JANUARY 17, 2006

The new BMW F1.06

BMW is to unveil its new F1.06 this morning.

The BMW Sauber F1 Team has unveiled the BMW Sauber F1.06 in Valencia, Spain. The new car is due to run this afternoon. The team also confirmed its sponsorship package with Petronas, Intel, Credit Suisse and O2. But Dr Mario Theissen, the boss of the new team, warned against anyone having too high an expectation for the team.

"We are not under any illusions: we have a long road ahead of us," he said. "2006 is a year of transition, and so would be premature to declare any sporting objectives. The main thing is that everything is pointing in the right direction."

The new car features the BMW P86 V8 engine which is a completely new engine and BMW expects that this will result in new problems for engineers with vibrations in the 16,000rpm rev range rather than the 12-14,000rpm rev range of the V10s.

The new chassis, designated F1.06 as we suggested would be the case a few days ago, is all new with the focus as always in F1 being on aerodynamics.

The front section of the new car came in for some striking treatment. The chassis has been significantly lowered at the front, which means the lower wishbones are no longer attached below the monocoque but directly to the side of the chassis. The nose of the car has also been lowered further to the ground and features an underside that curves slightly upwards. The front wing has been adjusted to the other changes through numerous optimisation measures. The aim of all these measures has been to improve the air flow to the underbody and the sidepods. The reduced cooling requirement of the V8 engine allows not only for more compact radiators but for smaller apertures in the sidepods as well, which also benefits the car?s aerodynamics. The same goes for the rollover bar with its integral air intake, which has been reduced in size as a result of the engine?s lower air throughput. Complex finite-element calculations have enabled a significant reduction in the weight of the rollover bar while at the same time complying with stringent safety requirements.