22/11/2005
NEWS STORY
In 2006, Squadra Toro Rosso will be allowed to compete with (restricted) V10 engines, following an agreement reached with the other nine teams when Minardi was still under the ownership of Paul Stoddart.
Although the 'Italian' team's V10 Cosworths will be restricted, there are genuine fears along the F1 pitlane that some of the more glamorous teams could be overshadowed by the Austrian-owned Faenza outfit.
The teams originally agreed to Minardi being allowed to stick with V10 power-plants because the Italian outfit could not afford to upgrade to the costlier V8. However, in light of the recent buy out by Red Bull, there is a feeling that perhaps the situation should be looked at again - indeed, there are whispers that some teams would prefer to stick with V10s for at least one more season.
Talking to his team's website, Yasuhiro Wada, President of Honda Racing Development, has admitted that his team would prefer to stick with the V10 option.
"It's fair to say that we'd prefer to be racing with a V10," he admitted, "as they were special for Formula One, so in some ways it's a bit sad to be switching to a V8.
"Currently it's technically true that a V10 running with the proposed restrictor will be more powerful than one of the new V8s," he added. "However, we don't want to be forced back to a V10 as the principal of the new regulations is for a V8 formula. Every engine manufacturer agrees the proposed restrictor size isn't correct and we believe the FIA will apply a fairer equivalent."
Comparing V8s with V10s, he said: "The two engines have completely different characteristics and there are also new regulations covering minimum weight and minimum crank height, as well as restrictions on some specific materials so the V8 is a totally new concept.
"It's a smaller engine," he continued, "both in terms of the number of cylinders and its capacity. Variable intake manifold trumpets have also been banned. Together these will result in a narrower torque band, so we have to be careful when it comes down to the fine tuning of a V8.
"We started on the concept right after the new rules were introduced almost a year ago," he revealed. "We ran a test engine in April at Mugello simply to confirm the various characteristics of a V8 and its interaction with the chassis. The real engine will run in the Concept Car at the end of this month and currently we have lots of V8s running on dynos to perfect driveability, power and reliability and I think we have a good indication of what's ahead in the future."
Asked about reliability, he said: "One of the most important parts of our development programme both now on the dyno and soon testing on the track will be to ensure we get the same levels of reliability out of the V8 as we enjoyed with the V10. We know the extra vibrations coming from a V8 may cause some specific problems but we are working on those and are confident we can overcome them."
Asked about Honda's hopes for 2006, Wada said: "This year's priority was for Honda to get back to winning races but, unfortunately, we didn't fulfil that objective.
"Next year we'd like to start challenging for the championship and we would like to start winning as soon as possible. That's what we'll be pushing for in 2006."