild Seven Renault Fernando Alonso Giancarlo Fisichella ? Renault
McLaren Mercedes Kimi Raikkonen Juan Pablo Montoya Alex Wurz? McLaren Mercedes
Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro Michael Schumacher Felipe Massa ? Ferrari
Panasonic Toyota Racing Ralf Schumacher Jarno Trulli ? Toyota
WilliamsF1 Team Mark Webber Nico Rosberg ? Williams Cosworth
BAR Lucky Strike Honda Racing F1 Team Rubens Barrichello Jenson Button ? Honda
Red Bull Racing David Coulthard Christian Klien ? Ferrari
Sauber BMW Sauber F1 Team Nick Heidfeld Jacques Villeneueve? Dan Wheldon / Heikki Kovalainen? BMW
Jordan Midland MF1 Racing Tiago Monteiro Christijan Albers Nicky Pastorelli Toyota
Minardi Scuderia Toro Rosso Vitantonio Liuzzi Scott Speed? ? Cosworth
Super Aguri? Takuma Sato? Anthony Davidson / Kosuke Matsuura? ? Honda

It’s interesting to see that Barrichello is listed ahead of Button.

The 2006 calendar looks like this (updated to reflect the swap of the Japanese and Chinese races):

Race# Date Race Location
01 Mar 12 Bahrain Grand Prix (Bahrain)
02 Mar 19 Malaysian Grand Prix (Sepang)
03 Apr 2 Australian Grand Prix (Melbourne)
04 Apr 23 San Marino Grand Prix (Imola)
05 May 7 European Grand Prix (Nurburgring, Germany)
06 May 14 Spanish Grand Prix (Barcelona)
07 May 28 Monaco Grand Prix (Monte Carlo)
08 Jun 11 British Grand Prix (Silverstone)
09 Jun 25 Canadian Grand Prix (Montreal)
10 Jul 2 United States Grand Prix (Indianapolis)
11 Jul 16 French Grand Prix (Magny-Cours)
12 Jul 30 German Grand Prix (Hockenheim)
13 Aug 6 Hungarian Grand Prix (Hungaroring)
14 Aug 27 Turkish Grand Prix (Istanbul)
15 Sep 10 Italian Grand Prix (Monza)
16 Sep 17 Belgian Grand Prix (Spa-Francorchamps)
17 Oct 1 Chinese Grand Prix (Shanghai)
18 Oct 8 Japanese Grand Prix (Suzuka)
19 Oct 22 Brazilian Grand Prix (Interlagos)

This year it’s Spa’s turn to be threatened with being dropped from the calendar … but it won’t shouldn’t happen because it’s such an amazing circuit.

Oh, and if you thought the whole Indianapolis fiasco had gone away, there’s another snotty post on the FIA site: “Michelin are clearly confused, but it is difficult to understand which part of the very basic and entirely democratic voting procedures adopted by the FIA that Michelin is perplexed by.” Not very professional, is it? And why does The Formula One Commission only have a representative from one tyre supplier? (I’m assuming that it’s Bridgestone and not Michelin.)

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Comments

9 Comments on F1 – anticipated 2006 line-up

  1. paul on Sat, 3rd Dec 2005 4:39 pm

    2. BBC News says Villeneuve is confirmed as the other driver for the new BMW-Sauber team, alongside Nick Heidfeld.

    Super Aguri are definitely not included for the 2006 season, but BBC News reports they’ll apply again next year.

  2. paul on Sat, 3rd Dec 2005 4:42 pm

    3. “Renault have made Finland’s Heikki Kovalainen their test driver for the 2006 Formula One season.” [BBC]

    With this confirmed and Dan Wheldon staying in Indy, who will be BMW-Sauber’s test driver?

  3. paul on Wed, 7th Dec 2005 11:27 am

    4. Test driver update c/o F1 Central:
    Renault: Heikki Kovalainen
    McLaren: probably Alex Wurz, or maybe Gary Paffett
    Ferrari: Luca Badoer & Marc Gene
    Toyota: Ricardo Zonta & Olivier Panis
    Williams: probably Narain Karthikeyan (Friday driver) & maybe Andy Priaulx
    Honda: probably Anthony Davidson (Friday driver) & maybe Nelson Piquet Jr
    Red Bull: Robert Doornbos (Friday driver)
    BMW-Sauber: possibly Alex Wurz (Friday driver)
    MF1: Nicky Pastorelli (Friday driver)
    Toro Rosso: Neel Jani (Friday driver)

  4. Geoff Collins on Thu, 15th Dec 2005 12:32 pm

    5. The tyre rep on the F1 Commission is Bridgestone. They are supposed to represent the interests of all tyre manufacturers, not just Bridgestone and the feeling is they should have obstained in this vote. Oh and Christian Horner of RBR voted against Michelin too, although RBR are using them!

  5. paul on Wed, 21st Dec 2005 12:38 pm

    6. “Japanese outfit Super Aguri are set to become the 11th team in Formula One after securing the unanimous agreement of the 10 existing teams on Wednesday.” [BBC]

  6. paul on Sat, 14th Jan 2006 11:42 am

    7. All definite except those in italics.

    Team Driver#1 Driver#2 Test Driver(s) Engine
    Mild Seven Renault Fernando Alonso Giancarlo Fisichella Heikki Kovalainen Renault
    McLaren Mercedes Kimi Raikkonen Juan Pablo Montoya Pedro de la Rosa + Gary Paffett McLaren Mercedes
    Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro Michael Schumacher Felipe Massa Luca Badoer + Marc Gene Ferrari
    Panasonic Toyota Racing Ralf Schumacher Jarno Trulli Ricardo Zonta Toyota
    WilliamsF1 Team Mark Webber Nico Rosberg Narain Karthikeyan? Williams Cosworth
    Lucky Strike Honda Racing F1 Team Rubens Barrichello Jenson Button Anthony Davidson Honda
    Red Bull Racing David Coulthard Christian Klien Robert Doornbos Ferrari
    BMW Sauber F1 Team Nick Heidfeld Jacques Villeneueve Robert Kubica BMW
    MF1 Racing Tiago Monteiro Christijan Albers Nicky Pastorelli? Toyota
    Scuderia Toro Rosso Vitantonio Liuzzi Scott Speed Neel Jani Cosworth
    Super Aguri? Takuma Sato? Anthony Davidson? / Kosuke Matsuura? / Sakon Yamamoto? / Yuji Ide? ? Honda
  7. paul on Thu, 19th Jan 2006 6:44 pm

    8. According to the latest update from ITV-F1, Alex Wurz is now signed as a Williams test driver, with Narain Karthikeyan still tagged as a possible #2 tester.

  8. paul on Tue, 31st Jan 2006 2:19 pm

    9. Latest updates:

    • “Germany’s Markus Winkelhock, son of the late F1 driver Manfred, has been named as a test driver for the Midland team.” [BBC]
    • “Indian driver Narain Karthikeyan has joined Williams as a test driver for the new Formula One season, the team said as they launched their new car.” [BBC]
    • “New Formula One team Super Aguri are confident Takuma Sato will be their number one driver for the 2006 season.” [BBC]
  9. Paul, Kerri and The Boys » Blog Archive » Belgian GP pulled from calendar on Wed, 8th Feb 2006 11:30 pm

    10. [...] BBC News confirms that the Belgian Grand Prix has been dropped from this year’s Formula One calendar – not really a surprise but still quite a disappointment – it’s such a great circuit. [...]

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