Formula One 2016

[Rich]

I want to snuggle with the McLaren.

[Lineker]

Sauber's 'new' livery is appears to be exactly the same as last year except with a plethora of new sponsors on the endplates:

New Haas car promo released:

Here's an HD image album

[JasonM]

Haas' livery is all over the place and a bit of a mess...

[Lineker]

13 minutes ago, Jasonmufc said:

Haas' livery is all over the place and a bit of a mess...

Nine months later...

[Chris2K]

My first impression of the Haas livery is that they're going to be very difficult to distinguish from the Manors on television coverage.

I assume the comparisons in the Imgur folder are to imply that it's just a re-painted version of last year's Ferrari?

[Lineker]

3 minutes ago, Chris2K said:

My first impression of the Haas livery is that they're going to be very difficult to distinguish from the Manors on television coverage.

I assume the comparisons in the Imgur folder are to imply that it's just a re-painted version of last year's Ferrari?

@Chris2K I wouldn't say that. For one the noses are completely different.

Also, it turns out the Haas F1 car design had already been "leaked" since last year it turns out.

[Lineker]

Here's the Autosport write-up on Haas' new challenger: 

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New American Formula 1 team Haas has released the first images of the VF-16 that it will use for its debut in 2016.

Gene Haas's squad is the first complete newcomer on the F1 since the arrivals of the teams initially known as Lotus, Virgin and Hispania in 2010.

It abandoned initial plans for a full pre-season launch when the start of the 2016 grand prix season was brought forward in the final calendar rejig and suggested its car would simply appear in a pitlane rollout on the opening morning of Barcelona testing on Monday.

But it subsequently revised that plan and released initial images of the VF-16 on Sunday morning US time.

Haas, who is a highly successful team co-owner in the NASCAR Sprint Cup in partnership with Tony Stewart, has recruited an array of experienced F1 personnel headlined by ex-Jaguar/Red Bull man Gunther Steiner as team principal.

Romain Grosjean opted out of Renault's takeover of Lotus and put his faith in a switch to Haas for 2016.

The 10-time F1 podium finisher will be joined by ex-Sauber racer Esteban Gutierrez, back on the GP grid after a year as a Ferrari test and reserve driver.

Its affiliation with Ferrari is a key part of Haas's F1 approach, with the relationship extending beyond an engine and powertrain supply to take advantage of rules that allow teams to run 'non-listed parts' from other squads.

That means Haas has been able to focus on its monocoque and bodywork design primarily, while taking most other components from Ferrari.

The team has taken over the former Manor facility in Banbury to give it a European base alongside its US headquarters in Kannapolis.

It was given an entry for the 2015 F1 season originally but opted to defer a year in order to prepare better.

Haas recently suggested his team had ended up with "too much" time as a result.

"We probably had maybe three months more than what we really needed," he told Autosport.

"But that provided us with the time to look at all the things we needed to order in, things like the technical trailers - it takes almost a year to build them all.

"That time gave us a benefit you don't normally get.

"For many people, when they go into Formula 1 they buy another team with all the infrastructure already in place.

"But we had none of that. We had to start everything from scratch and I think that's what killed so many of the other start-up teams.

"They had six months to go Formula 1 racing which, even now, when I look at it, that's absurd.

"Looking back I really don't think we would have been ready if we had tried to enter for last season."

 

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The Haas Formula 1 team reiterated its belief that it can score points in its debut grand prix racing season as it unveiled its VF-16 2016 design on Sunday.

Recent F1 newcomer teams have struggled to make a mark - the squads that began life as Lotus and Hispania both folded without scoring, while Virgin/Marussia/Manor only has Jules Bianchi's ninth place in the 2014 Monaco Grand Prix to show for its six seasons on the grid.

But having sealed a comprehensive technical partnership with Ferrari, Haas has set its sights higher for the VF-16.

Team principal Gunther Steiner said: "Our goal with this car is to score points.

"First, we need to go out there and show that we can do the job, that we can finish races, that we are respected by the fans and other teams in the paddock.

"Then, we want to score points. That is the ultimate goal."

Haas has made use of the recently-introduced 'listed parts' regulations to receive multiple components from Ferrari as well as an engine and powertrain supply.

