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Formula One 2016


JasonM

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2016 FORMULA 1 LAUNCH DATES

Mercedes TBA
Ferrari February 19
Williams TBA
Red Bull February 17 (livery launch), February 22 (roll-out)
Force India February 22
Renault February 22 (roll-out)
Toro Rosso February 22 (roll-out), February 29 (livery launch)
Sauber March 1 (roll-out)
McLaren February 21
Manor February 22
Haas February 22

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Red Bull 2016, launch

Red Bull revealed its 2016 colour scheme at an event in London on Wednesday, ahead of its RB12 breaking cover at Formula 1 testing next week.

Having lost title sponsor Infiniti, and with Tag Heuer coming on board to badge the team's Renault engines, team boss Christian Horner said it presented Red Bull with a chance to rework the traditional colour scheme it has raced in F1.

Red Bull has done away with its traditional blue base colour, instead opting for a darker matt paint scheme, with yellow lines around the logo on the engine cover, and bold red lettering replacing the Infiniti branding on the sidepod.

"We decided that with a clean sheet of paper to go with something a bit more innovative, aggressive, that will stand out in the crowd and stand out in a few more drivers' mirrors," said Horner.

"It looks right and things that tend to look right, go right."

Red Bull's new chassis was not on show at the livery launch. The team will reveal its 2016 car in the Barcelona pitlane on Monday morning.

Red Bull 2016 livery launch 

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GP2 race winner Rio Haryanto will drive for Manor in the 2016 Formula 1 season, Autosport has learned.

The Indonesian, who has financial backing from the state, has been locked in talks to secure a race seat throughout the winter.

It is believed an agreement has finally been struck and will be announced later on Thursday, making Haryanto F1's first Indonesian driver.

He will partner reigning DTM champion Pascal Wehrlein in 2016 after edging out '15 Manor drivers Will Stevens and Alexander Rossi.

Haryanto has spent the last four seasons racing in GP2, scoring three wins to secure his best finish of fourth in the standings last year with Campos Racing.

The 23-year-old's relationship with the Manor name goes back to 2010, when he raced for the outfit's GP3 team.

His performance that season, where he finished fifth, earned him a test with the Virgin F1 team at the end of the year.

He tested over two days for Marussia in 2012 during the young driver test at Silverstone and was back in the car for Manor in December's Pirelli tyre test.

The news means the 2016 F1 driver line-up is now complete.

Seriously, what does Alex Rossi have to do to get a permanent race seat :lol: 

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Well, I mean obviously.

Manor Racing has confirmed Rio Haryanto will make his Formula 1 debut with the team in 2016, completing the field for the upcoming season.

The Indonesian fended off competition from 2015 race drivers Will Stevens and Alexander Rossi to secure a seat alongside DTM champion Pascal Wehrlein.

It is believed Haryanto brings with him substantial backing from the state, creating a package that neither Stevens nor Rossi could match.

"Manor Racing is a team with an exciting vision and ambitious plans," said Haryanto

"They have produced a great package and I can't wait to get in the car.

"Melbourne will be a huge moment for me, my country, supporters and fans.

"I want to thank everyone who's been with me since I started in single seaters; 2016 is my chance to reward that faith and represent Asia in F1."

Team owner Stephen Fitzpatrick added: "We are delighted to announce Rio as our second race driver for 2016.

"Rio's been racing since he first got into a kart at six years old.

"He's tenacious on and off the track and made a big impression on last year's GP2 battle.

"Rio's huge following in Indonesia is great for the team and for F1.

"They are keen to see him on the grid and we're confident that we'll see him enjoying some exciting battles in the year ahead."

Haryanto will join Wehrlein in Barcelona next week for the first of two pre-season tests ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

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2 hours ago, Lineker said:

Seriously, what does Alex Rossi have to do to get a permanent race seat :lol: 

I hope for Alex that he can get a test seat at Haas, that'd be great for both parties as they can keep a talented American under their wing and improve their home popularity to boot. Then Alex Rossi can try to win GP2 this year. It's gonna be hard to get a race seat in this current grid though, only Haryanto and the two Sauber drivers are the ones i'd replace right now.

A very deep grid in the coming season, and with Manor getting Merc engines, and Haas having Ferrari engines, the backmarkers might be crazy competitive too this year.

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Williams FW38

Williams has unveiled its FW38 ahead of the new Formula 1 season, conceding it will be "a challenge" to retain its place as the best of the rest behind Mercedes and Ferrari.

The 2016 car, that will make its debut at the first pre-season test in Barcelona on Monday, again bears the iconic blue, red and white stripes that have become synonymous with the team over the past two seasons.

But after finishing third in the constructors' championship in 2014 and '15, Sir Frank Williams knows it will be a tall order for a three-peat.

