The 2006 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 60th season of Formula One motor racing. It featured the 57th Formula One World Championship which began on 12 March and ended on 22 October after eighteen races. The Drivers' Championship was won by Fernando Alonso of Renault for the second year in a row, with Alonso becoming the youngest ever double world champion at the time. Then-retiring seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher of Scuderia Ferrari finished runner-up, 13 points behind. The Constructors' Championship was won by Renault, which defeated Ferrari by five points.2006 FIA Formula One World Championship standings, www.fia.com, 11 January 2007 Retrieved via web.archive.org on 12 September 2013
The season was highlighted by the rivalry between Alonso and Schumacher, who each won seven races. Renault and Ferrari drivers dominated the field, victorious in all but one race: the Hungarian Grand Prix was won by Honda's Jenson Button, and the four second-place finishes not achieved by Renault or Ferrari were accomplished by McLaren. This season also marked the beginning of the usage of 2.4L V8 engines in Formula One from the 3.0L V10 engines that were used in the previous seasons, which continued until the end of the season. 2006 was also the first season since and respectively to feature multiple engine displacements and configurations, as Scuderia Toro Rosso were given special dispensation to continue using V10s.
For the first time since the season, no British constructor won any race. Additionally, 2006 was the first season since that all races were won by constructors that built both the chassis and engine for their cars.
The season saw several changes occurring in the drivers' market starting already in December 2005 as Alonso sealed a move to McLaren for 2007. In September 2006, Schumacher announced his retirement from Formula One at the end of the season, with and championship runner-up Kimi Räikkönen being announced as his replacement at Ferrari. Among other notable departures included Juan Pablo Montoya, who left McLaren mid-season to pursue a career in NASCAR and 1997 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve who left after the German Grand Prix. The season saw the debut of the future world champion, Nico Rosberg.
, this is the last Constructors' Championship for Renault, and the last Drivers' Championship for a Spanish Formula One driver. The 2006 championship also saw the last season of the Bridgestone-Michelin tyre war which had started in 2001 as Michelin withdrew from the sport at the end of this season leaving Bridgestone as the sole tyre supplier for 2007, a position the Japanese company would retain until leaving the sport themselves at the end of 2010 and replaced by Pirelli from 2011 onwards. , this is the last Formula One season to have 2 tyre suppliers, and is also the last season overall to feature more than one tyre supplier.
Teams and drivers The following teams and drivers competed in the 2006 FIA Formula One World Championship.
Entrant Constructor Chassis Engine Tyre Race drivers Rounds Mild Seven Renault F1 Team Renault R26 Renault RS26 2.4 V8 1 Fernando Alonso All 2 Giancarlo Fisichella All Team McLaren Mercedes McLaren-Mercedes MP4-21 Mercedes FO 108S 2.4 V8 3 Kimi Räikkönen All 4 1–10 Pedro de la Rosa 11–18 Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro Ferrari 248 F1 Ferrari 056 2.4 V8 5 Michael Schumacher All 6 Felipe Massa All Panasonic Toyota Racing Toyota TF106TF106B Toyota RVX-06 2.4 V8 7 Ralf Schumacher All 8 Jarno Trulli All Williams F1 Team Williams-Cosworth FW28 Cosworth CA2006 2.4 V8 9 Mark Webber All 10 Nico Rosberg All Lucky Strike Honda Racing F1 Team Honda RA106 Honda RA806E 2.4 V8 11 Rubens Barrichello All 12 Jenson Button All Red Bull Racing Red Bull-Ferrari RB2 Ferrari 056 2.4 V8 14 David Coulthard All 15 Christian Klien 1–15 Robert Doornbos 16–18 BMW Sauber F1 Team BMW Sauber F1.06 BMW P86 2.4 V8 16 Nick Heidfeld All 17 Jacques Villeneuve 1–12 Robert Kubica 13–18 MF1 Racing MF1-Toyota M16 Toyota RVX-06 2.4 V8 18 Tiago Monteiro All 19 Christijan Albers All Scuderia Toro Rosso Toro Rosso-Cosworth STR1 Cosworth TJ2005 3.0 V10 20 Vitantonio Liuzzi All 21 Scott Speed All Super Aguri F1 Team Super Aguri-Honda SA05SA06 Honda RA806E 2.4 V8 22 Takuma Sato All 23 Yuji Ide 1–4 Franck Montagny 5–11 Sakon Yamamoto 12–18Sources:
Free practice drivers Seven constructors entered free practice only drivers over the course of the season.
