The changing face of F1 ....

Ok.. Lots of interesting rule changes for the 2005 F1 season.

First off, the engines should last 2 races instead of 1. A 10-second penalty for any change. Hmmm .... brings in a lot of reliability, but raises the question of what would happen if the engine is damaged due to a crash or mistake of another driver ? I wonder how the officials keep tag of all these things, that too for every team (??!!!)

Next, tyres must last for the whole of qualifying and the race !! This I consider to be a major change. Normally in F1, tyres are changed for every pitstop (on an average of atleast 2 times in a race). Add to it the fact that there are different tyres for different weather conditions. I guess, the F1 teams would start recruiting weather experts for accurately forecasting weather conditions (especially rain). :p And for puncture/blowup cases, only one change of tyres is allowed !

Some aerodynamic changes have also been introduced to reduce the speed.

I think the Scarlet team stands to gain a lot with these changes as they have started their homework loong ago. (Jordan and Minardi recruited new drivers recently only and have just started testing their new engines.)

Lets see how things work out. Its definitely an interesting to watch out for (for more than one reason) ... :)