The other old hands are scattered through the field, many of them having changed teams over the winter. Toccacelo leads the group as he returns to the scene of his only WS success, but only joined unfancied Eurointernational at the very last minute, and will have to re-adapt to the WS car after a winter spent lugging Italy's A1GP machine around distant circuits. The Italian proved in F3000 that he has what it takes to run at the front regularly, however, and it could be his team that holds him back.
Montanari returns to the World Series with newcomers Prema Powerteam, while Eric Salignon swaps Cram for Interwetten.com, Alx Danielsson DAMS for Comtec and Milos Pavlovic GD Racing for Cram Competition. Patrick Pilet did his moving late last season, joining GD from Jenzer, and he will be partnered this year by Matteo Meneghello, who joins GD from Eurointernational. Celso Miguez (Pons Racing) and Ryo Fukuda (Tech 1 Racing), meanwhile, stay put with their 2005 teams, even thought the Japanese driver's mount will now be run by the new owners of the former Saulnier franchise.
The old hands will be full with the challenge of keeping the new boys at bay, with a large contingent of F3 drivers stepping up to steal the glory. Apart from the likes of Kane and Valsecchi at Epsilon, both British and Spanish F3 champions make the move to the World Series. Alvaro Parente will run with Victory Engineering this year, having benefited from F3 entrant Carlin's new association with the Italian operation, while Andy Soucek is installed at Interwetten. Both have already demonstrated that they are worthy title holders, and 2006 contenders, with solid pace during pre-season testing.
