Formula One news

Designers waiting for qualifying clarification

While teams are hard at work developing new V8 engines for the change in regulations for 2006, the detail of their new cars is still somewhat up in the air as they wait for the FIA to confirm the qualifying format for the next season. The new V8 engines will use less fuel than the V10s, but designers can't decide on the fuel tank size and other important knock-on factors until they know whether qualifying will be with fuel or without.

"The V8 is more compact and so that means you have a bit more freedom in terms of volume," Toyota's Mike Gascoyne said about 2006 car design. "You have to decide where you are going to put the engine from a weight distribution point of view, but it can give more space either in front of the gearbox or, for fuel volume, in the rear of the chassis."

"Fuel consumption will go down and you've obviously got additional volume to put fuel in, but really it will depend on the qualifying regulations - whether you have to qualify with fuel or without fuel," he added. "That significantly alters your strategy on things like tank size."

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