Its primary focus for its design has been the car's monocoque and bodywork, with most other elements coming from Maranello.

Steiner said the design inevitably therefore had Ferrari cues given the need to package the Italian team's engine and other parts, but that Haas had generally tried to follow wider F1 design trends.

"We're a new team, so we looked at what the successful teams were doing to give us a baseline of the direction we needed to go with our design," he said.

"We have very experienced designers who worked hard to develop all the little things from an aerodynamic perspective that, collectively, add up to a lot.

"And our technical partner, Ferrari, provided our power unit, and that really defined the rear end of the car and how big it needed to be."

The VF-16 designation has its roots in the VF-1 title given to the first machine manufactured by team founder Gene Haas's CNC business in 1988. That title was chosen as an acronym of the phrase 'very first one'.

The team has opted for a grey, black and red livery for its F1 car in keeping with the colour scheme used for Haas's Haas Automation firm's products.

[EddieG]

Well, the Haas and Manor cars shouldn't be so hard to tell apart now..

 

[JasonM]

The Manor nose is really... weird, compared to all the fancy high tech noses other teams are rocking now. (especially compared to the 'nose' of Force India). I do love the colour though, smart move from Manor to have a more 'standout' colour on the grid that will no doubt catch the eyes of people watching.

Also I was skeptical about the Red Bull livery, but having seen it on the track in day lighting it looks amazing.

[Rich]

The nose on the Mercedes doesn't look too techy either.

[Lineker]

All the cars will look very different come what the start of the European season anyway.

[Lineker]

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Sebastian Vettel finished the opening day of 2016 pre-season Formula 1 testing fastest for Ferrari, but it was reigning champions Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes who racked up the laps.

Vettel's leading time of 1m24.939s at Barcelona's Catalunya circuit was posted late in the morning session on a set of medium-compound Pirelli tyres.

He only managed 69 laps overall - 36 in the morning, 33 in the afternoon - compared to Hamilton's phenomenal total of 156. The Mercedes driver's best was just under half a second off Vettel.

To put Hamilton's lap-count total into perspective, no other driver came close to even 100 laps, with the next best being Marcus Ericsson's 88 for Sauber.

Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo finished best of the rest, just over a second off the pace in an RB12 that still sports a Renault engine, albeit badged TAG Heuer in the wake of last season's acrimonious fallout between team and manufacturer.

Valtteri Bottas was fourth on the timesheet, just 0.047s behind Ricciardo, with Force India reserve Alfonso Celis Jr a solid fifth on his F1 debut.

Celis's best time of 1m26.298s was set on the soft compound, with the Mexican finishing four tenths of a second up on Jenson Button in his McLaren, the Briton also running the slightly quicker rubber for his best lap.

Button also clocked up 84 laps, five more than McLaren-Honda posted over all four days of last season's first test at Jerez ahead of what eventually proved to be a torrid year for the Japanese manufacturer on its return to F1.

Running in an unmarked Toro Rosso as the livery is still in the pipeline and to be unveiled from the start of the second test next Tuesday, Carlos Sainz Jr was seventh, 2.2s adrift of Vettel.

In last year's Sauber as the 2016 model will not be ready until test two, Marcus Ericsson was eighth quickest, with the Swede 2.6s off the pace.

Pascal Wehrlein produced an encouraging display on his Manor debut with a time 3.3s behind Vettel.

After managing just eight laps in the morning as Manor only received a number of parts late last night, the 2015 DTM champion managed 46 in the afternoon.

A front-wing failure in the morning session compromised Haas's maiden outing, with Romain Grosjean winding up 10th on the timesheet, and managing just 31 laps for the day, with his best a 1m28.399s.

Bringing up the rear on a day full of "niggles", according to Jolyon Palmer, was Renault. The Briton was just over four seconds down and with only 37 laps to his name.

