Official 2006 F1 Season Discussion


Recommended Posts

It was rather sad to see Schu go out like he did but ferrari were just unlucky with the failure. I think when he thru it around on saturday was the reason why it may of blown. What did he set something like a 1.28 which was the fasted lap i think.

But the Renaults may have some bad luck and may just fail next time.

But on the whole was a nice race to watch. I think the toyotas, BMWS are looking better. And what can i say about honda? i think they have come on pretty good now. Bit disapointed with Mclaren. Feel sorry for Albers who drive shaft flew in to the air.

Very happy that Alonso won, he can only throw the Championship away now. Everyone was saying how Schumi would dominate and win the race easily, and then the opposite happens!

Gutted that Suzuka is getting took off the F1 calendar, it is one of my favourite tracks.

damn i was hoping to have the tie break in brazil, which leads to alonsos victory. msc was very unfortunate, ferraris were suppose to be reliable.

They are meant to be reliable. I find it funny though, people were on about before the race that Schumacher has not had an engine failure for six years, then he has one in that very race :rofl:!

Jerez Testing Day 1

dep0610oc13.jpg

Marc Gene topped the times at Jerez on Tuesday, setting a fastest lap of 1m 17.883s - almost a second quicker than fellow Ferrari tester Luca Badoer. Only five runners made an appearance at the Spanish track for the opening day of the last major testing session of the season.

dep0610oc61.jpg

Gene and Badoer, both at the wheel of a 248 F1, worked through a Bridgestone tyre programme and completed 171 laps between them. Michael Schumacher will replace Gene on Wednesday to carry out further testing alongside Badoer.

dep0610oc20.jpg

Williams’ driver Alexander Wurz was the third-fastest runner and also the busiest man on track, completing 108 laps in total. Wurz’s team mate Narain Karthikeyan joined the Austrian for just 10 laps and clocked the fifth-quickest time. Both Williams’ runners were testing cars fitted with the team’s new gearbox and Toyota engines.

“Alex completed a front tyre construction test in the morning and we then moved onto a race distance run in the afternoon which was successfully completed,” explained test team manager, Mike Condliffe. “We carried out some engine mapping work on Narain's car before we had some teething problems which prevented us completing all the running we had planned.”

dep0610oc36.jpg

Completing the day’s times was Lewis Hamilton, in fourth, for McLaren. Hamilton was limited to a brief shakedown run of 10 laps, but will begin a full day of testing on Wednesday alongside team mate Pedro de la Rosa.

dep0610oc31.jpg

BMW Sauber and Toyota are expected to join the session on Wednesday.

Unofficial Tuesday times from Jerez:

1. Marc Gene, Ferrari (Bridgestone), 1:17.883

2. Luca Badoer, Ferrari (Bridgestone), 1:18.792

3. Alexander Wurz, Williams (Bridgestone), 1:19.549

5. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren (Michelin), 1:22.916

4. Narain Karthikeyan, Williams (Bridgestone), 1:23.550

Source

The only way I can see Alonso not winning the champ is if he a) tries to win and risks putting the engine past it's limit or b) Schumi/Massa/Ferrari pulls some stunt (which wouldn't surprise me).

Alonsos best strategy is to just keep a low profile, run the car at a steady (but not blistering) pace and settle for points, rather than a podium or win.

I'd like Renault to win the constructors, but won't be bothered if Ferrari get it. Both have worked very hard this year.

Jerez day 2 - Schumacher wows in final test

dep0611oc04.jpg

Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher dominated the second day of testing at Jerez on Wednesday with a blistering lap of 1m 16.225s - over a second quicker than Luca Badoer in the second 248 F1. This week’s session at the Spanish circuit is set to be Schumacher’s last as a race driver.

The German completed 108 laps whilst carrying out a comprehensive Bridgestone tyre evaluation ahead of the season’s final race in Brazil. Team mate Badoer tested components for next year and completed 92 laps. Both will return on Thursday to continue testing.

dep0611oc43.jpg

BMW Sauber’s Robert Kubica was the third-fastest runner. As the only BMW driver present, Kubica spent a busy day swapping between two cars. In the morning the Pole tested new parts for 2007, whilst his afternoon was devoted to tyre and transmission development.

