2006 Formula One World Championship

• Three prominent names in the sport disappeared for this season, with Minardi, BAR and Jordan changing names under new ownership, while Sauber changed ownership and one new team, Super Aguri entered at the last moment. Minardi were taken over by Red Bull, becoming Toro Rosso, which is Italian for Red Bull. The Sauber name remained, although largely as a sentiment, as BMW had purchased 80% of the team, with Peter Sauber keeping only a 20% share. A year after Alex Shnaider had purchased the team and following a disappointing final season under the Jordan name, Jordan was renamed to MF1 Racing after Shnaider's Midland Group company. Late in the season, the team was bought by Spyker. Honda, who already owned a 45% stake in the BAR team, completed their takeover of the team and changed its name to Honda Racing F1 Team at the start of the season. Super Aguri F1 also entered their first season after having problems entering. They received backing from Honda including technology and engines, due to them running Honda driver Takuma Sato.

• Williams introduced numerous changes for 2006, particularly changing to Cosworth V8 engines after they and BMW split. Red Bull Racing (RBR) had Ferrari engines, replacing the Cosworth power which gained them seventh in the standings in 2005. Williams and Toyota changed tyre suppliers to Bridgestone, due to Michelin's desire to supply fewer teams in the championship. Despite this Toro Rosso who under the Minardi name ran Bridgestone tyres switched to Michelin in line with parent team RBR.

• Ferrari replaced Michael Schumacher's longtime teammate Rubens Barrichello with fellow Brazilian Felipe Massa, who moved from Sauber. Massa had previously tested with Ferrari in 2003. Massa was replaced at the newly renamed BMW Sauber team by Nick Heidfeld, who had driven for BMW's previous partners Williams for much of 2005. Poland's Robert Kubica took up the third driver's role at BMW Sauber.
• Barrichello moved to Honda where he replaced the outgoing Takuma Sato. The Honda-backed Super Aguri team started the season with Sato and Yuji Ide, an all-Japanese driver line up. Franck Montagny moved from his Renault testing role to become Super Aguri's third driver. His position at Renault was taken by the GP2 runner-up Heikki Kovalainen.
• Williams promoted test driver Nico Rosberg, who had won the inaugural GP2 drivers' title, to their second seat alongside Mark Webber. Alexander Wurz, one of McLaren's test drivers from 2005, joined Williams as a third driver, alongside India's Narain Karthikeyan, who had raced for Jordan the previous season. Gary Paffett was promoted to a permanent testing role at McLaren alongside Pedro de la Rosa.
• Karthikeyan's seat at Jordan, now renamed as MF1, was taken by the 2005 Minardi driver Christijan Albers. MF1 decided to employ a rotation system for their third driver position. Minardi's other driver, Robert Doornbos, took up a test driving role at Red Bull. Vitantonio Liuzzi, who had shared Red Bull's second seat with Christian Klien in 2005, moved to Red Bull's newly acquired sister team Toro Rosso—previously Minardi—where he partnered his fellow Red Bull-backed driver Scott Speed. The Swiss driver Neel Jani became Toro Rosso's third driver.

Mid-season changes

• After the San Marino Grand Prix Super Aguri's Yuji Ide had his superlicence revoked by the FIA and could no longer race in Formula One. He was replaced by the team's reserve driver Franck Montagny for the next race. Super Aguri hired Sakon Yamamoto, one of Jordan's test drivers from 2005, to be their third driver from the British Grand Prix onwards, in place of the promoted Montagny. Yamamoto and Montagny switched places from the German Grand Prix onwards.
• After the United States Grand Prix Juan Pablo Montoya announced he was moving to NASCAR for the 2007 season and leaving McLaren. The next day McLaren announced that Montoya would be replaced in their driver line up by test driver Pedro de la Rosa, ending Montoya's five and a half-year F1 career since 2001.
• Robert Kubica was promoted to a race seat by BMW Sauber at the Hungarian Grand Prix, replacing 1997 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve, possibly due to Villeneuve's injuries after a heavy crash in the German Grand Prix.[7] On the day after the Hungarian GP (7 August 2006), BMW Sauber announced that Villeneuve had left the team with immediate effect, with Kubica replacing him permanently for the remainder of the season.[8] German Formula 3 driver Sebastian Vettel became BMW Sauber's third driver from the Turkish Grand Prix onwards, replacing the promoted Kubica.
• On 11 September 2006, Red Bull Racing announced that the team's third/test driver, Robert Doornbos would replace Christian Klien for the final three races of the season.[9] For the races in China and Japan, Michael Ammermüller replaced Doornbos as third driver.[10]
• Spyker MF1 announced a duo of new third drivers for two of the final races of the year. GP2 Series drivers Alexandre Prémat and Ernesto Viso took part in practice in China and Brazil respectively; Adrian Sutil, who had previously tested in Germany and France, again tested for the team in Japan.[11]
• During the test at the Silverstone Circuit in September, GP2 Series drivers Lewis Hamilton, Nelson Piquet Jr., and Adrián Vallés performed test duties for McLaren, Renault and MF1, respectively. Super Aguri's former race driver Franck Montagny also tested for Toyota.[12]