"Williams has started to cement our position back amongst the front-running teams after finishing third in the championship in the past two seasons," he said.

"This has been a great achievement given the resources of those around us.

"Staying where we are will be a challenge in itself, but we are determined to keep improving because only winning will ever be good enough. 

"We have a very stable team going into 2016, with Felipe and Valtteri teaming up for a third successive season.

"They work well together and both have the ideal blend of speed and consistency.

"Our technical team has also remained very consistent which will be to our advantage and we have some of the best engineering minds on the grid at our disposal. 

"We have a busy couple of weeks of testing coming up to learn more about our package and to refine the car ahead of the first race.

"We will have to wait until Melbourne to find out exactly where we stand in the pecking order, but I'm confident that our hard work over the winter will stand us in good stead."

Deputy team principal Claire Williams believes the FW38 is an improvement on last year's car given the stability in the regulations.

Williams is convinced the team can keep the likes of Red Bull, Renault, McLaren and Force India at bay over the coming campaign.

Williams said: "2016 promises to be a very competitive year in Formula 1 and there will be a number of strong teams who have us in their sights.

"We are confident we have made a step forward over the winter and the FW38 will build on the strengths of the FW37 and address some of its weaknesses.

"We started design work on the car earlier than normal and hopefully this extra development time will stand us in good stead.

"The car we are launching today is by no means the final product.

"We are already planning updates for Melbourne and will be pushing for constant improvements over the course of the season.

"Williams enters 2016 in a strong place. We have a great team of people and over the past two years we have started to regain our competitive edge.

"Now we need to build on that and take this team back to where we all want it to be."

Williams FW38 

 

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Williams FW38

Pat Symonds is hopeful Williams has addressed its Achilles heel going into the new Formula 1 season as it unveiled its 2016 car.

Last year's FW37 proved problematic at low-speed circuits such as Monaco and the Hungaroring, where both Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas finished outside the points.

Although Williams retained its third place in the constructors' championship last year, technical director Symonds would like to believe the team has made further gains with the FW38.

"The FW37 was a pretty effective car and so we concentrated on understanding the areas where we could improve it without losing the attributes which made it effective," he said.

"It is no secret the low-speed performance of the FW37 didn't match its high-speed performance, so a lot of time was spent looking into why this was and subsequently making changes, which we hope will improve the situation.

"On top of this we looked at the normal physical obstacles to development that one always meets during the life of a car and tried to push those barriers back."

Symonds, though, is refusing to estimate how Williams will fare this season, adding: "I have been in the sport far too long to fall into the trap of making predictions.

"Over the last couple of years Williams has regained the competitive spirit it was so long famous for.

"I want to harness and augment that spirit and use it to drive us forward in a progressive manner while always keeping a strategic eye on the future and in particular the big changes due for 2017."

He also confirmed the team has made "several operational changes" for this year to ensure it will "cope with the many variant scenarios racing will inevitably throw at them".

Meanwhile Symonds has downgraded his estimate for the improvement in engine noise for this season.

Having initially suggested a 25 per cent increase, he now feels it could be half that.

While suggesting "the engines will sound a bit sharper", he added: "We can expect more power from improved combustion and this will in itself produce a bit more noise, but perhaps more significantly the turbo wastegate is no longer plumbed into the main exhaust.

"This should not only produce an engine note that is around 12 per cent louder than before, but may also from time to time trigger some of the dramatic sounds we all associate with high performance turbocharged engines."

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Ferrari, 2016

Ferrari has become the latest team to unveil its new Formula 1 car, the SF16-H, as it aims to push Mercedes to the wire in the 2016 championship.

The team opted for an online launch, with team principal Maurizio Arrivabene, technical director James Allison and drivers Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen on hand to reveal the Scuderia's new challenger.

The livery sports more white than has been seen in recent years, predominantly on the engine cover and front wing.

In terms of making the car "properly competitive", according to Allison, Ferrari has opted for changes in a number of areas.

The nose is shorter and higher, impacting positively on the aerodynamics, while after four years with a pullrod suspension, the car is now fitted with a pushrod system.

Ferrari has worked on its power unit's architecture, making it tighter and narrower, so influencing the engine cover, which again aids aero.

The engine team has also improved combustion, the turbo and air intake in a bid to find more performance.

Asked as to the car's prospects, Arrivabene said: "Normally I am not setting the objectives, my boss sets the objective for the team.

"I think this year, we need to push a bit more. We would like to fight until the end for the championship.

"I know that is not going to be easy, because our competitors are not sleeping, but we are committed to do our best."

After scoring three grand prix victories with Vettel last season, the team will be looking to push Mercedes even further this season.