Pedro de la Rosa and Lewis Hamilton were fourth and sixth quickest respectively for McLaren, on the team’s first full day of testing. The pair worked through final set-up and tyre evaluations for Interlagos, before carrying out some development work for the 2007 season.

dep0611oc27.jpg

Fifth fastest was Toyota tester Ricardo Zonta, who completed 111 laps whilst testing tyres. Zonta’s team mate Olivier Panis, meanwhile, was eighth quickest. The Frenchman spent the day collecting data for the team’s race strategy but will switch to tyre evaluation on Thursday alongside Zonta.

"The driver's programmes were quite straightforward. Ricardo worked on tyre comparisons, while Olivier spent the day collecting data that the engineers in the factory needed to analyse various items on the car,” explained Gerd Pfeiffer, Toyota’s test team manager. “Overall, the cars worked well and we made it through the day and both programmes nicely. Tomorrow we will continue the tyre programme on both cars to make the choice for Brazil."

dep0611oc22.jpg

On track for a second day with Williams were Alexander Wurz and Narain Karthikeyan. Wurz was seventh fastest, with Karthikeyan ninth. “Today in Jerez, Narain carried out some engine tests for Toyota in the morning as well as completing an aero test on some new parts and brake work in the afternoon,” explained Mike Condliffe, Williams’ test team manager. “Alex also worked on brake tests and then traction control development. Both drivers completed their planned tyre testing in the afternoon to round off a successful day.”

dep0611oc46.jpg

Testing continues at Jerez on Thursday.

Unofficial Wednesday times from Jerez:

1. Michael Schumacher, Ferrari (Bridgestone), 1:16.225

2. Luca Badoer, Ferrari (Bridgestone), 1:17.276

3. Robert Kubica, BMW Sauber (Michelin), 1:17.569

4. Pedro de la Rosa, McLaren (Michelin), 1:17.788

5. Ricardo Zonta, Toyota (Bridgestone), 1:17.988

6. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren (Michelin), 1:18.192

7. Alexander Wurz, Williams (Bridgestone), 1:19.057

8. Olivier Panis, Toyota (Bridgestone), 1:19.342

9. Narain Karthikeyan, Williams (Bridgestone), 1:20.475

Source

Jerez day three - no let up from Schumacher

Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher continued to dominate testing in Jerez on Thursday, clocking the quickest time for a second consecutive day. Schumacher lapped the Spanish test track in 1m 15.684s - over five-tenths faster than his Wednesday best and just a few hundredths of a second off the unofficial circuit record, which he set in September 2004.

dep0612oc20.jpg

Schumacher continued to evaluate Bridgestone tyres for the Brazilian Grand Prix and was joined on track by Luca Badoer, Ferrari’s official test driver. Badoer was fourth quickest in the second 248 F1. He completed 76 laps whilst working on the development of new parts for 2007.

Lewis Hamilton set the second-fastest time for McLaren. This year’s GP2 champion was over four-tenths quicker than team mate Pedro de la Rosa who ended the session fifth in the timings. Although a minor oil leak interrupted De la Rosa’s session he managed to complete his scheduled programme. Both drivers spent McLaren’s last day at the circuit evaluating Michelin tyres for Interlagos and testing developments for the team’s 2007 car.

dep0612oc01.jpg

Robert Kubica was BMW Sauber’s only driver in Jerez on Thursday (he will be joined by Nick Heidfeld on Friday). Kubica completed 100 laps and ended the day the third-fastest runner. The Pole continued transmission development work in the morning before undertaking several longer runs in the afternoon.

