Formula 1 2016 with a new American team, Haas F1.

Preseason tests are over, only 8 days of testing meant that the teams had to be well prepared before traveling to sircuit Catalunya in Barcelona Spain, where the preseason tests took place.

Three teams were quite impresive, Haas F1 as a newcomer impressed many with their car.
Although they have had a lot of help from Ferrari, succeeded to add two good experienced race drivers to their team, everything has to fall in place for the team to be successful.

The second team which is Mercedes.
They are the team to beat, nothing new here, but they stunned everyone with their reliability, driving lap after lap after lap without any problems.

The third team is Toro Rosso, it was 6 December when finally the decision was made about which engine would be fitted in the STR11, changing from Renault to ferrari (2015 engine) meant a complete overhaul of their car and a big compromise needed to be made (a longer wheelbase)
The car was unfinished when they arrived at the track and they did not know what to expect.
But after 8 days of testing and some minor problems they were the second team with the most mileage behind Mercedes.
The car did not only proved to be reliable, Max and Carlos are quite happy with how the car behaves and the team is quite upbeat to have a good first half of the season.

A fourth team, but that is my personal taste is Red Bull with their livery, in my view one of the most beatiful cars on the grid this year.

For those who follow F1, this weekend the first grand prix of 2016 takes place in Melbourne.
In less than an hour from now the light goes green for the first practise session.

Media (vimeo) Haas F1 America’s Return to the Grid

I have a feeling this year vettel will be competitive, raikonen will be 6-10 in all races and no fs will be given.

Also I hope alonso does something this year, but doubt it.

a reply to: Indigent

Yes, I won't be surpriced if one of the two spots on the first row is red after the qualy.
Ferrari made good progress this winter.

a reply to: earthling42

Also, K-mag is back! As a Dane that adds a bit of excitement for me. Renault's car seemed to me to be be quite reliable during the two pre-season tests.

I am looking forward to see him lap the McLaren's (even though I am a huge Alonso fan). :-)

a reply to: earthling42

McClaren still look weak which is a shame as I like Jensen

In regards to the 8 days testing, they basically packed an entire seasons worth of driving in that 8 days which is pretty impressive

Also this season will be the longest season for F1 so hopefully it will be exciting

I used to be really into F1, really got hooked by the brilliance of Micheal Schumacher, don't think there'll ever be anyone like him again.
But, that was back when F1 was.....F1!

F1 was all about who could produce the best car with the best driver, and when we saw Ferrari teamed with schuey, well, look what happened, we saw them win over and over again, busting just about every record there was to beat.
That was what F1 was all about!
If you wanted to win you had to produce a sh!t hot car and a really good driver.

But the F1 PTB didn't like that, and the other teams didn't like it, and we saw F1 being neutered by so many new rules!
The new rules prevent anyone from leaping massively ahead by being the best car with the best driver.

I stopped watching when they changed F1.
They should have created something new and left F1 the way it was.

a reply to: VoidHawk

Funny you say so as vettel won 4 championships in a row and now for the last 2 years Mercedes completely dominates, it won 16/19 races last year, so the rules aren't working too well

originally posted by: VoidHawk
I used to be really into F1, really got hooked by the brilliance of Micheal Schumacher, don't think there'll ever be anyone like him again.
But, that was back when F1 was.....F1!

I was a Schumi fan too in spite of his sometimes (often) questionable moves. He was always (usually) such a well-spoken and gracious gentleman on the podium and in interviews. Cute too and sooo German! I see a lot of that in Seb also.

Watched P1 and waiting for P2. I really hope this season isn't as boring and predictable as the last few and I'm darn curious to see if the weird new qually format is cool or if it is junk? Qualifying recently has been the best part of the show and I hope it isn't spoiled with the new rules. It could be interesting if it works or it could just be more of Bernie's contrived crap?

For those that watch in the U.S., I still miss Varsha. If Matchette and Hobbs go, I may quit watching entirely?