Ferrari made considerable gains with its power unit in 2015 that allowed it to step out of the shadows of its winless campaign the year before.

But come the conclusion to the season, Vettel still finished 103 points behind Lewis Hamilton in the drivers' standings, with Mercedes 275 points clear of Ferrari in the constructors' championship.

That underlined the gap Ferrari still has to bridge to Mercedes this year if it is to consider itself a realistic title contender.

Assessing Ferrari's challenge for the year ahead, Allison said: "Back in 2013, Ferrari was not at the right level, the championship, except for maybe doing pitstops.

"We've worked very hard on all of those areas. Last year was a decent step forward and we hope this car will be another good step forward to make us properly competitive.

"We have improved across the board. All our hopes are in this car, and we can't wait to see it on the track."

Ferrari F1 launch 2016 

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FIRST TEST DRIVER LINE-UP:

             MONDAY     TUESDAY     WEDNESDAY   THURSDAY
Mercedes     Hamilton   Rosberg     Hamilton    Rosberg
Ferrari      Vettel     Vettel      Raikkonen   Raikkonen
Williams     Bottas     Bottas      Massa       Massa
Red Bull     Ricciardo  Ricciardo   Kvyat       Kvyat
Force India  Celis      Perez       Hulkenberg  Celis
Renault      Palmer     Palmer      Magnussen   Magnussen
Toro Rosso   Sainz      Verstappen  Sainz       Verstappen
Sauber       Ericsson   Ericsson    Nasr        Nasr
McLaren      Button     Alonso      Button      Alonso
Manor        Wehrlein   Wehrlein    Haryanto    Haryanto
Haas         Grosjean   Gutierrez   Grosjean    Gutierrez

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Honda protege and GP2 racer Nobuharu Matsushita has joined the McLaren Formula 1 team as a test and development driver. The 22-year-old won a race on his way to ninth in GP2 last year with ART Grand Prix, alongside champion Stoffel Vandoorne, and will stay with the outfit in 2016. He joins Vandoorne in McLaren's line-up to support race drivers Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso, focusing on what the team outlines as "simulator support and engineering work".

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Mercedes F1 launch 2016

Mercedes has officially unveiled its 2016 Formula 1 challenger, with its aim for "optimisation absolutely everywhere".

The F1 W07 Hybrid hit the track for the first time on Friday, with Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton clocking up just under 100 kilometres between them at Silverstone as part of a promotional event.

Despite Mercedes winning the last two constructors' championships, and with Hamilton collecting the drivers' titles the past two years, Mercedes' aim is still for perfection according to technical executive director Paddy Lowe.

"After a highly successful season all round in 2015, our priority has been to identify the areas in which we were weakest and to try to improve on those," said Lowe.

"Our objective is excellence in all areas and, while we had some fantastic results last year, there are many areas in which we can still be much better.

"That's the kind of culture we try to instil throughout the whole organisation - one of constantly striving to reach something better.

"We had a number of races that didn't go to plan in 2015 - Singapore in particular - so there were a lot of things that needed improving for 2016.

"We are seeking optimisation absolutely everywhere."

The car will be put through its paces on Monday for the first day of testing at Barcelona's Catalunya circuit, with Hamilton at the wheel.

Mercedes F1 launch 2016 

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Mercedes F1 launch 2016

Mercedes believes it will have little opportunity to upgrade its new-for-2016 car ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix once Formula 1 testing starts on Monday.

The reigning world champion team officially unveiled its latest challenger, the F1 W07 Hybrid, on Sunday with the target of clinching constructors' and drivers' titles for the third successive year.

According to executive technical director Paddy Lowe, the car that hits the track at Barcelona will not be too far removed from the one that runs in Melbourne.

Teams have previously begun testing with a 'launch spec' car and added substantial updates over the course of what used to be a three-test pre-season spread across a month or more.

This year there are just two tests, back to back, and then a two-week gap to Australia.

"We've now reached a new minimum in terms of winter testing, with two banks of four days," said Lowe.

"That's something the team has been preparing for by producing better designs and undertaking better preparation and testing in the R&D lab so that we're as well placed as possible to hit the ground running.

"What's different for 2016 is actually not so much that there are only two tests, but that they're both very close to the first race of the season.

"This has notably reduced the extent to which we can upgrade the car from 'launch spec' to the first-race spec.

"That window is now very narrow, which reduces the number of potential upgrades ahead of the opening grand prix weekend."

Lowe also feels rules stability means there has been little chance for the car to undergo a significant overhaul.

"It's very tough to find performance under a stable set of regulations and we were particularly pleased with how the car turned out in 2015 when we had the same situation," said Lowe.

"The team did a fantastic job - digging very deep to find all sorts of innovations in areas that might have been considered static.

