As you can imagine Jon is a happy bunny today! It should be a good show this week

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Welcome back to the Grand Prix Show!
The 2006 season is about to start and we look at the new rules, qualifying and the driver line up for the season.

Jon has stepped up to be the producer (nice one Jon) and I have recorded some new music for the intro
Please keep your comments coming in to the show, we love to get them
You can email us GrandPrixShow@gmail.com and the forums are at Iandixon.co.uk/forums

Roll on 2006!

Don’t forget our show merchandise range

Show times to follow :)

Sorry there has not been a lot of posts but I have been really busy with my other show (The Media Center Show)

2006 is going to be a great season and the engine changes have made it hard to predict who will have the best package.

Alonso’s move was a shock and it will be interesting to see who goes where in 2007

I am off to the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas tomorrow where Intel should be announcing a lot of stuff and one of the announcements should be the details of the deal with BMW, we may see the livery there.

Please send in your thoughts on 2006 to the show GrandPrixShow@gmail.com or via my Media Center Show Skype Line (MediaCenterShow)

We will be having a season preview show before the first race (promise!)

lots to talk about m this weeks show

So Kimi takes the win from Fissi on the last lap
Get all the details on this weeks show

In an announcement made in Tokyo ahead of this weekend’s Japanese grand Prix, which also marks Honda’s 100th grand prix, Honda’s operating officer Hiroshi Oshima said “After discussing Honda’s future F1 participation, we have decided that Honda should own 100% of the team.” This means that Honda will join BMW, Renault, Toyota and Ferrari as the fifth fully-funded works operation in Formula 1. It is still not known what Honda intends to call the team next year, but BAT the current owners of the BAR team have confirmed its Lucky Strike brand will remain as title sponsor until the end of 2006.

In other news Kimi Raikkonen has promised to keep fighting hard in this weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix to help McLaren win the constructors’ world championship. The Finn, who lost his battle with new champion Fernando Alonso for the drivers’ crown, said the defeat will not effect his desire to win in Suzuka. “The drivers’ title fight is over for this year and now we want to win the constructors,” Raikkonen said. An engine failure this morning though has meant that Kimi will have to suffer another 10 place penalty.

Tune in to next weeks grand prix show for a review of the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka.

McLaren lead the constructors by 2 points with two races to go

More reaction on this weeks show

Looking ahead to Brazil, Raikkonen will have his work cut out for him as anything less than a victory, and Alonso failing to make the podium, will mean that the current leader will take the drivers championship. The Finn said that he’ll be pushing hard to get maximum points for both the drivers’ and constructors’ championships. The constructor’s championship is looking closer as Mclaren just need the ever elusive one-two finish in Brazil to move to the top of the table. Our predictions for the Brazilian GP are for a Raikkonen win, and Alonso taking the drivers championship with a podium finish, the strong possibility of rain though could mix things up a bit.

News Sources
www.f1.com
www.itv-f1.com

In other news, Klien tops the leader board at the final day of testing at Silverstone with a best time of 1m 20.272. This was half a second faster than the Williams of Pizzonia, with team mate Liuzzi in third. Williams test driver Rosberg finished the day in forth place, nearly a second behind Klien’s time, ahead of the Toyota of Ralf Schumacher.

On the Thursday of the testing at Silverstone, Mclaren debuted their 2.4 litre V8 engine which is set to replace the current V10 engine. This is to fit in with the new regulations set by the FIA to make F1 safer. De la Rossa who tested the car said there was obviously a big difference between the power of the V10 and the V8 so his driving style had to be changed accordingly. He completed 78 laps of Silverstone with the new engine with a fastest lap of 1m 22.974, this is over 5 seconds slower than the current V10.

News Sources
www.f1.com
www.itv-f1.com

It’s hard to explain what it’s like. Part Bond movie set, part NASA and very much Mclaren.

We travelled down the VIP road past the lake, you can’t see the Centre from the road and it’s amazing as you travel down the road and see the building.

We walked down the walk way above the main boulevard where we could see the historic cars dotted around.

Launda’s championship winning car, Prost’s championship winning car, Mika’s championship winning car and Senna’s championship winning car plus the car he won his last ever race in.

I had my picture taken with Kimi’s Belgium GP winning car.

We walked past the trophies in to the wind tunnel then to the race preparation area. JPM’s and Kimi’s cars where there fresh from Hungary. Kimi’s car complete with FIA seals on the engine. Being able to to touch the cars was amazing.

We saw how they make the parts, like the wings and gearbox’s (aprox 90,000 pounds per gearbox!) and then went on to look at where the SLK road car is being made.

Big thanks to Team Mclaren for the tour, its 3 hours I will never forget

More details on the next Grand Prix Show

We were robbed once again of a classic race due to the Mere engine being changed and the stupid 10 place demotion on the grid Kimi got
Still it was a good race and Silverstone once again put on a good show

As I am on holiday this week the Grand Prix Show will be out next week

So please keep your comments and feedback coming in.
Email: GrandPrixShow@gmail .com

We will be recording the Grand Prix show today with our full round up of the weekend.

I am not a fan of the one engine rule; it’s not what F1 is about. Give the old days where the mechanics would have installed a new engine and Kimi would be challenging for pole tomorrow instead of 11th.
The more the FIA change the rules the worse it gets for the fans (well IMHO).
The pace at the front looks hot with Mclaren and Renault. It could be a great race…

Pos. Driver Team Time Laps
1 P. de la Rosa McLaren 1:14.460 35
2 JP. Montoya McLaren 1:15.129 21
3 M. Schumacher Ferrari 1:15.204 24
4 F. Alonso Renault 1:15.242 23
5 G. Fisichella Renault 1:15.380 27
6 O. Panis Toyota 1:15.483 37
7 R. Barrichello Ferrari 1:15.605 27
8 J. Trulli Toyota 1:15.774 24
9 R. Schumacher Toyota 1:15.925 24
10 D. Coulthard Red Bull 1:16.371 26
11 J. Villeneuve Sauber 1:16.430 25
12 J. Button BAR 1:16.597 29
13 F. Massa Sauber 1:16.753 27
14 T. Sato BAR 1:16.890 28
15 V. Liuzzi Red Bull 1:16.987 25
16 M. Webber Williams 1:17.107 27
17 N. Heidfeld Williams 1:17.192 28
18 R. Doornbos Jordan 1:17.574 25
19 N. Karthikeyan Jordan 1:17.790 23
20 C. Albers Minardi 1:18.508 14
21 P. Friesacher Minardi 1:18.814 25
22 C. Klien Red Bull 1:18.897 5
23 T. Monteiro Jordan 1:19.186 18
24 K. Räikkönen McLaren no time 2

BMW have announced that they are taking over the Sauber team; from 2006 the team will be known as BMW.
They have offered Williams a deal to continue using BMW engines for 2006 (no mention of 2007) , so I can see Williams switching engines

BMW are taking control of the Swiss team in 2006, the name of the team is yet to be announced.

So another independent team goes, and BMW will have a bigger say in Formula One.

It’s defiantly not what the FIA want, but it is what the GPWC want.

Are you a Sauber fan? What do you think?
Are you a Williams fan? Does that mean the BMW deal is over?

Send an email to grandprixshow@gmail.com or visit the forums