+ Drivers that took part in free practice sessionsConstructorPractice driversNo.Driver nameRoundsWilliams-Cosworth 35 Alexander Wurz AllHonda 36 Anthony Davidson AllRed Bull-Ferrari 37 Robert Doornbos Michael Ammermüller 1–1516–18BMW Sauber 38 Robert Kubica Sebastian Vettel 1–1214–18MF1-Toyota 39 Markus Winkelhock Giorgio Mondini Adrian Sutil Alexandre Prémat Ernesto Viso 1, 3, 12–132, 4, 6–10, 14–155, 11, 171618Toro Rosso-Cosworth 40 Neel Jani AllSuper Aguri-Honda 41 Sakon Yamamoto Franck Montagny 8–1114–18
Manufacturer and team changes Three prominent names in the sport disappeared for this season, with Minardi, BAR and Jordan changing names under new ownership, while Sauber changed ownership, and one new team, Super Aguri, entered at the last moment. Minardi were taken over by Red Bull, becoming Toro Rosso, which is Italian for Red Bull. The Sauber name remained, although largely as a sentiment, as BMW had purchased 80% of the team, with Peter Sauber keeping only a 20% share. A year after Alex Shnaider had purchased the team and following a disappointing final season under the Jordan name, Jordan was renamed to MF1 Racing after Shnaider's Midland Group company. Late in the season, the team was bought by Spyker. Honda, who already owned a 45% stake in the BAR team, completed their takeover of the team and changed its name to Honda Racing F1 Team at the start of the season. Super Aguri F1 also entered their first season after having problems entering. They received limited backing from Honda including technology and engines, due to them running Honda factory driver Takuma Sato despite Super Aguri being a Honda customer team. As a result of Honda's expansion of supplying engines to Super Aguri, this marked the first season since 2002 that Honda supplied multiple teams in the sport when Honda supplied both BAR and Jordan respectively. Williams introduced numerous changes for 2006, particularly changing to Cosworth V8 engines after they and BMW split. Red Bull Racing (RBR) had Ferrari engines, replacing the Cosworth power which gained them seventh in the standings in . Williams and Toyota changed tyre suppliers to Bridgestone, due to Michelin's desire to supply fewer teams in the championship. Despite this, Toro Rosso, who under the Minardi name ran Bridgestone tyres, switched to Michelin in line with parent team RBR. After Ilmor fully sold its UK engine division to DaimlerChrysler, Ilmor-Mercedes officially renamed to Mercedes-Benz High Performance Engines and thus effectively Mercedes-Benz became a sole in-house sport engine builder, assembler and tuner from 2006 onwards.
Driver changes Ferrari replaced Michael Schumacher's longtime teammate Rubens Barrichello with fellow Brazilian Felipe Massa, who moved from Sauber. Massa had previously tested with Ferrari in 2003. Massa was replaced at the newly renamed BMW Sauber team by returnee Nick Heidfeld, who had driven for BMW's previous partners Williams for much of 2005 and Sauber in 2001-2003. Poland's Robert Kubica took up the third driver's role at BMW Sauber. Barrichello moved to Honda, where he replaced the outgoing Takuma Sato. The Honda-backed Super Aguri team started the season with Sato and Yuji Ide, an all-Japanese driver line up. Franck Montagny moved from his Renault testing role to become Super Aguri's third driver. His position at Renault was taken by the GP2 runner-up Heikki Kovalainen. Williams promoted test driver Nico Rosberg, who had won the inaugural GP2 drivers' title, to their second seat alongside Mark Webber. Alexander Wurz, one of McLaren's test drivers from 2005, joined Williams as a third driver, alongside India's Narain Karthikeyan, who had raced for Jordan the previous season. Gary Paffett was promoted to a permanent testing role at McLaren alongside Pedro de la Rosa. Karthikeyan's seat at Jordan, now renamed as MF1, was taken by the 2005 Minardi driver Christijan Albers. MF1 decided to employ a rotation system for their third driver position. Minardi's other driver, Robert Doornbos, took up a test driving role at Red Bull. Vitantonio Liuzzi, who had shared Red Bull's second seat with Christian Klien in 2005, moved to Red Bull's newly acquired sister team Toro Rosso—previously Minardi—where he partnered his fellow Red Bull-backed driver Scott Speed. The Swiss driver Neel Jani became Toro Rosso's third driver.
Mid-season changes After the San Marino Grand Prix Super Aguri's Yuji Ide had his superlicence revoked by the FIA and could no longer race in Formula One. He was replaced by the team's reserve driver Franck Montagny for the next race. Super Aguri hired Sakon Yamamoto, one of Jordan's test drivers from 2005, to be their third driver from the British Grand Prix onwards, in place of the promoted Montagny. Yamamoto and Montagny switched places from the German Grand Prix onwards. After the United States Grand Prix, Juan Pablo Montoya announced he was moving to NASCAR for the 2007 season and leaving McLaren. The next day, McLaren announced that Montoya would be replaced in their driver line up by test driver Pedro de la Rosa, ending Montoya's five and a half-year F1 career since 2001. Robert Kubica was promoted to a race seat by BMW Sauber at the Hungarian Grand Prix, replacing 1997 World Champion Jacques Villeneuve, possibly due to Villeneuve's injuries after a heavy crash in the German Grand Prix. On the day after the Hungarian GP (7 August 2006), BMW Sauber announced that Villeneuve had left the team with immediate effect, with Kubica replacing him permanently for the remainder of the season. German Formula 3 driver Sebastian Vettel became BMW Sauber's third driver from the Turkish Grand Prix onwards, replacing the promoted Kubica. On 10 September 2006, Ferrari's seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher announced his retirement at the end of the season (he returned to Mercedes in 2010). Following this, Ferrari brought in Kimi Räikkönen as their team driver for the 2007 season. On 11 September 2006, Red Bull Racing announced that the team officially sacked Christian Klien and thus Red Bull drafted its third/test driver, Robert Doornbos for the final three races of the season as a result of Klien's string of poor results. For the races in China and Japan, Michael Ammermüller replaced Doornbos as third driver. Spyker MF1 announced a duo of new third drivers for two of the final races of the year. GP2 Series drivers Alexandre Prémat and Ernesto Viso took part in practice in China and Brazil respectively; Adrian Sutil, who had previously tested in Germany and France, again tested for the team in Japan. During the test at the Silverstone Circuit in September, GP2 Series drivers Lewis Hamilton, Nelson Piquet Jr., and Adrián Vallés performed test duties for McLaren, Renault and MF1, respectively. Super Aguri's former race driver Franck Montagny also tested for Toyota.
Calendar The Australian Grand Prix was held later than usual, to avoid a clash with the 2006 Commonwealth Games. For the first time, Bahrain hosted the first Grand Prix. Brazil hosted the last race, while Japan and China swapped their original dates.
In 2006, the FIA announced the Belgian Grand Prix would not be part of the 2006 Formula One season, since the local authorities had started major repair work in Spa-Francorchamps. The Belgian Grand Prix returned in 2007.