"2016 is another carry-over year from a regulatory point of view and potential gains inevitably become harder to find under these circumstances.

"This is what tests an engineering team the most and I must say that this team has been very good at that. It's far easier to find performance when you have a new set of rules, that's for sure."

It has resulted in the car going through what Lowe describes as an "overall evolution" for this year.

"It's difficult to have a complete revolution when the rules have stayed pretty much the same year on year," he said.

"But we aim to make minor revolutions wherever we can, even within a small context.

"We may look at a completely new packaging solution or suspension concept, for instance.

"So while the car may look very similar to its predecessor from the outside - as is inherent within stable regulations - underneath there are quite a lot of mini revolutions that make up an overall evolution for the new season."

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Mercedes has assured its customers they will receive its latest spec of Formula 1 power unit ahead of the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

Last season Mercedes produced an upgraded system ahead of the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, primarily as it explored a new developmental direction, as well as to help validate the use of a new fuel from supplier Petronas.

Its 2015 customer teams Williams, Force India and Lotus were denied the opportunity to run the updated engine over the closing races of the campaign due to Mercedes' limited resources at the time.

But Williams, Force India and new Mercedes runner Manor Racing will get the up-to-date engine from the outset in 2016.

Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains managing director Andy Cowell said: "The upgrade that we introduced in Monza last year took a huge amount of effort from the factory at Brixworth, and we only had enough resource to supply the works team with the latest spec at that time.

"However, that is now paying off for every team with Mercedes power as we've managed to build on that development work through the autumn and winter period.

"Now, all our customers are getting an improved package that is exactly the same specification as the works team.

"All eight Mercedes powered cars will have exactly the same hardware and performance potential come Melbourne, which is a good step for everyone."

Mercedes has also confirmed it is refusing to take the allowance this season of an additional engine for granted.

Last year each driver could run a maximum of four power units, with the use of anything over and above that leading to grid penalties.

This season, with two extra races as the F1 calendar expands from 19 grands prix to a record-breaking 21, each driver is allowed five engines.

Despite that, Mercedes is still working as if it were only allowed four to ensure it can cover for any unforeseen issues that may arise over the course of the season.

"On the face of it, an increased allocation of power units would seem to give manufacturers an advantage in that each unit is required to complete fewer races, thereby putting less pressure on the life cycle of different components," said Cowell.

"But the reality is our durability targets have remained the same. Our target is to make sure that each power unit can last for at least five races, meaning that theoretically we only need to use four per driver, across the season.

"We believe this gives us a good opportunity to react if we have a reliability problem, or potentially to use the extra units to our advantage for a performance enhancement at key races."

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McLaren has revealed the Honda-powered MP4-31 Formula 1 car it will race in the 2016 season.

The team laboured through a disastrous 2015 campaign as Honda struggled on its return to F1, finishing ninth in the constructors' championship.

Jenson Button will be behind the wheel for the new car's first laps on Monday, during the opening day of pre-season testing at Barcelona.

"As we embark on the second year of our renewed McLaren-Honda partnership, all of us remain united in our purpose," McLaren group CEO Ron Dennis said.

"That purpose is to develop our team towards our shared ambition: to win.

"We'll make no predictions as to when those wins will come, but I can say without fear of contradiction that every member of our team has worked with truly relentless dedication over the past few months.

"The result is that MP4-31's developmental trajectory has been usefully steepened over the winter, and I'm consequently very proud of our team's efforts."

McLaren describes the new chassis as 'innovative', and its fortunes will rest on Honda's off-season progress with the RA616H power unit.

"Learning from last year, we've made changes to the compressor and other hardware of the power unit during the break, maturing our overall concept from last year," Honda motorsport boss Yasuhisa Arai said.

"Our focus will be to test the car's balance with the new chassis and power unit, and specifically the ERS direction during the eight days of winter testing.

"We won't know exactly where we stand until we reach the end of the two tests, but we're looking forward to getting back on track, gathering data, and feeding back the information to our engineers so as to prepare for Melbourne and onwards."

McLaren retains its 'size zero' aero philosophy with the MP4-31, and Button and team-mate Fernando Alonso noted the detail of the package.

"The immense amount of sheer hard work that has gone into the development of the MP4-31 over the winter makes me immensely proud, and consequently I go into the new season with even more motivation and belief," Button said.

"From what I've seen so far, the aero detailing on the car looks fantastic, and I'm really looking forward to beginning the process of testing those new innovations when I get behind the wheel tomorrow."

Alonso will test the car on the second and fourth days of this week's test.

"The aero package shows fantastic attention to detail," the Spaniard added.

"The whole car is beautiful in fact - it's particularly nicely packaged from an aerodynamic point of view."

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