Bahrain: V10 Faster than V8
After the first day of practice in Bahrain, the relative performance of each team’s 2006 cars are being slowly revealed. It is always hard to judge the performance on free practice days. We usually have to wait until qualifying before finding out a team’s true pace.
However, one thing looks clear in Bahrain – Scuderia Toro Rosso are very fast with their V10 engine. Here is a team that a year ago would have normally had their cars 4th last or worst on the grid. This year they look certain to be mid-field contendors or even better. Could they actually reach the podium?
Part of their performance jump is attributed to the fact they’re running a rev-limited V10 engine while the other teams are running unrestricted V8s. However a more telling factor may be that their chassis borrows heavily from last year’s Red Bull Racing chassis, which was a tidy little package.
Other than the good performance of STR, the only other point worth noting in the first day of practice is how low on the timesheet Toyota have been. Very scary considering their budget. They’re not that fair ahead of Super Aguri it seems.. Speaking of Super Aguri, they seriously need their new car fast!!
