Preview - Bahrain Grand Prix 2006.

After months of discussion over who is best prepared for the 2006 Formula One season, the talking finally stops this weekend as the eleven teams and 22 drivers arrive in Bahrain for the opening round of the year.

Much has changed since Fernando Alonso stood on top of the podium in China back in October and that combines to make the opening race of the new season one of the most eagerly anticipated of recent years.

No-one is totally sure what to expect as the Middle East venue plays host to the season opener for the first time - the Australian Grand Prix having been switched to avoid a clash with the impending Commonwealth Games - but come Sunday afternoon things may be a little clearer on how the 2006 season will unfold...

PRE-SEASON CHANGES:

The F1 off-season is renowned for being hectic, with the run-up to 2006 proving to be no exception.

Teams:

Perhaps the biggest pre-season change from a team point of view is the addition of Super Aguri F1 to the grid - taking Formula One back up to eleven teams. The buyout by Honda sees BAR take the name of the Japanese car giant for the new season, while BMW elect to keep the Sauber name in F1 having taken over the Swiss team. Jordan and Minardi are no more as Midland and Scuderia Toro Rosso take their place on the grid.

Williams switch from BMW power to Cosworth for 2006 while Ferrari engines will now sit in the back of the Red Bull Racing challenger. The new Super Aguri team go with Honda engines for its debut season.

Bridgestone secure Toyota, Williams and Super Aguri for the new season to add to the Ferrari and Midland who were supplied during 2005.

The key personnel change of the winter sees Adrian Newey leave McLaren for Red Bull Racing.

Regulation changes mean most of the teams on the grid will use V8 engines for the new season, the exception being Toro Rosso who start life in F1 using a restricted Cosworth V10.

Drivers:

Only four teams - Renault, McLaren, Toyota and Red Bull - are unchanged from the 2005 season with the major changes coming at Ferrari (Massa in for Barrichello), Honda (Barrichello in for Sato) and Williams (Rosberg in for Heidfeld). BMW Sauber provides a new home for Heidfeld for the coming season while Christijan Albers keeps a place on the F1 grid at Midland. Toro Rosso elect to field Vitantonio Liuzzi and Scott Speed while Sato winds up at Super Aguri having left Honda.

Three drivers - Nico Rosberg, Scott Speed and Yuji Ide - will be making their F1 debuts in Bahrain, while the driver merry go-round for 2007 has already kicked off with the early announcement that Fernando Alonso will leave Renault for McLaren at the end of the season.

Circuits:

Formula One drops down to 18 races for the 2006 season following the cancellation of the Belgian Grand Prix. Despite doubts over the future of Hockenheim - the German GP keeps its place on the calendar.

Qualifying:

Another season, another qualifying format for F1 - with a new knock-out system for 2006. All 22 drivers head out and can run as many laps as they want in the first 15-minute session, with the slowest six cars eliminated at the end of the session to fill the bottom six places on the starting grid.

All times are then erased, and a second 15-minute session knocks out the next group of the six slowest cars that fill eleventh through 17th on the grid.

Again the times are erased, and then the final ten drivers go into a 20-minute session to decide the top ten places on the grid. Just to add to the mix, the final ten runners have to qualify using the amount of fuel they want to start the race with.

NEWS FROM THE TEAMS:

Renault - Fernando Alonso (#1), Giancarlo Fisichella (#2):

The season hasn't even kicked-off yet, but Renault introduce a new aerodynamic package onto the R26 for the opening race of the season in Bahrain in an effort to start the season on top.

"We are constantly honing all areas of the aerodynamics," chassis technical director Bob Bell said. "This package includes a new floor, modifications to the front win and nose, modified suspension components and the addition of two small chassis winglets. Altogether, that represents several tenths in lap-time."

Several tenths in lap-time will sound ominous to the rest of the field as Renault has been one of the teams to beat in pre-season testing and it means Fernando Alonso and Giancarlo Fisichella both head to Bahrain in confident mood.

"The team has done a good job with the car, the R26 seems very competitive, and we are ready to go to the first race to try and score a lot of points," Alonso said. "Now is the time to measure ourselves against the others in the first race. We have done the maximum possible, so I am relaxed going into the season. For sure, Renault are the ones to beat because we are the world champions, and I am confident we have done a good job."

"The team has done a great job with the V8 engine, and it has good power and driveability," Fisichella added. "On the chassis side, we have made a big step, and with the Michelin tyres as well. You can see that because we are back to almost the same lap-times as we were doing with last year's car.

"Last year's car was very comfortable for the drivers, and so is the R26. In fact, I am even happier in this car. The rear is more stable under braking and in the middle of the corner. We have made a step forward on the traction too. That all means I can drive the car how I want to, and gives me even more confidence."