Ricardo Zonta completed his final day of testing for Toyota, before his move to Renault next season. Despite losing some valuable running time due to an engine change, Zonta clocked the sixth-quickest time.

dep0612oc09.jpg

“In the end, we still got some running in and I think the team can make a good choice,” explained the Brazilian. “This being my last day it is difficult to leave a team that I have worked with a long time and who have treated me so well. Looking back, we have had quite a busy and difficult season, focusing on the tyres and developing the car to improve on our results. The team was always motivated to keep moving ahead. I have always felt welcome here and I will miss everyone that I have worked with."

Seventh quickest was Olivier Panis in the second Toyota. Panis worked predominantly on tyre evaluation and completed 90 laps. Although the Frenchman is also due to leave Toyota this year, he is set to complete further tests during the winter months.

dep0612oc15.jpg

The day’s final runners were Alexander Wurz and Narain Karthikeyan for Williams. Wurz continued to test the Toyota engine the team will use next year and was eighth fastest, whilst Karthikeyan carried out a series of set-up comparisons before testing front wing assemblies. He finished the session ninth.

dep0612oc08.jpg

Although Ferrari, McLaren and Toyota have completed their Jerez programmes, Williams and BMW Sauber will continue to test in Spain on Friday.

Unofficial Thursday times from Jerez:

1. Michael Schumacher, Ferrari (Bridgestone), 1:15.684

2. Lewis Hamilton, McLaren (Michelin), 1:16.804

3. Robert Kubica, BMW Sauber (Michelin), 1:17.012

4. Luca Badoer, Ferrari (Bridgestone), 1:17.241

5. Pedro de la Rosa, McLaren (Michelin), 1:17.292

6. Ricardo Zonta, Toyota (Bridgestone), 1:17.488

7. Olivier Panis, Toyota (Bridgestone), 1:17.801

8. Alexander Wurz, Williams (Bridgestone), 1:18.284

9. Narain Karthikeyan, Williams (Bridgestone), 1:20.449

Source

I'm really looking forward to today, i really hope schu does get pole and alonso comes 6th and then gets an engine blow on him

:devil: you're Evil. LOL... but yeh, that'd been nice :devil:

Can't wait till qualification begins!

And I really hope Shumi wins tomorrow - it'd be a good retiremet present for him. :yes:

Saturday Practice Results

1 6 Felipe Massa Ferrari 1:11.443

2 5 Michael Schumacher Ferrari 1:11.631

3 12 Jenson Button Honda 1:12.306

4 17 Robert Kubica Sauber-BMW 1:12.535

5 2 Giancarlo Fisichella Renault 1:12.567

6 11 Rubens Barrichello Honda 1:12.697

7 1 Fernando Alonso Renault 1:12.721

8 3 Kimi R?ikk?nen McLaren-Mercedes 1:12.723

9 4 Pedro de la Rosa McLaren-Mercedes 1:12.780

10 16 Nick Heidfeld Sauber-BMW 1:13.037

11 9 Mark Webber Williams-Cosworth 1:13.205

12 10 Nico Rosberg Williams-Cosworth 1:13.380

13 21 Scott Speed STR-Cosworth 1:13.455

14 20 Vitantonio Liuzzi STR-Cosworth 1:13.530

15 15 Robert Doornbos RBR-Ferrari 1:13.564

16 7 Ralf Schumacher Toyota 1:13.642

17 22 Takuma Sato Super Aguri-Honda 1:13.814

18 18 Tiago Monteiro MF1-Toyota 1:13.832

19 14 David Coulthard RBR-Ferrari 1:13.944

20 8 Jarno Trulli Toyota 1:14.051

21 19 Christijan Albers MF1-Toyota 1:14.108

22 23 Sakon Yamamoto Super Aguri-Honda 1:14.875

Ferrari have big chances to win pole position:):)

Can't wait till the qualification.53b> minutes left...

Schu could still win it! the chances now are just very very slim.

Now all we need is Alonso engine to break and Schu to raid thru the grid. Which he has done before

If Schumacher wins... what a way to do it... that would be the ultimate. For people watching, this should be great, because he should be going full out

Well its looking good in Qualifying........his car has just bombed....LOL! :D .....overweight in fuel and a 10 place grid drop.......LMAO!!!! BYEEEEEE Schu.......enjoy your retirement :devil:

Go Alonso!!

