Analysis: Full Speed Ahead for New-Look Cars

All the talk about Formula One cars being slowed down by rule changes this season is beginning to sound like just so much hot air.

Already McLaren's Kimi Raikkonen has broken the Valencia circuit record, albeit on a whiff of fuel. Ferrari's seven times world champion Michael Schumacher did the same at Barcelona last month.

Engineering head Pat Symonds says Renault will start the season with more power than they had at the end of 2004, even though their engine has to last for two races rather than one.

In 2006, the regulations will force teams to replace their three litre V10s for 2.4 litre V8s. Even that may not reduce speeds much.

"I think the cars will be just as fast this year and it wouldn't surprise me if they're not damn near as fast in 2006," agreed International Automobile Federation (FIA) president Max Mosley.

"But it's where they would have been (without the changes) that is important.

"What we're doing is not looking at today, we're looking at where it (the speed of cars) is going. The most we can hope to do is contain it."

The FIA forced through rule changes to slow cars down for safety's sake, as well as to cut costs, after they decided that lap times indicated cornering speeds in particular were moving into the danger zone.

Too Dangerous

"The faster the cars go, the greater the probability that someone will be hurt or killed," Mosley said last year. "We now feel that probability is too high."

There are some who feel the changes are unneccessary and certainly few racing drivers ever want to go slower.

Aerodynamic regulations were changed to reduce downforce, which presses Formula One cars to the track and enhances grip, by some 25 percent while engines now have to last longer and drivers must use the same tyres for qualifying and the race.

The aim was to reduce cornering speeds. However, hopes that average lap times would be two seconds slower already seem wide of the mark.

"I think Formula One is not going to be a lot slower than we used to see it," said Toyota's Ralf Schumacher before rival teams got their new cars out and showed the German was right. "I think Honda have done a really good job so far with this year's engine," commented BAR test driver Anthony Davidson, whose team finished runner's-up in 2004.

"I thought it was going to be more of a deficit from last year to this year in power terms but it doesn't seem to be at all," added the Briton.

"I think the best they can hope for in rule changes ever is only plateau-ing. They can slow you down initially but I think they will always get back to where they were."

Such was the cornering speed last year that some drivers were in evident distress during races after they tired and G-forces kicked in.

"Brazil was the ultimate showcase for that with drivers' necks hanging off the side of the tub and that's not nice," said Davidson.

"It looks like they're just resting their head but they're not, that's pain."