McLaren - Kimi Raikkonen (#3), Juan Pablo Montoya (#4):

Raikkonen and Montoya are set for a hugely important season following the news prior to Christmas that one of the pair will leave McLaren at the end of the year when Fernando Alonso arrives. With that in mind, both drivers will be keen to start the season on a high - with the reliability problems that have dogged the team over the winter hopefully a thing of the past.

"The start with the new MP4-21 at Barcelona on 23 January was not trouble free and in the beginning we were not where we wanted," Norbert Haug admitted. "However, in the following five and a half weeks or about 40 days until the final test at Valencia on 1 March, our team showed what it's capable of, be it chassis or engine wise.

"During 28 test days, Kimi, Juan Pablo and Pedro [de la Rosa] covered a total of 8692 kilometres which is on average one Grand Prix distance per day and therefore equates to a total of 28 Grand Prix distances in preparation for the first races."

Montoya believes that the start of the season, with changes to qualifying and to engines, will be exciting while Raikkonen is keen to try and avoid the slow start that blighted his title challenge twelve months ago.

"I want to carry on from our performance last year and be challenging for race wins, however we will only see where we are in Bahrain after qualifying," he said. "It is also going to be interesting this weekend to go back to tyre changes in the pit stops, we had to adapt driving styles slightly for last year as we didn't have tyre changes, so it may mean people are more aggressive as it is not so important to look after your tyres.

"Bahrain is a good track, it always seems to have exciting races and I hope there will be another one this year to start the 2006 season."

Ferrari - Michael Schumacher (#5), Felipe Massa (#6):

Third place in the standings for most teams would be viewed as a good result, but Ferrari aren't a regular team and the performances during 2005 will have hurt all involved with the Scuderia as both titles were lost without a series challenge. The new 248 F1 hasn't been without its problems during pre-season but Schumacher is under no illusions of what he aims to achieve during the coming year.

"I am certain that our 248 F1 has the potential to challenge for the title," he says "Though we have not managed to run as many laps as we would have wanted to, owing to the weather, we will go into the season with high hopes. Even if we do not win in the opening few races, we have, because of the work we have carried out, concrete ideas of the technical levels our car has to reach this season. This is very important.

"The ideal scenario would be to score some early points. In any case, we will be very motivated for Bahrain and Malaysia."

For team-mate Massa, the aim will be to star early to show that he is with Ferrari for the long-term, and isn't just keeping the seat warm for a bigger name to come along...

Toyota - Ralf Schumacher (#7), Jarno Trulli (#8):

The new Toyota TF106 has proved to be a reliable package during the off-season and that could prove to be crucial according to technical director Mike Gascoyne - who feels that a reliable car could be the key to success in the opening rounds of the year.

Schumacher and Trulli provide the team with one of the few stable driver pairings compared to twelve months ago and both are ready for the challenge of a new season.

"The tests have gone well and both the car and the new V8 engine have run reliably so we should be confident heading to Sakhir, which is a great modern facility," Schumacher admitted. "Bahrain will be hot but at this time of year it should not be exceptional. Either way, all the teams have so much experience that the heat shouldn't make any difference from a technical point of view. So let's hope it's nice and warm. After a winter in Europe, that would be very welcome..."

"Everyone at Toyota has worked all winter to be as prepared as possible for this first grand prix of the year," Trulli added. "I'm confident that the TF106 can deliver strong results, but as ever we will only find out when we get on track with everyone this weekend."

Williams F1 - Mark Webber (#9), Nico Rosberg (#10):

Webber and Rosberg lead the WilliamsF1 team into a new era this weekend when the season kicks off and could emerge as a surprise package if some in the paddock are to be believed. The loss of engine supplier BMW at the end of 2005 means the team will enter the new year without any manufacturer backing and with Cosworth V8 power in the new FW28.

"The first race is one of the most exciting for everyone, mainly because we all want to know how competitive everyone is," technical director Sam Michael said. "This year, in particular, has been even harder to predict due to the change to V8 engines. From our perspective, the FW28 has been competitive in testing and is well prepared for racing.

"The Bahrain circuit has long straights and slow speed corners and this drives the importance of a good aerodynamic efficiency to a higher level, even more so in 2006 with the V8 engine. While Bahrain is still a high downforce circuit, minimising drag is important and we should see around 315kph on the pit straight. Both times we have raced in Bahrain there was plenty of overtaking, so it is clearly a track that presents plenty of opportunities for exciting racing."

"Cosworth has made significant progress with the development of the new CA2006 V8 engine since the initial dyno tests," Head of F1 race engineering at Cosworth Simon Corbyn added. "Ambitious performance and reliability targets have been set throughout the V8 programme and everyone at Cosworth has been working flat out to achieve these goals. We have worked closely with Williams and have established a great relationship with the team during the demanding winter test programme. Bahrain will be the first opportunity to really see how Cosworth and Williams stand relative to the competition with the new generation V8s."