Good race, great championship. I feel the championship has finished in the right way. Alonso continuing as the person to beat next year (gives everyone someone to compare to on track) and Schumacher showing that he is still quick, but not stealing the lime light... Leaving the door open for the future.

Good to see Massa win his home race. I can't help but feel he is going to over-shadowed by Raikonnen next year though, which is a shame. :(

Button and Honda are looking good for next year. Should be challenging for a championship. :)

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • AMD RX 9070 GRE AI, Blender benchmarks vs 9070 XT, 7800XT, Nvidia RTX 5070, 4070 by Sayan Sen Earlier this week, we shared the first part of our review of AMD's new RX 9070 GRE. It was about the gaming performance of the GPU, and we gave it an 8 out of 10. As a follow-up, similar to how we did with the 9070 XT and non-XT, we are doing a dedicated productivity review for the RX 9070 GRE as well, where we compare it against the 9070 XT, 9070, 7800 XT, as well as Nvidia's 5070 and 4070. This will include AI, rendering, compute, and more benchmarks. AI performance, especially, is a very important metric in today's world, and AMD also promised big improvements thanks to its underlying architectural improvements. We will be pitching it against the data we already have for the RX 9070, and RX 9070 XT, but also the Nvidia 5070 FE, MSI GeForce RTX 4070 VENTUS 2X 12G, and Gigabyte Radeon RX 7800 XT GAMING OC 16G as they are in a similar price class, but also because we do not have a comparable 5060 Ti card lying around here that we can compare it against. Before we get underway, this is a collaboration between Sayan Sen and Steven Parker, who lent me his test bed. Also, there was no editorial input from AMD. First up, the specs of the RX 9070, 9070 XT, and 9070 GRE, which were given to us by AMD: Radeon RX 9070 GRE Radeon RX 9070 Radeon RX 9070 XT Boost Clock: Game Clock: up to 2.79GHz up to 2.20GHz up to 2.52GHz up to 2.07GHz up to 2.97GHz up to 2.40GHz Stream Processors 3,072 (48 CU) 3,584 (56 CU) 4,096 (64 CU) Ray Accelerator 48 56 64 AI Accelerator 96 112 128 ROPs 96 128 Texture Mapping Units 192 224 256 Memory 12 GB GDDR6, 18Gbps Clock, 192-bit Bus 432 GB/s 16 GB GDDR6, 20Gbps Clock, 256-bit Bus Effective Memory Bandwidth: 640 GB/s Infinity Cache 48 MB (3rd Gen) 64 MB (3rd Gen) Card Bus PCI-E 5.0 X16 Output 2x HDMI 2.1b 2x DisplayPort 2.1a Power consumption 220W 304W Recommended PSU 650W 750W Slot width 2x 3x Price (SEP) $549 $599 As you can see from the specs above, it is less than the standard RX 9070 in every way that counts, except for slightly higher Boost and Game clock speed. Design Moving on, the RX 9070 GRE we were given is an XFX Swift triple-fan, dual-slot design with two 8-pin connectors. At 30cm (self-measured), it will fit in most systems easily. There is no RGB either. The AMD Radeon RX 9070 GRE by XFX from all angles. Test system Our test system consists of the following: Lian Li O11 Dynamic Mini V2 Flow (Amazon|Newegg) ASUS Z890 ProArt Creator WiFi (Amazon|Newegg) Intel Core Ultra 7 270K Plus (Amazon|Newegg) Thermal Grizzly KryoSheet - 44x37 (Amazon|Newegg) 2x 16GB G.Skill Trident Z5 RGB (7200 MT/s in XMP) (Amazon|Newegg) Sabrent Rocket4 Plus 2TB SSD (Amazon) Windows 11 25H2 (Build 26200.8246) AMD shared a press driver based on the recently released Adrenaline 26.5.2 that we were required to use. We now move on to our benchmarks. First up, we have Geekbench AI running on ONNX. For some reason, the 9070 GRE does exceptionally well here in both half-precision (FP16) and single-precision (FP32). It manages to beat the RTX 5070 and RX 9070 non-XT, and is only behind the 9070 XT. Since Geekbench runs in short bursts instead of continuously hammering the graphics card, it seems the GRE's faster boost clocks are helping here. Next up, we move to the UL Procyon AI test suite, starting with the image generation benchmark. We chose the Stable Diffusion XL FP16 test since it is the most intense workload available on Procyon. The Nvidia cards do very well here, as even the 4070 out-muscles AMD's best fairy easily. The positive thing about the GRE is that it gets quite close to the 9070 non-XT in this test; this indicates that the VRAM does not play a very big role here, as SD XL