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Raikkonen Closes off the First Test On Top

Kimi Raikkonen closed off the final day of the first pre-season test of 2016 on top of the time sheets in the Ferrari SF16-H

The Finn set his fastest time of 1:23.477 on the Ultra Soft compound tyres late in the morning. Second fastest to Raikkonen was Daniil Kvyat in the Red Bull who was almost a second slower with a 1:24.293.

Alfonso Celis had a good day out with some solid running for Force India which put him 3rd fastest setting his time on the super softs.

Renault had a very good day with 153 laps completed with Kevin Magnussen at the wheel of the R.S.16. This sort of reliability from Renault is encouraging for the manufacturer and although they’re still down on power the driveability seems to have improved.

Toro Rosso’s Max Verstappen put in another solid day of running for the Faenza based team racking up 110 laps for the day and finishing 5th fastest for the day. Felipe Nasr in the 2015 Sauber C34 was 6th fastest with 121 laps to his name.

Both Mercedes drivers were at the wheel of the W07 today with Rosberg finishing 7th fastest and Hamilton 8th. They both completed 86 and 99 laps respectively which brings the grand total of 185 laps on the day for Mercedes. Such was the reliability of the Mercedes they had to get both their drivers to keep up.

Bewildering for the other F1 teams. The new Mercedes is so fast and reliable they have to throw both super fit wheel-smiths at it every day

— Martin Brundle (@MBrundleF1) February 25, 2016

Although conceding that they would’ve liked to have done more mileage, Esteban Gutierrez had a solid day for newcomers Haas F1 with 89 laps. He’s day was cut short after his car stopped on track an hour before the end of the session.

“We had a productive day. In the morning we had a small problem which we sorted pretty quickly due to the team working well together,” said Guther Steiner the Team Principal of Haas F1.

“In the afternoon after a long run we went into pit-stop practice. We had a problem with our ECU and we stopped testing for the day but it looks promising.

“In general the first test was a fantastic four days for us, we got a lot of running in which we didn’t expect because we are a new team, we are only four days old.”

Fernando Alonso did not set a time. He had completed three installation laps until he was confined to the garage after a coolant leak. The awkward position of the leak meant that it took longer for the team to fix the problem.

POS	Driver	Team/Car	Best lap	Gap	Laps
1	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari SF16-H	1:23.477	–	78
2	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer RB12	1:24.923	+0.816	94
3	Alfonso Celis	Force India-Mercedes VJM09	1:24.840	+1.363	75
4	Kevin Magnussen	Renault R.S.16	1:25.263	+1.786	153
5	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR11	1:25.393	+1.916	110
6	Felipe Nasr	Sauber-Ferrari C34	1:26.053	+2.576	121
7	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes F1 W07 Hybrid	1:26.187	+2.71	86
8	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes F1 W07 Hybrid	1:26.295	+2.818	99
9	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes FW38	1:26.483	+3.006	54
10	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas-Ferrari VF-16	1:27.802	+4.325	89
11	Rio Haryanto	Manor Racing-Mercedes MRT05	1:28.268	+4.789	51
12	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Honda MP4-31	No time	–	3

February 25, 2016

Faster Cars, Revamped Qualifying for F1 in 2017

The push to revamp F1’s rules is 2017 seems to have been brought to the fore once again after a meeting between the F1 commission and the FIA

The new rules are touting wider, faster cars with increased down force and also a revamped qualifying format which will see more cars on track throughout the session.

The changes to the cars are detailed in the table below:

	2017
Weight	722kg
Bodywork	1600mm max allowable width
Suspension	2000mm track
Front Wing	1800mm span
Rear Wing	950mm wide, 800mm high. Swept endplate
Floor	• 1600mm max allowable width, 1400mm minimum width • Reference plane 430mm behind front axle • 175mm high, 1050mm wide diffuser • Cut-out plank to save weight
Tyres	Front: 305mm wide. Rear: 405mm wide

The new qualifying format features an elimination style shootout between the cars on track. The three qualifying sessions will remain. The only difference is that the slowest driver in each session will be eliminated every 90 seconds. This format has the potential to yield some surprising results and will mix the grid up a bit come race day.

Read about the new qualifying format here

The other big talking point was the introduction of head protection for the drivers. The current preferred option by the FIA is the “Halo” concept. The FIA say that while the Halo is preferred they are exploring other options which will continue to be evaluated.