MONDAY TEST RESULTS:

Pos	Driver	Car	Time	Gap	Laps
1	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1m24.939s	-	69
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1m25.409s	0.470s	156
3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull/TAG Heuer	1m26.044s	1.105s	87
4	Valtteri Bottas	Williams/Mercedes	1m26.091s	1.152s	80
5	Alfonso Celis	Force India/Mercedes	1m26.298s	1.359s	58
6	Jenson Button	McLaren/Honda	1m26.735s	1.796s	84
7	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso/Ferrari	1m27.180s	2.241s	55
8	Marcus Ericsson	Sauber/Ferrari	1m27.555s	2.616s	88
9	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor/Mercedes	1m28.292s	3.353s	54
10	Romain Grosjean	Haas/Ferrari	1m28.399s	3.460s	31
11	Jolyon Palmer	Renault	1m29.356s	4.417s	37

[Lineker]

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Red Bull has released imagery of its new RB12 Formula 1 car that will make its debut this morning at Barcelona.

The team unveiled its new-look livery in an event in London last week, but did so using the 2015 car, as its new challenger had only just passed the FIA crash tests.

Daniel Ricciardo will turn the first laps in the RB12 on Monday morning when F1 pre-season testing gets under way.

The car is still powered by Renault's engine, but with the unit now badged a Tag Heuer.

"Obviously the late engine decision last year was a challenge but we found a solution in time and the whole team has worked incredibly hard to recover over the winter," team principal Christian Horner said.

"Therefore, we're looking to build on the significant progress we made in the second half of 2015 and to carry that momentum into the early races of this season.

"My hopes for this season are that we genuinely make progress from where we were last year; that we get our heads down and we really develop the car well and hopefully with some performance coming on the power unit side as well that will allow us to get closer to some of our immediate rivals."

 

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Force India pulled the covers off its VJM09 for the 2016 Formula 1 season half an hour before the start of pre-season testing at Barcelona.

Development driver Alfonso Celis Jr will be at the wheel for the car's first run on Monday, before racers Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg take their turns later in the week.

There are high hopes for the Mercedes-powered VJM09 after Force India's performance surge in the second half of the 2015 campaign.

It had begun last year with a modified version of its 2014 machine following pre-season delays, but racked up points consistently even before its 'B spec' design appeared from the British Grand Prix.

The team went on to secure fifth in the constructors' championship and to challenge Williams's status as the leading customer Mercedes runner.

 

 

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Renault's 2016 Formula 1 car, the RS16, made its first proper appearance in the Barcelona pitlane ahead of the start of pre-season testing on Monday morning.

The team had held its official launch in Paris nearly three weeks ago, but used a 2015-based show car for that event.

The definitive 2016 design was revealed ahead of Jolyon Palmer taking driving duties for the first two days of running.

His team-mate Kevin Magnussen - a late replacement for Pastor Maldonado - will then try the car on Wednesday and Thursday.

Renault has reacquired what was formerly the Lotus team, which it previously operated as its own works squad from 2000 to '09.

Team chiefs have urged caution ahead of the 2016 season, arguing it will be two or three years before Renault's new project is competitive enough for consistent podiums.

The RS16 is running in a temporary livery for testing, before its definitive 2016 colours are unveiled prior to the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

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Toro Rosso's STR11 2016 Formula 1 car made a low-key debut by heading straight out on track in a plain blue livery as Barcelona testing began on Monday.

Red Bull's junior team eschewed any form of pre-season launch or even pitlane unveiling, but was among the first to hit the track when the green light came on to commence 2016 running.

Carlos Sainz Jr is at the wheel for Monday, alternating driving duties with team-mate Max Verstappen through the week.

Toro Rosso will reveal its definitive 2016 colour scheme later in the pre-season build-up.

The team switched back to Ferrari power over the winter amid its parent company's wrangles with Renault.

Although Toro Rosso will be using Maranello's 2015-specification engines, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner predicted last week that will give the squad an immediate 0.8-second per lap boost and leapfrog it ahead of RBR.

But the relatively late engine supply decision means Toro Rosso has faced a "massive" redesign and a fraught winter, according to technical director James Key.

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Manor Racing hailed the MRT05 as by far the best Formula 1 car it has produced as it unveiled the new, Mercedes-powered, design on the first morning of Barcelona testing.

F1's smallest team's deal to use Mercedes engines and Williams transmission and other components is expected to bring it much closer to competitiveness after six seasons adrift of the midfield pack.

Pascal Wehrlein left the garage in the MRT05 just under 90 minutes into the first day of the test.

