2006 Spanish GP Technical Review

Despite being the sixth round of the season, the Spanish Grand Prix was really the first chance to test the cars' all-round performance, as the Circuit de Catalunya, with its classic layout, is the most visited test venue for the Formula One teams.

Every part of the car needs to deliver in order to run a good lap of the track. It has long corners, long straight, slower sequences, and an abrasive surface to test tyres. With this kind of layout, teams with good pace at Barcelona should also go well at most circuits, but especially at places like Suzuka and Silverstone.

Added to this, the weather for the race is normally hot, which also tests the car's cooling and again its tyres. However, despite the huge amount of mileage the teams do at this track, the majority of testing is done over the winter and the temperatures are much lower, so it's not unusual for runs in the morning to be delayed due to frost or fog.

Moreover, the Barcelona track is very dependant on wind direction. This particularly affects the long straight and fast corners, with head winds increasing downforce/drag, slowing the cars on the straight, while tail winds rob the cars of downforce, affecting them in the fast corners.

Still, a lot of the testing remains valid year-round, and this showed with the lack of running in Friday's morning session, where most teams only completed an installation run and left the longer runs to the teams with a third car.

As the Spanish GP come so closely after two similar European races, few teams arrived with new technical developments. Instead, teams are focusing on developments for the specialist tracks coming up, such as the high-downforce Monaco and the high-speed North American races, as well as major upgrades for the Grands Prix at Silverstone and Magny Cours.

Helmet developments

Driver comfort is an issue that the teams take seriously, and two developments in that area have been noted in recent races.

The HANS (head and neck support) device is used to protect the drivers in an accident. The device sits between the shoulders and seat belts, and straps pass forward to restrain the helmet in frontal impacts, reducing the risk of neck and brain injuries.

Many companies manufacture their own design of the HANS device under license and are able to vary the design to suit the driver. Most HANS devices, however, are only just tall enough to mount the straps to the helmet.

Ferrari's seven-time Michael Schumacher has a unique, taller design that also forms a headrest. Schumacher has used extra padded head rests for many years, but this new HANS collar now replaces some of the padding added to the mandatory cockpit padding and mounts it to an extension of the HANS device.

At high speed, the open cockpit of a F1 car is a turbulent place. Although the detail of the top of the chassis and the windshield are designed in such a way to reduce buffeting, the driver's head still gets bumped around a lot.

A bubble of tumbling air is trapped within the open cockpit and the flow that passes over the helmet is trying to push the head back and upwards. The general shape of the helmet is designed to reduce this, but most drivers have additional spoilers added to the helmet to reverse the lifting effects. This eases the load on the drivers' neck.

Mark Webber had a small lip added to the chin bar of his helmet to reduce buffeting © Scarborough (Click image to enlarge)

Most helmet manufacturers provide spoiler for the rear of the helmet to prevent lift, and some also provide lips for the front of the helmet to stop the head tipping backwards. Mark Webber used a lip on the chin bar of his Schuberth helmet for the firs time, to improve his comfort on the long straight at Barcelona.

Engines

Eleven drivers received new engines for the Spanish Race; ten of these were normal replacements after their previous engines lasted two races.

However, a new BMW engine was provided for Jacques Villeneuve, and although it was reported by BMW the engine was damaged in transit, this has since been clarified and the engine was not "dropped" as perhaps most people understood the problem to be. Either way, the new spec BMW engine now provides up to 19,500 rpm for qualifying.

Of the new engines supplied, a lot were of new specifications; Cosworth supplied a Series 4 engine with revised con rods after the problems at the Nurburgring. Honda also had new spec engines for both drivers, again with revisions to prevent the last-lap failure that afflicted Jenson Button in Germany.

McLaren also had new spec Mercedes engines with a better spread in its power delivery as well as more revs; this spec was provided to Juan Pablo Montoya, whose engine failed in Germany. This failure was due to the team running the engine in its second race above its usual rev limit to try to make up points. Had the team not run this risk, the engine was not expected to have failed.

Reliability

Overall, the Spanish weekend was remarkably reliable for all teams. In the opening day only an errant wing mirror on Montoya's McLaren was reported. Jacques Villeneuve's engine was changed again prior to the race; this provided him with a fresher engine for the following GP at Monaco, for no extra loss of grid position.

In qualifying, David Coulthard's accident was in fact caused by a water leak, the resulting damaged required just about everything rear of the fuel tank to be replaced under FIA supervision in Parc ferme. As the car was still under parc ferme rules, no changes to the car's spec could be made, and parts could only be replaced with identical parts.

The team had to take care to replicate the same configuration that the car had qualified in; as such, the FIA reported items such as cooling outlets and anti roll bars were of the same design as previously.

In the race, there was a sole engine failure for Scott Speed - a first for the restricted Cosworth V10 engine.

A rare wing failure forced Christijan Albers to make several pitstops to replace the nose assembly and repair the bodywork the wing damaged as it fell off.

Problems with electronics forced Ralf Schumacher to retire, and a drive shaft failed on Franck Montagny's Super Aguri. Lastly, Hydraulics afflicted Tonio Liuzzi on the last lap, but he was still classified.

Ferrari developments © Scarborough (Click image to enlarge)

Ferrari

As the team who have brought the most brake duct developments since 2000, Ferrari introduced yet another design to Barcelona with a small fin (yellow) added to the inlet scoop.

As with the large aerofoil mounted to the top of the duct, the new fin has also less to do with brake performance and more to do with aerodynamics - the team shave 120mm from the inside face of the wheel rim to use for "bodywork".

Ferrari also have a unique mounting arrangement for the forward pair of bargeboards. As these are higher this year, they have a single horizontal (yellow) spar joining them - no doubt the detail of this spar provides some beneficial effect to the flow over the shadow plate/splitter that sits just behind it.

Not reported in the European analysis were new bargeboard and flip ups on the Ferrari. These were raced again in Spain; the saw teeth on the footplate of the main bargeboard now have small curled vortex generators, which are used to manage the flow under the floor.

Both the saw teeth and the curls work to optimise the pressure distribution across the flow feeding the diffuser, while the flip-ups now have a broader slot gap, which curves around to the vertical side of the flip-up.