February 24, 2016

F1 2016: Pre-season Test 1 Day 3 – Hulkenberg On Top

The third day of testing at Spain’s circuit de Catalunya was headed by Force India driver Nico Hulkenberg.

The morning running was marked with the introduction to Formula 1 of Indonesia’s first ever grand prix driver Rio Haryanto. The rookie Manor driver seemed comfortable in the early running and put together a solid first few stints. A slight error later on in the morning saw the Manor end up in the gravel trap of turn 5 which prompted the second red flag of the morning.

The first red flag of the day was prompted by the Toro Rosso of Carlos Sainz as the Spaniard was forced to stop at the exit of the pitlane with a loose rear wheel. The morning was a complete write-off for Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen as the team struggled to get on top of a fuel pick-up issue. The Finnish driver was only able to complete three installation laps before lunch.

Meanwhile, Nico Rosberg continued with Mercedes’ run programme by putting together several race simulation runs in the morning. As lunch rolled around it was Nico Hulkenberg in the Force India heading the timing sheet with a 1:25.286. The German would later improve his time to a 1:23.110.

The session after lunch saw the two Mercedes drivers swop around with Lewis Hamilton taking over testing duties for the remainder of the day. Kimi Raikkonen was able to put Ferrari on the board after lunch and the Finn completed xx laps for the day. Felipe Massa was the first driver to reach 100 laps on day three of the first pre-season test in the Williams whilst Carlos Sainz also put more than 100 laps on the board in his Toro Rosso.

Late on in the day’s running Renault driver Kevin Magnussen brought out the red flag as his car stopped on the start/finish strait. It proved a minor blip on the radar as proceedings got underway within minutes. Haryanto was first out on track in the Manor Mercedes on the medium compound tyres. By this stage no driver had opted to strap on the ultrasoft compound.

McLaren called an end to their day’s running thirty minutes before the close of the session. Jenson Button’s car, which completed only 51 laps, suffered an hydraulic leak.Williams too brought an early end to proceedings after discovering an oil leak of Felipe Massa’s car.

Toro Rosso driver Carlos Sainz ended the day with 161 laps on the board while Hulkenberg in the Force India heads Romain Grosjean, in the Haas, at the top of the leaderboard.

POS	Driver	Team/Car	Best lap	Gap	Laps
1	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes VJM09	1:23.110	–	99
2	Romain Grosjean	Haas-Ferrari VF-16	1:25.874	+2.764	82
3	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari SF16-H	1:25.977	+2.867	78
4	Kevin Magnussen	Renault R.S.16	1:26.014	+2.904	111
5	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes F1 W07 Hybrid	1:26.084	+2.974	74
6	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR11	1:26.239	+3.129	161
7	Felipe Nasr	Sauber-Ferrari C34	1:26.392	+3.282	115
8	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes F1 W07 Hybrid	1:26.421	+3.311	88
9	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer RB12	1:26.497	+3.387	74
10	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes FW38	1:26.712	+3.602	109
11	Jenson Button	McLaren-Honda MP4-31	1:26.919	+3.809	51
12	Rio Haryanto	Manor Racing-Mercedes MRT05	1:28.249	+5.139	78

February 24, 2016

F1 2016: Elimination style Qualifying for F1
Formula 1 looks set to introduce an elimination style qualifying session in 2016.

A meeting in Geneva between the Strategy Group and the Formula 1 Commission saw a unanimous vote passed to revamp the qualifying session for the 2016 season. The session will still remain as a one hour session split into three segments. However, with the new format all drivers will have to be on circuit until they are eliminated from qualifying.

Teams have agreed to a general outline for how the qualifying hour will run while the finer details are yet to be decided. The decision to change the qualifying format must be ratified by the World Motorsport Council on March 4. For now, here is a breakdown of how the qualifying hour will progress:

Q 1 –
- Session will last 16 minutes;
- After seven minutes have elapsed the slowest driver is eliminated;
- Thereafter, after every 1 minute 30 seconds, until the end of Q1, the slowest driver is eliminated;
- Seven drivers will be eliminated in Q1 and 15 will advance to Q2.
Q 2 –
- Session will last 15 minutes;
- After six minutes have elapsed the slowest driver is eliminated;
- Thereafter, after every 1 minute 30 seconds, until the end of Q2, the slowest driver is eliminated;
- Seven drivers will be eliminated in Q2 and 8 will advance to Q3.
Q3 –
- Session will last 14 minutes;
- After five minutes have elapsed the slowest driver is eliminated;
- Thereafter, after every 1 minute 30 seconds the slowest driver is eliminated;
- 2 driver will remain in the final 1 minute 30 seconds of the session to determine pole position.
In addition, a penalty system was discussed by the F1 Commission. The penalty system proposes for time to be added to a driver’s qualifying lap time based on his championship position. The good news is that the penalty system didn’t gain much support amongst F1 teams at the meeting.

