Panis pens V8 as 'different'

By Karl King
October 21 2005

Ralf Schumacher set the fastest time at Jerez on Wednesday - good news, but what is probably more interesting is the V8 engine. No, not the rule about having V8's next year, because that is stupid in my opinion. F1 is about the noise - the whine of a V10 is the only way to succeed that.

So what is interesting then?

Well, it's Olivier Panis' description of the V8 Toyota engine on his first test. Panis and Pizzonia were the only drivers running V8's - Olivier setting a lap 8 seconds faster than the Brazilian Williams-BMW tester. However, Panis' lap was a notable 5 seconds off of team mate Schumacher's pace.

Ralf was fastest running the usual V10

"It is just so different," Panis told Autosport's website.

"You just expect more power to come after a while. First and second [gears] are okay but after that there is no more, it is so different," he continued about the 2.4 litre V8 engine.

Panis' downbeat opinion was overshadowed by Mike Gascoyne's praises - despite the engine ran into technical problems after 22 laps.

"This is first time we have run the car in a test," he said. "We've not even shaken it down, and so far it is good.

"The vibration is a lot less than what we have expected. We had more vibration problems on the test bench than here and so far it is running without problem.

"We will have a V8 car in every test from now and we will have to see how the progress is."

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Main photo (c) Andrew Lake 2005