relies on float16 (FP16). So this is something to keep in mind again. If you wish to work with float32 AI workloads, graphics cards with larger than 12 GB buffers would likely emerge as victors. Regardless, the gains are still massive on AMD's 9000 series compared to the 7000 series. Following image generation, we move to the text generation benchmark. This is one test where the 9070 GRE struggled, quite a lot. It seems that the 12 GB VRAM and lower memory bandwidth of the new Radeon 9070 GRE are hurting it quite a bit; the split is massive, especially in a test like Llama2, which packs 13 billion parameters. As such, in all the tests, the 9070 GRE is the slowest of the lot. Next, we tried Blender, and here the AMD GPUs were beaten by Nvidia. Rendering is something the Green team has always had a lead over the Red side, and it has not changed so far. On the positive side, though, the 9070 GRE shows significantly better results than the 7800 XT, which means AMD is on the right path. Catching up to Nvidia, though, will require a lot more effort. And we hope HIP and ROCm can keep improving. Wrapping up AI testing, we measured OpenCL throughput in the Geekbench compute benchmark. The RX 9070 GRE alongside the 9070 did not fare well here at all, even falling behind the 7800 XT. Interestingly, even the RTX 5070 could not beat the 4070 on OpenCL, so perhaps this suggests that OpenCL optimization may not have been a priority for either AMD or Nvidia in the modern era. Conclusion We reached the end of our productivity performance review of the 9070 GRE, and we have to say it's a mixed bag. Unlike the 9070 and 9070 XT, the GRE excels in some areas while losing ground fairly easily in others. Similar to how it happened in gaming, any time the card's memory subsystem gets hammered, it tends to fall behind the others. This was the case with text generation, wherein we saw the VRAM sometimes hit its maximum available 12 GB of usage with larger model sizes. So what do we make of the RX 9070 as a productivity hardware? It can certainly be used, but you have to know it has its limitations. For those looking for a GPU that can deal with more, AMD recently unveiled the Radeon AI PRO R9700, which is essentially a 32 GB refresh of the 9070 XT with some additional workstation-based optimizations. On a similar note, the new Ryzen AI Halo platform is something you can consider if you want to set up a local AI processing station. Considering everything, we rate AMD's Radeon RX 9070 GRE a 7.5 out of 10 for its productivity performance. Price is less of a factor for those looking at productivity cases compared to those considering the GPU for gaming, and as such, we felt it did quite decently on many occasions and can be handy if you need a 12 GB GPU and, for some reason, don't want to get Nvidia. Purchase links: RX 9070 / XT / GRE (Amazon US) As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
    • Does anyone here know if these updates are integrated into the UUP dump isos?
    • Motrix Next 3.9.4 by Razvan Serea Motrix Next is a modern, open-source cross-platform download manager built as the official next-generation successor to the original Motrix project. It has been completely rewritten using Tauri 2, Vue 3, TypeScript, and Rust, while still relying on the powerful Aria2 download engine for high-speed multi-protocol transfers. The app supports HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, BitTorrent, ED2K and magnet links, offering advanced features like multi-connection acceleration, task scheduling, bandwidth control, and batch download management. With a significantly reduced install size (around 20MB), it focuses on being lightweight, fast, and resource-efficient compared to traditional Electron-based download tools. Designed for Windows, macOS, and Linux, Motrix Next delivers a clean, modern UI inspired by Material Design 3 principles, with smooth animations and a minimal workflow. It improves usability through better download organization, system tray integration, and enhanced torrent handling including selective file downloads and tracker management. Motrix Next features: Multi-protocol downloads — HTTP, FTP, BitTorrent, Magnet, .torrent, ED2K, and Metalink tasks BitTorrent — Selective file download, DHT, peer exchange, encryption controls, metadata caching, GeoIP