Manor technical director John McQuilliam said the team was confident of a massive step forward in 2016.

"Even at this early stage of the game, we can easily say this is the best car we've ever launched," he said.

"Certainly the most developed, the most ambitious and the most aggressive.

"The overall package is a very significant step forward, not just from last year, but from any of the cars from our stable.

"Yes, we have a long way to go from here in terms of developing the MRT05, but it's already a dream package for the 154 Manor Racing people who've worked so hard to design and build it."

Manor's new racing director Dave Ryan, who arrived after the exits of founders John Booth and Graeme Lowdon last year, said he had been impressed by what he had seen at the team so far.

"It's been a very busy time, but it has really served to underline everything I thought when I first agreed to join the team - a great little operation, with huge potential and the vision and ambition to make a big step forward," Ryan said.

"The team did a laudable job last year given its circumstances over the previous winter.

"This year, with the package we have, we need to be every inch the professional racing outfit."

Manor only just made it to the start of the 2015 campaign after being rescued from administration on the eve of the season, and used a modified '14 car for the year.

It has an all-rookie driver line-up in DTM champion Wehrlein and GP2 race winner Rio Haryanto.

[Chris2K]

Ted Kravitz has pointed out that the new Manor Racing logo looks very similar to something from my childhood that I would usually see at the end of Gladiators.

 

 

 

[Lineker]

Ted's Notebook - Day 1 preseason testing

@Meacon

[Lineker]

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Yasuhisa Arai will leave his role as motorsport boss for Honda's Formula 1 programme at the end of the month.

Following a board meeting in Tokyo, Honda Motor Company Ltd has announced its "annual organisational changes".

Yusuke Hasegawa, who joined the division in 1986, will replace Arai as head of development, manufacturing and management of the F1 project with Arai moving into the role of senior managing officer of Honda R&D.

Hasegawa was previously managing officer and director of Honda R&D and chief operating officer of the advanced research division.

CEO of Honda R&D Yoshiyuki Matsumoto will oversee the overall running of the project.

Arai faced growing pressure over the course of last season as Honda struggled for reliability and performance on its return to F1 with McLaren.

The alliance finished a disappointing ninth in the constructors' championship, ahead of only Manor, with Alonso getting through 12 power units across the season.

Arai, who has led the project since Honda's return, retained his role through the winter, with the Japanese manufacturer sticking with its philosophy for 2016 but changing the turbine, compressor and MGU-H.

Speaking late last year to Autosport, he said he believed the deployment deficit to the top teams will be "non-existent" this year.

"It's quite a different situation - 2015 and 2016," Arai added.

"We didn't have any experience with the complex system, so you can imagine the challenge, but we learned a lot and we have the confidence we can catch up."

Quelle surprise.

[Chris2K]

It's not often that you can with almost complete certainty say "he can't do any worse", but this may be one of those times.

[Lineker]

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Formula 1 bosses have voted unanimously to deliver a dramatic overhaul of the qualifying format for the upcoming season.

Following a meeting of the Strategy Group and F1 Commission in Geneva, the format change has been voted through to spice up the show.

Qualifying will remain as a one-hour session, split into three segments, but drivers must be on track throughout each part until they get knocked out.

Details on how the new qualifying format will work exactly have yet to be decided, but the general outline has been agreed.

Q1 will now last 16 minutes and after seven minutes the slowest driver will take no further part in the session.

Every 90 seconds thereafter, the slowest will be knocked out until there are only 15 drivers remaining.

After a short break, Q2 will commence and last 15 minutes with the slowest driver eliminated after six minutes.

As was the case in Q1, the slowest driver at the time will be knocked out at 90-second intervals until eight remain.

Q3 will last 14 minutes and see the process repeated again with the slowest taking no further part after five minutes.

The next five drivers will drop out at 90-second intervals leaving the final two drivers to fight it out for pole in the final 90 seconds.

The change will require ratification by the World Motor Sport Council, which next meets on March 4.

[Chris2K]

OK that sounds bloody fantastic, mainly because it's completely alien to the current landscape of Formula 1. I won't get my hopes up that it'll get through in that exact format, but if it does then it's going to make qualifying more exciting from start to finish.

[EddieG]

I.. er.. huh?