Honda Racing F1 - Rubens Barrichello (#11), Jenson Button (#12):

Honda start the season as the team expected to take the fight to champions Renault after a strong pre-season with the new RA106.

This season could see Button have the best chance yet to secure a maiden victory and the Briton starts the season in confident mood.

"The RA106 was strong and reliable from the start which has enabled us to complete plenty of mileage and given me the confidence to push the development from an early stage. I tried to complete as much testing as possible over the winter, which is reflected by the amount of kilometres I have driven. I have also been training hard and feel mentally and physically stronger than ever before.

"I think that we have a really competitive package, and although this is the first time we will really see where we are compared to the other teams, I hope to be challenging for wins. I can't wait for the racing to begin this weekend."

Barrichello switches from Ferrari for the new season and could well be a dark horse to fight for the title as he is freed from the role of playing rear-gunner to Michael Schumacher - with the Brazilian stating that a recent test in Bahrain could aid Honda in the opening race of the year.

"For me, our most important test was in Bahrain last month where we could work on the set-up of the car in the hot weather we will face this weekend and also complete a lot of laps, which really helped my physical conditioning," he said. "I feel very much at home with the team now and I can't wait for the first race of the new season, where I believe we will be very competitive."

Red Bull Racing - David Coulthard (#14), Christian Klien (#15):

Red Bull start the season eager to build on an impressive debut season but the winter has proved to be problematic for the team - with an over-heating issue dogging much of the early running. Coulthard and Klien remain and with Ferrari power the pair will be keen to fight for points finishes, something which will be expected more as the season progresses and design expert Adrian Newey starts to exert more influence over the development of the RB2.

Sister squad Toro Rosso tested in Bahrain prior to the start of the season, something which may prove helpful to the full Red Bull squad once the drivers take to the track this weekend.

BMW Sauber - Nick Heidfeld (#16), Jacques Villeneuve (#17):

While the Sauber name lives on into the new season, the Swiss based team is now very much BMW after the car manufacturer bought out Peter Sauber during the off-season.

Jacques Villeneuve remains while Nick Heidfeld continues his relationship with BMW into a second year but the team is keen to keep its feet on the ground as it makes the step up from engine supplier to a fully fledged F1 entry.

"After an intensive winter testing programme our drivers have given the car the thumbs up," BMW boss Mario Theissen said. "The engineers are also convinced that a major leap has been made compared to the previous year. We can say that things are looking good at this stage of development.

"What our achievements so far will look like on the race track we don't yet know. We aren't expecting any miracles to happen - we just want to make the most of our possibilities and advance step by step."

MF1 Racing - Tiago Monteiro (#18), Christijan Albers (#19):

The 2005 season was very much a baptism of fire for Midland in Formula One, but for 2006 the team is rebranded as MF1 Racing and Jordan are no more. Early indications are that the M16 will be a significant improvement on the car it replaces and both Monteiro and Albers will hope to start the season with a solid result.

Monteiro in particular will be looking to continue with the run he produced during his debut season when he only failed to finish one race while Albers secured a second season in F1 on the back of his debut season with Minardi and will be keen to show that he has what it takes to remain in the sport.

While a challenge for points on pace alone isn't likely, both drivers could benefit from the misfotune of others to secure an unlikely result if the reliabilty Monteiro enjoyed last season can be repeated.

Scuderia Toro Rosso - Vitantonio Liuzzi (#20), Scott Speed (#21):

With Minardi now consigned to the record books, Scuderia Toro Rosso debut in Bahrain and could well make as many headlines for their performance over the course of the weekend as the bigger teams at the front of the grid.

That is down in no small part to the fact that Toro Rosso are the only team on the grid to be using a V10 engine in 2006, albeit with restrictions in place - someting which hasn't gone down well with other members of the grid who feel the team are in a different league to Minardi - who the rule was put in place to help prior to Paul Stoddart selling out to Red Bull.

Liuzzi finally gets his chance to showcase his talents in F1 after Christian Klien recieved the lions share of the seat time in the second Red Bull car last season, while Scott Speed makes the step up from the GP2 series to become the first American since Michael Andretti to race in Formula One.

Despite the fact that the duo have just four GP starts between them, STR could spring a surprise in Bahrain if the Cosworth V10 isn't restricted enough...

Super Aguri F1 - Takuma Sato (#22), Yuji Ide (#23):

Has a team ever come into an F1 season with as little preparation as the new Super Aguri F1 outfit? A couple of months ago the team was nothing more than a dream, but with the help of Honda, some old Arrows chassis and a lot of hard work on the part of Aguri Suzuki and his team, Takuma Sato and Yuji Ide will be on the grid for the opening race of the year.