• In an attempt to curb the increasing engine power levels of recent years, the maximum engine displacement was reduced from 3.0 to 2.4 litres and the number of cylinders from 10 to 8. At similar engine speeds, the change was expected to cut peak power by around 200 bhp, which would equate to around three to five seconds on lap times at most circuits. (Scuderia Toro Rosso continued to use 3.0-litre 10-cylinder engines with both rev and air-intake limiters to avoid the costs of re-engineering their cars in a short period). Initial testing indicated the new engines were six seconds slower than their V10 counterparts, but early in the season, it became obvious that despite the decrease in power, lap times were not far from 2005 figures; on some circuits, the fastest laps set this year were actually faster than the ones recorded last year, with the V10 engines.
• Some engine suppliers indicated early that their smaller V8s can rev higher than the 19,000 rpms normal for 2005-spec V10s. Northampton-based engine builder Cosworth had an enviable record of success with V8 engines. It made further history by becoming the first manufacturer to have broken the 20,000 rpm limit on track in December 2005.[13]
• Tyre changes returned to Formula One in 2006. Each driver is limited to 14 sets of tyres per race weekend. This consists of seven sets of dry-weather tyres, four sets of wet-weather tyres and three sets of extreme-weather tyres. The thinking behind this is that the reduced engine size will offset any performance gain.[14] The number of constructors who were supplied tyres by Michelin was down from seven to six while Bridgestone increased from three to five. Michelin announced they would withdraw from the championship after the 2006 season.
• All Formula One cars and entrants began to utilise mandatory 7-speed + 1 reverse semi-automatic gearbox configuration from 2006 to 2013.

• A new qualifying system consisting of three sessions of varying length was introduced.[14] A 15-minute session was held first, in which the six slowest cars from that session were eliminated and thus set in grid positions 17–22. After a five-minute break, another 15-minute session was held with the remaining cars, and again the six slowest cars were eliminated and set in positions 11–16. These twelve eliminated drivers were placed in parc fermé, but allowed to modify fuel loads as they see fit.
• During a further five-minute break, the remaining 10 cars declared their fuel loads to the FIA. A final 20 minute session then decided the top 10 grid positions. Teams were allowed to run their fuel load low by making as many laps as possible, and thus improve their times as the weight falls. This was considered an improvement for TV audiences because teams needed to run as many laps as possible to lower their fuel loads. Following this session, the top ten cars were placed in parc ferme and required to refill their fuel load to the level of that at the beginning of the final 20 minutes. Starting with the 2006 French Grand Prix, qualifying for final session was cut short to just 15 minutes, making all of the sessions the same length, and the ability for drivers to complete a flying lap after the chequered flag drop now applied in the first two sessions as well.[15]
• A loophole was detected by the FIA, in that teams could declare a large fuel load but on the out lap "leak", or use a large quantity of fuel to lighten a car and permit a faster lap. The FIA decided to only count laps that are within 110% of the driver's fastest time, and allow teams to top up with the amount of fuel used for those laps.
• Only one free practice session was held on Saturdays, for one hour, and it ended no less than two hours before qualifying begins, usually between 11.00 and 12.00, replacing the old system of two 45-minute sessions. Friday remained unchanged, with two one-hour sessions, starting three hours apart.
• The tuned mass damper system was used by several teams, notably Renault, during the latter part of 2005 and the 2006 seasons. The devices were located in the nosecone, and were particularly effective in corners and over kerbs to keep the tyres in closer contact to the track surface than they would otherwise be.[16] After the French Grand Prix, the FIA announced that the system would be outlawed. This had a particularly significant effect on Renault, as the team had effectively built their cars around the devices, and had introduced them as long ago as the 2005 Brazilian Grand Prix.[17] At the German Grand Prix the Renault team submitted one of their cars for scrutineering by the race stewards, who ruled that the devices were acceptable. The FIA launched an appeal against this decision, and on 23 August 2006 the FIA International Court of Appeal issued a statement upholding this appeal and rejecting the stewards' decision. The Court of Appeal stated that the system infringed part of the bodywork section (Article 3.15) of the Formula One Technical Regulations, which stated that any specific part of the car influencing its aerodynamic performance had to: comply with the rules relating to bodywork, be rigidly secured to the entirely sprung part of the car (rigidly secured means not having any degree of freedom), and remain immobile in relation to the sprung part of the car.[18] The central argument was whether the mass dampers function as aerodynamic devices or as a part of the suspension system. The FIA reasoned that because the devices did not "remain immobile in relation to the sprung part of the car", they were illegal. But the FIA failed to explain how the damper, which was entirely enclosed with the car can be counted as bodywork when article 1.4 of the regulations defined bodywork as:

