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BAR Honda to race controversial gearbox
By Phil Huff (04/02/2005)
February 9 2005
Despite (incorrect) reports on some sites late last year saying that BAR's 2005 gearbox has been banned, the team are pressing ahead with development and fully intend to run it from the opening race.
BAR won an award for their work on the 2004 gearbox, manufacture red out of carbon fibre, and the team aren't resting on their laurels. The 2005 box changes gears far quicker than previous versions, resulting in a measurable gain in pace over the course of a race distance.

A saving of just 25 milliseconds a change could result in a race time saving of up to one minute, representing a huge advantage over slower changing cars.

There is confusion, however, between various rules and agreements. The FIA rules specifically outlaw a continuously variable transmission, or CVT. This has an theoretically infinite number of ratios within certain limits, and allows for no break in power at any point.

Otmar Szafnauer, Honda Racing Development's vice-president, explained that "In our system there is a break in power so it does not breach the FIA regulations. The system is a lot quicker than before but it is not a CVT."

The F1 Technical Working group agreed that there must be a 300ms break in power when changing gears, yet this hasn't made it into the rule book. The Honda developed gearbox that BAR will run changes ratios quicker than this limit.

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