With testing so far having been virtually non-existant compared to its rivals, Super Aguri are on a hiding to nothing in Bahrain as no-one expects too much from the team at such an early stage and the pressure is firmly off.

"The first race of the 2006 F1 season is a milestone for Super Aguri Formula One," team principal Suzuki said. "It is an amazing achievement that we have put together an F1 team in only four months and I am very proud of everyone involved. We know that we have a challenging year ahead, but we are determined and have great team spirit which we hope you will see this weekend."

TYRES:

The 2006 season will be the final year of the Bridgestone versus Michelin battle with the French company calling it a day at the end of the season.

However the company aims to go out on a high, starting this weekend in the heat of the Middle East.

"We evaluated a significant number of casings and compounds during our intensive winter test programme and learned a lot about the effect on tyres of the sport's latest rule changes," F1 director Nick Shorrock said. "We have established that the new V8 engines require a different driving technique, which impacts on tyre performance, but have addressed this and the results have been very productive.

"This weekend marks the dawn of a new F1 era. It's a step into the unknown for everybody, but Michelin has prepared with its traditional attention to detail. We expect fierce competition but, as history shows, we thrive on such challenges."

Meanwhile Bridgestone has overcome the problem it had last season of only having one leading team on board by securing Toyota and Williams to its stable for 2006 - something with the Japanese supplier hopes will lead to a return to the top step of the podium in a regular basis in the coming season.

"Bridgestone's technical and support staff have been working extremely hard over the winter with our five teams to meet the new challenges that lie ahead and I know they have enjoyed working with the teams and an increased number of drivers," director of motorsport Hiroshi Yasukawa.

"Looking specifically at the Bahrain race all our teams have benefited from Ferrari running at the track during the winter, giving us more realistic feedback on our development," motorsport technical manager Hisao Suganuma added. "The Sakhir circuit is a medium downforce track with long straights, several tight corners and a relatively smooth surface. It is a demanding circuit and the drivers will need to be careful how they use their tyres in the new qualifying format.

"In addition, the Bahrain GP has moved to the front of the calendar which means that although we may have slightly cooler temperatures than in previous years, we could still face track temperatures of around 40 degrees Celcius. It is going to be a challenging race but we are confident our teams will be competitive."

THE TRACK:

Race Distance: 57 laps - Circuit Length 3.381 miles (5.417kms)

Located in Sakhir in the south of Bahrain, the US$150 million Bahrain International Circuit opened in 2004 and hosted its first FIA Formula One Grand Prix in April of the same year. The development of the circuit was underwritten by the Bahrain Government and was firmly supported by the Crown Prince of Bahrain, Shaikh Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, a lifelong motorsport enthusiast.

The circuit and its facilities are extremely impressive. The track actually consists of five separate circuits, including a 2.5km oval and a 1.2km drag strip. The 5.417km clockwise Formula One circuit features a 1km pit straight, twelve turns including several low-speed corners which increases the technical emphasis on aerodynamic efficiency and traction, and a relief that ranges between zero and 18 metres to create an undulating track. The hot weather poses a challenge for both car and driver and although the humidity is generally lower than in the Far East, track temperatures will be high.

THE WINNER?

Pre-season testing suggests that the winner is likely to come from one of two teams, Renault and Honda, both of whom have impressed during the off-season. While McLaren have been quick, the Mercedes engine has been fragile meaning the heat of Bahrain could work against Raikkonen and Montoya while Ferrari have also had problems with the new 248 F1. Alonso probably starts as the favourite with the new R26, but Bahrain could well see Honda secure that elusive maiden victory.

LAST SEASON:

Fernando Alonso leads from start to finish for a second straight win, having already claimed victory in the second race of the season in Malaysia. Jarno Trulli and Kimi Raikkonen complete the podium while Pedro de la Rosa stars for McLaren as he stands in for the injured Juan Pablo Montoya. Ferrari give the F2005 its debut, but Michael Schumacher fails to finish and Rubens Barrichello isn't able to score points.

1. Fernando Alonso Spain Renault-Renault 57 laps
2. Jarno Trulli Italy Toyota-Toyota +13.4secs
3. Kimi Raikkonen Finland McLaren-Mercedes +32.0secs
4. Ralf Schumacher Germany Toyota-Toyota +53.2secs
5. Pedro de la Rosa Spain McLaren-Mercedes +1min 04.9secs
6. Mark Webber Australia Williams-BMW +1min 14.7secs
7. Felipe Massa Brazil Sauber-Petronas +1 lap
8. David Coulthard Britain Red Bull-Cosworth +1 lap