All entirely sprung parts of the car in contact with the external air stream, except cameras and the parts definitely associated with the mechanical functioning of the engine, transmission and running gear. Airboxes, radiators and engine exhausts are considered to be part of the bodywork.[19]

Following the ruling by the Court of Appeal, the system was officially banned before the 2006 Turkish Grand Prix. In a later interview, Renault's Flavio Briatore named McLaren as the team who complained to the FIA.[20]

Points were awarded to the top eight classified finishers using the following structure:[30]

In the event of a tie, a count-back system was used as a tie-breaker, with a driver's best result used to decide the standings.[N 1]

Pos. Driver BHR MAL AUS SMR EUR ESP MON GBR CAN USA FRA GER HUN TUR ITA CHN JPN BRA Points 1 Fernando Alonso 1 2 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 5 2 5 Ret 2 Ret 2 1 2 134 2 Michael Schumacher 2 6 Ret 1 1 2 5 2 2 1 1 1 8† 3 1 1 Ret 4 121 3 Felipe Massa 9 5 Ret 4 3 4 9 5 5 2 3 2 7 1 9 Ret 2 1 80 4 Giancarlo Fisichella Ret 1 5 8 6 3 6 4 4 3 6 6 Ret 6 4 3 3 6 72 5 Kimi Räikkönen 3 Ret 2 5 4 5 Ret 3 3 Ret 5 3 Ret Ret 2 Ret 5 5 65 6 Jenson Button 4 3 10† 7 Ret 6 11 Ret 9 Ret Ret 4 1 4 5 4 4 3 56 7 Rubens Barrichello 15 10 7 10 5 7 4 10 Ret 6 Ret Ret 4 8 6 6 12 7 30 8 Juan Pablo Montoya 5 4 Ret 3 Ret Ret 2 6 Ret Ret 26 9 Nick Heidfeld 12 Ret 4 13 10 8 7 7 7 Ret 8 Ret 3 14 8 7 8 17† 23 10 Ralf Schumacher 14 8 3 9 Ret Ret 8 Ret Ret Ret 4 9 6 7 15 Ret 7 Ret 20 11 Pedro de la Rosa 7 Ret 2 5 Ret 5 11 8 19 12 Jarno Trulli 16 9 Ret Ret 9 10 17† 11 6 4 Ret 7 12† 9 7 Ret 6 Ret 15 13 David Coulthard 10 Ret 8 Ret Ret 14 3 12 8 7 9 11 5 15† 12 9 Ret Ret 14 14 Mark Webber 6 Ret Ret 6 Ret 9 Ret Ret 12 Ret Ret Ret Ret 10 10 8 Ret Ret 7 15 Jacques Villeneuve Ret 7 6 12 8 12 14 8 Ret Ret 11 Ret 7 16 Robert Kubica DSQ 12 3 13 9 9 6 17 Nico Rosberg 7 Ret Ret 11 7 11 Ret 9 Ret 9 14 Ret Ret Ret Ret 11 10 Ret 4 18 Christian Klien 8 Ret Ret Ret Ret 13 Ret 14 11 Ret 12 8 Ret 11 11 2 19 Vitantonio Liuzzi 11 11 Ret 14 Ret 15† 10 13 13 8 13 10 Ret Ret 14 10 14 13 1 20 Scott Speed 13 Ret 9 15 11 Ret 13 Ret 10 Ret 10 12 11 13 13 14 18† 11 0 21 Tiago Monteiro 17 13 Ret 16 12 16 15 16 14 Ret Ret DSQ 9 Ret Ret Ret 16 15 0 22 Christijan Albers Ret 12 11 Ret 13 Ret 12 15 Ret Ret 15 DSQ 10 Ret 17 15 Ret 14 0 23 Takuma Sato 18 14 12 Ret Ret 17 Ret 17 15† Ret Ret Ret 13 NC 16 DSQ 15 10 0 24 Robert Doornbos 12 13 12 0 25 Yuji Ide Ret Ret 13 Ret 0 26 Sakon Yamamoto Ret Ret Ret Ret 16 17 16 0 27 Franck Montagny Ret Ret 16 18 Ret Ret 16 0 Pos. Driver BHR MAL AUS SMR EUR ESP MON GBR CAN USA FRA GER HUN TUR ITA CHN JPN BRA Points Source:[32]

Key Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Other points position Blue Other classified position Not classified, finished (NC) Purple Not classified, retired (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not practice (DNP) Excluded (EX) Did not arrive (DNA) Withdrawn (WD) Did not enter (cell empty) Text formatting Meaning Bold Pole position Italics Fastest lap

Notes:

• – Drivers did not finish the Grand Prix, but were classified as they completed more than 90% of the race distance.