The introduction of a new qualifying format is rather perplexing. The last qualifying format had very little, if anything, wrong with and easily managed to both deliver drama and build excitement throughout the session. If the aim is to ‘improve the show’ with this radical change then F1 should beware of compounding the complexity of the sport for a new viewer/fan.
February 24, 2016

F1 2016: Pre-season Test 1 Day 2 – Vettel Quickest Again

The second day of testing got underway with the circuit de Catalunya bathed in bright sunshine.

Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg was the first driver on track and the first to set a flying lap as the second day of testing got underway.The majority of the first two hours of the morning were spent on gathering important data that the teams will carry through to the first few races of the 2016 season. Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel emerged from the garage around mid-day to set the fastest lap of the morning – a 1:24:940.

By this stage Vettel was the only driver to break the 1:24 barrier. Soon after Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo dipped in the 1:24 to go second fastest overall. Fernando Alonso and Lotus’ Jolyon Palmer gave the yellow-walled soft tyre a trundle but did not set a representative time on the softer tyre. The first red flag of the session was brought out by Max Verstappen as his Toro Rosso grinded to a halt in the final sector of the circuit. As the Toro Rosso was recovered to the pits testing was underway again. Nico Rosberg immediately shot to the top of the timing sheets with a 1:24:867.

A switch onto the quicker, red-walled, supersoft tyre took Ricciardo quickest before the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel emerged to set a 1:23.658 on the same tyre. Just before the lunch break Daniel Ricciardo fitted the new-for-2016 ultra-soft tyre. He quickly took over at the top of the timing sheet only to be outdone by Vettel’s own run on the purple-walled tyres. The Ferrari driver set a time of 1:22.810.

The session after lunch was interrupted by the stoppage of Jolyon Palmer’s Renault which had to be recovered to the pits on the back on a flatbed truck. Reports later surfaced that the Renault’s issue may have been turbo related. It brought an early end to Renault’s running with Palmer only able to complete 42 laps for the day.

By mid afternoon Nico Rosberg had again underlined the reliability of the new Mercedes by reaching the 100 lap mark without any issues. Most of the teams settled into longer stints in the afternoon. Williams driver Valtteri Bottas bucked the trend and opted to run a stint of laps on the orange-walled hard tyres. Similarly, Vettel opted instead for the ultrasoft tyres for run. The Ferrari driver completed only a handful of laps before the drop off in performance forced him back into the pits.

McLaren can breath a sign of relieve as Fernando Alonso racked 100 laps two hours before the of the day’s running. In stark contrast to McLaren’s fortunes twelve months ago both Alonso and Jenson Button have already reported a much more positive feeling with the 2016 car. Several other drivers including Max Verstappen, Valtteri Bottas, Daniel Ricciardo, Marcus Ericsson, Sergio Perez and Sebastian Vettel all completed more than 100 laps. But it was Nico Rosberg and his Mercedes that set the most laps of the day with a mammoth 172 laps.

By the end of the day’s running Sebastian Vettel’s 1:22:810 remained quickest overall.

POS	Driver	Team/Car	Best lap	Gap	Laps
1	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari SF16-H	1:22.810	–	126
2	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer RB12	1:23.525	+0.715	112
3	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes VJM09	1:23.650	+0.840	101
4	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes F1 W07 Hybrid	1:24.867	+2.882	172
5	Marcus Ericcson	Sauber-Ferrari C34	1:25.237	+2.427	108
6	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas-Ferrari VF-16	1:25.524	+2.714	79
7	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes FW38	1:25.648	+2.838	134
8	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor Racing-Mercedes MRT05	1:25.925	+3.115	71
9	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Honda MP4-31	1:26.082	+3.272	119
10	Jolyon Palmer	Renault R.S.16	1:26.189	+3.379	42
11	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR11	1:26.539	+3.729	121

February 23, 2016

F1 2016: Ultrasoft Tyre Makes its debut

Pirelli’s ultrasoft compound tyre has made its debut in the second day of pre-season testing in Spain.