peer flags, and tracker probing Browser extension integration — Embedded Extension API with independent authentication, download confirmation, smart auto-submit, filename hints, referer/cookie forwarding, and real-time controls (Chrome Web Store · Edge Add-ons) Safe filename handling — Content-Disposition, RFC 2047, non-UTF-8, percent-encoded, and extensionless URL resolution with path traversal sanitization Download organization — Favorite and recent folders, optional file-type categorization, stale-record cleanup, and completed history backed by SQLite Concurrent downloads — Independent controls for active tasks, HTTP connections per server, segments per file, and BT peer limits Speed control — Global and per-task upload/download limits with day-of-week and time-of-day scheduling System integration — Tray operation, optional tray speed display, macOS Dock badge/progress, protocol handlers for magnet://, thunder://, and motrixnext:// Lightweight mode — Destroys the WebView on minimize-to-tray while Rust keeps the engine, task monitor, notifications, history, and extension routing alive Notifications and power options — Native task start/complete/failure notifications, keep-awake during downloads, and optional shutdown after completion Network controls — Scoped proxy support for downloads, app updates, and tracker updates, plus system proxy detection Auto-update channels — Stable, Beta, and Latest Across Channels policies with separate download and install phases Diagnostics — Structured logs, exportable diagnostic ZIPs, database integrity checks, automatic DB rebuild, and Linux GPU rendering fallback Personalization — Light/dark/system theme, 10 color schemes, 26 languages, and first-launch system language detection Motrix Next 3.9.4 changelog: Motrix Next 3.9.4 promotes the 3.9.4 beta cycle to stable. This release refreshes bundled engine binaries, improves task detail readability and copy actions, expands link handling for magnet and ED2K workflows, polishes responsive navigation and text wrapping, updates browser extension documentation, and refines network preference controls. New Features Task Detail copy actions — Added copyable values for task metadata and reusable render functions for long text fields. Magnet and ED2K lifecycle support — Added task lifecycle handling for magnet and ED2K links. History cleanup for deleted tasks — Deleted tasks can now remove matching history records. User-Agent management — Added user-agent management and improved related network preference controls. Browser extension documentation — Added the Firefox Add-ons link for the Motrix Next extension. Improvements Engine binaries — Updated bundled binaries for supported architectures. Task Detail readability — Long task names, URLs, tracker values, and copyable metadata now render more clearly. Deletion messaging — Refined localized task deletion text for clarity and consistency. Text wrapping — Improved URI input wrapping and task name multiline display. Navigation layout — Improved sub-navigation responsiveness. Disk allocation default — Changed the default file allocation method to trunc. Proxy controls — Improved proxy button styling in network preferences. Download: Motrix Next 64-bit | ARM64 | macOS ~20.0 MB (Open Source) Links: Website | macOS / Linux | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
    • NVIDIA officially supports Ubuntu, as linked above with the GeForce NOW Hands on I did in collaboration with Paul Hill.
    • TO be clear I am not running linux today, however I keep thinking about it. And I want to make sure there are minimal obstacles if I decide to make that switch in the coming months.
  • Recent Achievements

    • Proficient
      Eric Biran went up a rank
      Proficient
    • Dedicated
      Conjor earned a badge
      Dedicated
    • Week One Done
      Windows Guy earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Dedicated
      Mark Spruce earned a badge
      Dedicated
    • Collaborator
      conkir earned a badge
      Collaborator
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      479
    2. 2
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      250
    3. 3
      Steven P.
      72
    4. 4
      +Edouard
      69
    5. 5
      FloatingFatMan
      67
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!