Last season, the best motorsports series on the planet was unquestionably MotoGP with the resurgence of Rossi. Their season starts this weekend too with a new rules package, new tire supplier and spec ECU that's really going to shake things up. Been a fan of this since the Agostini days and a subscriber to the MotoGP life feed since it began. My former husband raced superbikes and in fact I met him at the race track!

Thankfully, MotoGP is a night race from Qatar and there's no time conflict with F1. I hate it when that happens

originally posted by: VoidHawk
I used to be really into F1, really got hooked by the brilliance of Micheal Schumacher, don't think there'll ever be anyone like him again.
But, that was back when F1 was.....F1!

F1 was all about who could produce the best car with the best driver, and when we saw Ferrari teamed with schuey, well, look what happened, we saw them win over and over again, busting just about every record there was to beat.
That was what F1 was all about!
If you wanted to win you had to produce a sh!t hot car and a really good driver.

But the F1 PTB didn't like that, and the other teams didn't like it, and we saw F1 being neutered by so many new rules!
The new rules prevent anyone from leaping massively ahead by being the best car with the best driver.

I stopped watching when they changed F1.
They should have created something new and left F1 the way it was.

Andretti said if it feels like your in control your not going fast enough. Not exact quote but close. Racecar is a Palindrome too. The sport is ttranscendental, paralleling the people who prove that we deserve to exist. Earth wind fire and atmosphere combined to place yourself somewhere that has never before existed. That's what life is about.

I have a friend who works at the Mercedes F1 factory in Brackley.

He was telling me last weekend that he had lunch with Lewis Hamilton's Technical Director, (or something like that).
He told my friend that they had only been testing their engine's for reliability during the Barcelona testing sessions and that they expect at least around about a 10% increase in engine performance at the Australian Grand Prix

Hamilton is currently fastest in practising which has been hampered by rain.

To be honest I can't see anyone beating Hamilton or the Mercedes team to the title this year......but it's a long season and who knows?

One thing is certain, the Haas team are used to being competitive and if they are genuinely committed to Grand Prix I can see them becoming a force to be recognised in a relatively short time, say two or three years time.

An American team? Do they realize there are corners in F1?

a reply to: LostThePlot

Hehe. Like a junky, I was using NASCAR as a maintenance dose until the real stuff arrives!

RacecaR, I like that! NASCAR just reminds of Nazgul (and just as scary! )

OP, thanks for the reminder about this weekend! I will probably watch all the pre-race stuff to see more chassis changes, rule changes, etc., although I agree there is too much! Let the race decide which vehicle and driver is better rather than some governing body trying to "up revenues" each year (gee, wonder when they are going to implement a burning ring of flame that drivers will have to jump through? After that all you can do is jump the shark!)

So, did anyone watch? What did you think?

Qualifying was a major fail. Our commentary team says they're going back to the normal procedure in Bahrain. It wouldn't have been so bad if they hadn't knocked out drivers halfway through a hot lap. It was as stupid and dumb as I thought it was going to be.

The race itself was good. There was a lot of on track action, strategy, battles between teammates and a completely heart stopping moment followed by a red flag.

I won't spoil anything but will say Fernando Alonso cheated death today. There's one camera shot that really shows how much force and momentum was involved in turning the McLaren into a pile of twisted carbon and what a feat of engineering it was to see Alonso get up and walk away.

Image source: foxsports.com


ETA: Haas in the points first time out!

a reply to: Freija

It came to my attention that no station in my country got the TV rights while i tried to watch the race

Wow, the crash if someone wants to see it

www.youtube.com...

a reply to: Indigent

That crash was crazy, all Alonso's fault but glad to see he survived it without any injuries

a reply to: Freija

Yes, of course we have watched the race

Team Haas was a victim of this new qualifying setup, both drivers would have easily made it into Q2 if they were able to finish their lap before time run out.

It was good to see that Alonso was ok, that was quite a crash.

What did we learn from this?
Mercedes is for sure the team to beat but Williams and Force India weren't quite as fast as predicted.
Haas will be fighting with Mclaren and Renault, Sauber and Manor are the slowest teams on the grid.
Renault might not be the strongest engine, but the progress is visible and certainly with the good chassis which Red Bull has, they are as fast or even faster than Toro Rosso with the Ferrari engine.
The compromise Toro Rosso had to make seems to have resulted in higher tire wear which is going to hurt them in the long run.