The morning’s running was capped by the first-ever glimpsed of purple side-walled ultrasoft Pirelli tyre. It was Red Bull Racing’s Daniel Ricciardo who first ventured out on the brand new compound. The Australian excelled to the top of the timing sheets with a time of 1:23:525.

A short while later the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel emerged from the pitlane also sporting the ultrasoft soft tyres. The German champion smashed the quickest time of Ricciardo by seven tenths of a second and took over the top of the timing sheet with a time of 1:22:810.

The Mercedes of Nico Rosberg remained in the pits as the session winded down towards lunch. Hopefully we’ll see what sort of time the mighty Mercedes can achieve on the ultrasoft after lunch.

February 23, 2016
F1 2016: Honda Replaces F1 boss

Japanese manufacturer Honda has announced that motorsport boss Yasuhisa Arai will be vacating his post.

The announcement of Arai’s departure was made after a board meeting in Tokyo. Yusuke Hasegawa will replace Arai and take up the reigns of managing the F1 project while Arai will slot in as the senior manager of Honda Research and Development.

The change of leadership doesn’t come as much of a surprise given Honda’s difficult re-entry into F1 with the McLaren team. In a season blighted by unreliability and a serious deficiency in the engine department there was an inevitable feeling that some heads would have to roll.

“We didn’t have any experience with the complex system [in 2015], so you can imagine the challenge, but we learned a lot and we have the confidence we can catch up,” Arai told Autosport.

February 23, 2016

F1 2016 Pre-Season Test 1 Day 1: Vettel Tops the Timesheets

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel finished the first day of the first pre-season test of 2016 on top of the time sheets ahead of defending champion Lewis Hamilton in the Mercedes W07 Hybrid.

The German set his best time of 1:24.939 on the medium compound tyres just before lunch to take the top spot for the day. For the rest of the day it was testing as usual for Ferrari which seen Vettel rack up 69 laps.

A few doors up the paddock, Lewis Hamilton racked up an astonishing 156 laps on the day. That’s 698km, which is just a little over two race lengths. “It’s good to be back. It really had felt like a while – but now it feels like home already,” said Hamilton. He finished second fastest on the day with a 1:25.409.

Daniel Ricciardo finished third fastest clocking up 87 laps on the day after a bit of a slow start. This, in contrast to the previous season’s testing, seems like a big improvement from the team. “First impressions are positive but it’s still too early to say much more. We had a good day and I’m ready for more,” said Ricciardo at the end of the day’s running.

Valtteri Bottas ended his day 4th fastest for Williams completing 80 laps. Bottas’ first impression of the car was that he feels many of the issues they’ve had last year have been fixed but he thinks its too early to say where they are in relation to the other teams.

“Valtteri has been complimentary about aspects of the FW38 which is good start,” said the Chief and Test Support Engineer Rob Nelson.

“We are just building up our run lengths and doing our due diligence on reliability, and as the test goes on we’ll feed in more and more performance items. Overall it is a reasonable start to pre-season testing for us.

Mexican Alfonso Celis was in the VJM09 for Force India. He finished 5th fastest with 58 laps to his name. Not far off his pace was Jenson Button in the McLaren MP4-31 finishing 6th fastest with 84 laps on the board. Button’s best time of 1:26.735 came courtesy of a late run on the soft compound tyres.

Carlos Sainz was out for Toro Rosso today. The team chose not to have a big reveal in the pits and instead just emerged from the pits when the green flag dropped for the start of the day. Sainz finished 7th fastest with 55 laps under his belt. His session was cut short when the team saw something strange in the gearbox oil system. The team decided to stop their session as a precaution.

Sauber, who ran an updated livery but a 2015 car, had Marcus Ericsson at the wheel of the C34. He placed 8th fastest on the day ahead of Manor driver Pascal Wehrlein. Wehrlein, on his first outing for the new look Manor team, clocked up 54 laps.

New comers Haas F1 had a good start to their debut test until a front wing failure brought out the red flags. The team say that they have a fix for the wing and will have a replacement by Tuesday. The wing failure put Grosjean out for most of the day. He did, however, emerge from the pits with an hour left in the session to complete a few laps.