Pos. Constructor No. BHR MAL AUS SMR EUR ESP MON GBR CAN USA FRA GER HUN TUR ITA CHN JPN BRA Points 1 Renault 1 1 2 1 2 2 1 1 1 1 5 2 5 Ret 2 Ret 2 1 2 206 2 Ret 1 5 8 6 3 6 4 4 3 6 6 Ret 6 4 3 3 6 2 Ferrari 5 2 6 Ret 1 1 2 5 2 2 1 1 1 8† 3 1 1 Ret 4 201 6 9 5 Ret 4 3 4 9 5 5 2 3 2 7 1 9 Ret 2 1 3 McLaren-Mercedes 3 3 Ret 2 5 4 5 Ret 3 3 Ret 5 3 Ret Ret 2 Ret 5 5 110 4 5 4 Ret 3 Ret Ret 2 6 Ret Ret 7 Ret 2 5 Ret 5 11 8 4 Honda 11 15 10 7 10 5 7 4 10 Ret 6 Ret Ret 4 8 6 6 12 7 86 12 4 3 10† 7 Ret 6 11 Ret 9 Ret Ret 4 1 4 5 4 4 3 5 BMW Sauber 16 12 Ret 4 13 10 8 7 7 7 Ret 8 Ret 3 14 8 7 8 17† 36 17 Ret 7 6 12 8 12 14 8 Ret Ret 11 Ret DSQ 12 3 13 9 9 6 Toyota 7 14 8 3 9 Ret Ret 8 Ret Ret Ret 4 9 6 7 15 Ret 7 Ret 35 8 16 9 Ret Ret 9 10 17† 11 6 4 Ret 7 12† 9 7 Ret 6 Ret 7 Red Bull-Ferrari 14 10 Ret 8 Ret Ret 14 3 12 8 7 9 11 5 15† 12 9 Ret Ret 16 15 8 Ret Ret Ret Ret 13 Ret 14 11 Ret 12 8 Ret 11 11 12 13 12 8 Williams-Cosworth 9 6 Ret Ret 6 Ret 9 Ret Ret 12 Ret Ret Ret Ret 10 10 8 Ret Ret 11 10 7 Ret Ret 11 7 11 Ret 9 Ret 9 14 Ret Ret Ret Ret 11 10 Ret 9 Toro Rosso-Cosworth 20 11 11 Ret 14 Ret 15† 10 13 13 8 13 10 Ret Ret 14 10 14 13 1 21 13 Ret 9 15 11 Ret 13 Ret 10 Ret 10 12 11 13 13 14 18† 11 10 Midland-Toyota 18 17 13 Ret 16 12 16 15 16 14 Ret Ret DSQ 9 Ret Ret Ret 16 15 0 19 Ret 12 11 Ret 13 Ret 12 15 Ret Ret 15 DSQ 10 Ret 17 15 Ret 14 11 Super Aguri-Honda 22 18 14 12 Ret Ret 17 Ret 17 15† Ret Ret Ret 13 NC 16 DSQ 15 10 0 23 Ret Ret 13 Ret Ret Ret 16 18 Ret Ret 16 Ret Ret Ret Ret 16 17 16 Pos. Constructor No. BHR MAL AUS SMR EUR ESP MON GBR CAN USA FRA GER HUN TUR ITA CHN JPN BRA Points Source:[32]

Key Colour Result Gold Winner Silver 2nd place Bronze 3rd place Green Other points position Blue Other classified position Not classified, finished (NC) Purple Not classified, retired (Ret) Red Did not qualify (DNQ) Did not pre-qualify (DNPQ) Black Disqualified (DSQ) White Did not start (DNS) Race cancelled (C) Blank Did not practice (DNP) Excluded (EX) Did not arrive (DNA) Withdrawn (WD) Did not enter (cell empty) Text formatting Meaning Bold Pole position Italics Fastest lap

Notes:

• – Drivers did not finish the Grand Prix, but were classified as they completed more than 90% of the race distance.
• Official FIA results listed the constructors as Mild Seven Renault F1 Team, Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro, Team McLaren Mercedes, etc.[1]