Engine
There were some major changes to Formula 1 rules and regulations in 2006. Increasing speeds of cars in 2005 was seen as potentially dangerous and with an eye on curbing this trend, the maximum engine displacement was reduced from 3 to 2.4 litres and the number of cylinders from 10 to 8. V8 engines were made the norm and many teams had to go about changing their specs.

Although the engine specifications were altered to cut peak power by almost 200bhp, the lap times were not reduced. The change was expected to cut down on lap times by up to 5 seconds, but this was not evident. This could have been because of the fact that many constructors did not exactly change engine specs to suit the V8 regulation and simply added rev limiters to V10 engines. Scuderia Toro Rosso was one such team. The change was effectively non-existent since some of the fastest lap times were set with under the new regulations at various circuits.

Engine manufacturers also played their part in ensuring that not much changed by adapting to V8 regulations and still managing over 19,000rpm. The most notable of these manufacturers was Cosworth who claimed to have broken the 20,000rpm limit!

Tyres
For long, the FIA had been trying to limit the use of tyres and in 2006, they brought about a regulation. Each driver was limited to 14 sets of tyres per race weekend. This consisted of seven sets of dry-weather tyres, four sets of wet-weather tyres and three sets of extreme-weather tyres.

Qualifying
Yet more tinkering with the qualifying format was seen in 2006 with a new system of varying sessions. The new rules mandated that there would be three sessions of 15-minutes each during which, the first two sessions would fix grid positions 11 to 22. For these qualifiers, the fuel load may vary as they see fit but the cars would be placed in parc ferme.

For the remaining 10 cars, declaration of fuel loads was made mandatory and the teams could lap as many times as possible to reduce the weight (by burning fuel) and registering the best times.

The top 10 cars were then 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 applies in first two sessions as well.

FIA, however, noticed a loophole whereby teams could declare a large fuel load but later, “leak” it and permit faster laps. This loophole was shut when the FIA announced that only laps that are within 110 per cent of the driver's fastest time would count and allowed teams to top up with the amount of fuel used for those laps.

Practice
Practice sessions were made more stringent in 2006 with just one free practice session on Saturdays for one hour. This session had to end no less than two hours before qualifying began and would usually take place between 11 am and 12 noon replacing the old system of two 45-minute sessions. Friday sessions, though, remains unchanged with two one-hour sessions starting three hours apart.

Mass Dampers
A lot of the major teams, including Renault, were using Mass Dampers in the second half of 2005 and early 2006. These devices were located in the nosecone and were effective around corners and close kerbs in keeping tyres closer to the ground than they naturally would have been. At the end of the French GP in 2006, the FIA announced that this system would be illegal. Renault was affected the most by this announcement since they had built their cars around this and were using it since the 2005 Brazilian GP.

The whole issue surrounding this got uglier when Renault was cleared by race stewards at the German GP. But the FIA appealed against this and the stewards’ decision was rejected on the grounds that the Technical regulations specifically stated the following:

Any specific part of the car influencing its aerodynamic performance:

• Must comply with the rules relating to bodywork.
• Must be rigidly secured to the entirely sprung part of the car (rigidly secured means not having any degree of freedom).
• Must remain immobile in relation to the sprung part of the car.

Cost reduction
FIA has said that it is aware of the costs of running a Formula 1 team and wants to reduce the costs. To this effect, they want to introduce greater limitations on testing and want to introduce standardised electronics, tyres and brakes. These rules which would come into effect from 2008 attracted 22 applications for the season from aspiring teams but 10 had to be rejected since only 12 teams can race at a time.