Questions for all followers.

Man of the race:
Motivation:

Best team:
Motivation:

Worst performance:
Motivation:

Best overtaking manouvre:
Motivation:

I'll start

Man of the race: Esteban Gutierrez
Motivation: Although he did not finish the race because of the collision, his speed was ok, gaining on Grosjean and defending his 12the position.
After the collision he immediately went to to see if Alonso was ok, in my opinion he showed what a great character he is.

Best team: Haas F1
Motivation: Of course Mercedes is an easy pick because they are the team to beat, Haas made the best of the situation and made the right call to send Grosjean back in the race with mediums, 6th place as a result.

Worst performance: Toro Rosso
Motivation: They started well, but not only is tire wear high which cost them in the race, the pit stops were below par, the strategy very poor.

Best overtaking manoeuvre: Vettel on both Mercedes cars.
Motivation: His start was phenomenal, sadly for him it was the wrong choice to restart on soft tires.

Questions for all followers.

Man of the race: Fernando Alonso
Motivation: Stayin' alive

Honorable Mention: To Kimi Räikkönen for casually sauntering out of his flaming car without giving two effs

Best team: Agreed! Haas F1
Motivation: Not to look foolish or incompetent. 8 constructor points first time out is amazing and more than Marussia, Sauber, Caterham and Manor had combined for 2014 & 2015

* Honorable Mention: Mercedes
Motivation: World dominance & to keep Lewis from whining and Nico from sulking

Worst performance: Manor
Motivation: Grid fillers

* Honorable mention: Red Bull for Kvyat's car failing to make the start

Best overtaking manouvre: Vettel off the line. Smoked the Mercs
Motivation: To win, baby!

Best team silliness: Toro Rosso
Motivation: Sainz & Verstappen have issues

Not sure I agree with you on Guitierrez? Something about the collision was a little dodgey. He was very concerned about Alonso but maybe with a little guilt? Our feed had an interview with Will Buxton and Guitierrez's response rubbed me the wrong way.

Ricciardo had a decent race. He's a cute boy with a nice personality and infectious smile and a lot of enthusiasm. I've always had a soft spot for Felipe Massa too after being Schumacher's doormat, losing the championship on the last lap to LuHam at Interlagos and for coming back after his injury. I'd like to see Williams do well because Williams.

a reply to: Freija

About Carlos and Max, doors have been slammed yesterday after the race because of ruining a potential good result by the team.
An unwritten rule in F1 is that the leading car is the first to enter the pit for new tires.
In the first round of pit stops Carlos was allowed to pit first in order to undercut Massa and get in front of him when Massa would rejoin the field after his pitstop.
This succeeded, after the crash from Alonso, many teams switched to the medium compound in order to finish the race on this set of tires.
Toro Rosso did not, nor did Ferrari which cost Vettel a potential victory.
Within 10 laps both Toro Rosso cars were having trouble with their tires, Max was the first to request a pitstop and as the leading car he should have pitted first but the team decided otherwise and instead let Carlos come in for new tires and when Max Came in they were not ready while they knew he was coming (he was the first to request a pit stop).
When Max went out and closed the gap to the car in front of him, he was looking at the back of a Toro Rosso, this angered him because he realised what had happened, why they were not ready for him when he came in the pit for new tires.
I don't think the anger was aimed at Carlos, more towards the team who have wasted a potential good result and valuable points with their decisions.
After the race, Max was clearly agitated about the situation, gone to the motorhome and slammed the door behind him, Franz Tost went to him and they had a chat before talking to the press.
Franz Tost was clearly agitated as well, when asked about the situation he ignored the question and also slammed the door shut.
Happiness had left the building, angry faces all around among members of Toro Rosso.
Bahrain will be interesting, if i'm right they will drop further back during the race due to high tire wear.
It's going to be a difficult year for them and they know it.