Jolyon Palmer was 11th fastest for Renaul in the R.S.16. He had limited running owing to software issued on the car.

POS	Driver	Team/Car	Best lap	Gap	Laps
1	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari SF16-H	1:24.939	–	69
2	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes F1 W07 Hybrid	1:25.409	+0.470	156
3	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer RB12	1:26.044	+1.105	87
4	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes FW38	1:26.091	+1.152	80
5	Alfonso Celis	Force India-Mercedes VJM09	1:26.298	+1.359	58
6	Jenson Button	McLaren-Honda MP4-31	1:26.735	+1.796	84
7	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR11	1:27.180	+2.241	55
8	Marcus Ericcson	Sauber-Ferrari C34	1:27.555	+2.616	88
9	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor Racing-Ferrari MRT05	1:28.292	+3.353	54
10	Romain Grosjean	Haas-Ferrari VF-16	1:28.399	+3.460	31
11	Jolyon Palmer	Renault R.S.16	1:29.356	+4.417	37

Photo Credit: Scuderia Ferrari Formula 1, Scuderia Toro Rosso Formula 1

February 22, 2016

Red Bull Racing’s 2016 F1 Challenger – the RB12

Red Bull released the first images of its 2016 Formula One title challenger, the RB12, ahead of debuting the car on track at the opening day of pre-season testing at the Circuit de Catalunya.

The team released studio photos via its various media channels moments before the RB12 hit the track with Daniel Ricciardo at the wheel. Three-time race winner Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat will race the RB12 this year.

Following very troubled 2015 season, the team will be hoping that the TAG Heuer-badged Renault powered RB12 will have what it takes to return to its former glory once again. The team claimed four successive titles between 2010 and 2013 but quickly fell behind when the F1 introduced V6 power units in 2014. The 2015 F1 season held only two podiums for the team and saw them finishing fourth in the constructor standings.

A late decision to stick with Renault power – albeit under the guise of new Red Bull partner Tag Heuer – after approaching the three other engine suppliers looking to switch for 2016, has the team on a back foot ahead of the start of the season.

Team boss Christian Horner: “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.

“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.”

According to chief technical officer Adrian Newey development on the RB12 was focussed around developing a cohesive package for all the parts. “I’m often asked what area of the car I’m most pleased with, but with the stable regulations we have at the moment it’s difficult to find any major new areas to exploit,” Newey said of the RB12.

“Therefore, what we’ve really tried to concentrate on with this car is getting a cohesive package for all the parts – the suspension, the chassis dynamics, aerodynamics – that they all work together in harmony.

“I think we’ve managed to build on the lessons of last year and all the indications from our simulations suggest that this year’s chassis should be strong.”

Chief engineering officer Rob Marshall hopes that the RB12 can win some races this year: “With the RB12, we are optimistic that we have made some good gains, but the difficulty is the wind tunnel and CFD numbers we’re seeing are our numbers and unless you can see everyone else’s numbers you don’t know where you are. We are happy that we are going in the right direction from our own point of view, but we won’t know until Melbourne.

“As far as this car is concerned, I hope we can win some races. That might sound farfetched after last year, where we struggled at the beginning of the year, but I hope this year we can make a bit of a step power-wise and that will level the playing field a bit.”

RB12 Photo Credits: Red Bull Racing

February 22, 2016
F1 2016: Ferrari Launches 2016 Challenger – The SF16-H

In a week dominated by car launches Ferrari has joined the party by unveiling its challenger for the 2016 season – the SF16-H.

In an online launch, hosted by F1 journalist James Allen, Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel pulled the covers off their new car which Ferrari are calling the SF16-H.

The first, most notable, change is the livery which has a distinctively more retro feel with the addition of the white inlay over the cockpit and airbox.

Team principal Maurizio Arrivebene was also in attendance for the unveiling of the SF16-H and shared his hope that the team and car will be able to challenge for the championship this season.

“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,” he said.

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

The nose of the SF16-H is noticeably shorter than its predecessors and after an arguably failed attempt at running pullrod suspension Ferrari has opted to run a pushrod suspension configuration for 2016.

Technical director James Alison noted that the SF16-H is different in “a number of areas.”

“Last year was a decent step forward and we hope this car will be another good step forward to make us properly competitive,” he added.

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

(SF16-H Images courtesy of ferrari.com)

February 19, 2016