Hello everyone and welcome back to my blog! If you're reading this, thanks for sticking with me through this long time of inactivity.
I made this post mainly to explain the reason for the extreme lack of coverage on the 2015 F1 season and the inactivity of this blog but I thought I might as well give you a bit of relevant info ahead of this upcoming 2016 Formula 1 season so, stay until the end of this post!
Personal Note
So, the reason for the inactivity during almost all of the last year is simple, I entered my last year of high school and, to get into a good university, I really need to get good grades and also, this semesters have turned out to be incredibly demanding and exhausting so, each weekend, I was really stuck up with homeworks, projects, papers and so on and I barely found some time to watch the races each weekend, let alone to make a good quality writing on each race. I honestly could've actually written something for a few of the races but it simply would've not been a product of good quality –in my opinion– and I certainly would not want to put something like that in this blog.
So, if I'm still on my last year of high school and I don't have time to write, what has changed now?
The answer is simple too, motivation. To be fully honest, the problem was not just the time but also myself. I didn't write for a couple of races and then in the next ones I just could not find the willingness or the energy to write, it went on like that until not writing became a really bad habit. A habit which I hope and will try to stop this year, I will try to fully commit to deliver a good product each race weekend after the race.
I have found motivation in me and I'll try to make the time to exploit it and convert it into good work!
2016 season will represent the relanching of this website and I hope to be counting on a lot of you to support this project, the best is yet to come.
So now, on to the actual topic of this blog...
F1 2016 Pre-season Testing dates
2015 season is done and dusted and now, us F1 fans gear up for another (hopefully more than last year) exciting season!
The season will officially kick off on 20th March on the Albert Park circuit of Melbourne but, as always, there will be a series of testing days in which teams will be able to develop, test, try to fix, keep on developing or test new parts for their 2016 beasts.
The testing schedule can definitely come off as monotnous and a tad bit unlogical, given the fact that two of the three weks of testing will be made on only one circuit, the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, common venue for this sort of events but usually sharing the schedule with Jerez and/or Bahrain.
There's a good side to the schedule though, which that it'll represent the comeback of the Paul Ricard Circuit into pre-season testing, with it being a circuit that's not been used for testing in the last couple of years.
The circuit has a status of being the favorite of many fans due to its corners and its layout as well as its historic values.
The dates will be the following:
- January 25th-26th: Paul Ricard, wet-track running. Only Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren will take part.
- February 22nd-25th: Barcelona.
- March 1st-4th: Barcelona.
Car release dates and off season news.
Newcomer team Haas F1 has announced that they will unveil their 2016 Ferrari-powered beast on Febraury 22nd, just a few moments before the first test in Barcelona kicks off.
According to their driver Esteban Gutierrez on Twitter, the team carried out their first successful firing up of the car on February 16th.
McLaren will also be unveiling their MP4-31 on February 21st, but they will do so online. Reports coming from the team's headquarters in Sakura, Japan, claim that the team has fixed the ERS problems which hampered them throughout the last season, and hence could have access to an extra 223 horsepower. However, following the Paul Ricard test, the team has informed that such reports are unsustained and should only be treated as speculations. On February 9th, the team announced through Twitter that their car had passed the FIA crash tests. On February 14th, the team announced the first successful fire-up of their MP4-31 through Twitter.
Ferrari will be keeping their recent tradition and will release the car online, date still not confirmed but it should be around the middle of the month of February. Today (25th January) it's been announced that their car had passed the mandatory crash tests.
As per Gazzetta dello Sport, the Prancing Horse squad is set to release their new car on February 19th, and on February 15th, such date was confirmed.
On the evening of February 9th, the team hinted at a successful first fire-up of the new car, by uploading a picture on Instagram and captioning it as: “Make some noise... The first new car fire-up.” Metaphorically enough, the speculations about the Italian, team catching up with Mercedes and fighting with them for the title have been one of the loudest topics of the off season.
Williams has announced that they will do the release of their FW38 on the pitlane of the Circuit de Catalunya on the first day of testing in that track. Their 2016 challenger has already been labeled by engineer Rob Smedley as 'one of the biggest evolutions he's ever seen'. As of February 16th, the team has confirmed that that they have carried out the first fire-up of the car successfully.
The world champions Mercedes are also set to present their W07 on the Circuit de Catalunya's pitlane early on February 22nd. On February 15th, the team released a video on Twitter to announce the successful first firing up of their new car.
Meanwhile, Sauber have announced through their spokesman that their new car will not be ready for the first test in Barcelona, however they will be at the test, running 2015 cars on their new livery. They also said that the car would be ready for the second four-day tests. The team has announced that their C35 is set to be presented on the first day of the second test on March 1st. Terrible news for the Swiss team, as they did not have a really good season in 2015 and they really needed to get things going for them this season.
On February 8th, the team announced that their C35 has passed the dynamic and static crash tests. Despite the good news, Sky Sports F1 says the car won't be ready until March 1st.
Manor officially announced through Twitter their new logo and that the team's official name is now Manor Racing and in the same tweet, they probably also revealed the date of the presentation of their new car, the new look of the team and their new driver lineup, the latter not being confirmed yet. This is the tweet of the announcement:
There's been many speculations over which will be Manor's driver lineup but according to Sky Sports F1, Alexander Rossi could be a strong candidate to take one of the two seats. The American driver was runner up on the 2015 GP2 championship, collecting 3 wins, 1 pole position, 7 podiums and 181.5 points, and got to race in F1 with the Manor team on the Singapore, Japan, United States, Mexican and Brazilian Grand Prix. He also filled the role of test driver with Caterham and Marussia, in 2012, 2013, and 2014 and in 2014, respectively.
A few words from Rossi:
“Talks are every day. I think the deadline is really when cars roll in Barcelona in a couple of weeks.” ... “Things sometimes get pushed out in this sport and it is something I am used to and hopefully it doesn't go on to much longer. Things are looking positive and hopefully we get it done very soon.” Alexander Rossi told Sky Sports.
Early on February 10th, it was confirmed that former Force India and Mercedes test driver Pascal Wehrlein would take one of the seats in the team, leaving only one available seat in the whole grid.
A few weeks ago, Indonesian GP2 driver Rio Haryanto, looked like a strong candidate to take one of the seats in the team as he was bringing in a big sponsorship from the Indonesian government. However, according to tuttosuimotori.it, since Manor is really in need of the money, and there's been some deals on the receiving of it, they have given Haryanto an ultimatum to bring in the sponsorship and this puts his seat in danger, making Rossi's chances of being in the grid higher. According to the website, after Pascal Wehrlein's signing, it was almost sure that we would see a Wehrlein-Haryanto lineup in Manor but that now, the second seat in the team could be filled by either Will Stevens, the aforementioned Alexander Rossi, or even Haryanto. The website also reported that Haryanto is calm and sure that the deal will be closed soon enough, the Indonesian also stated that he has been given a week to solve the contractual issues.
According to Ilta-Sanomat, the team could be considering to solve this three-way race for the seat by putting all of the three drivers in the second seat throughout the season, with Haryanto doing the first few races and then coming back for the Asian rounds, Will Stevens doing the European rounds, and Alexander Rossi doing North and South America.
This situation was resolved rather quickly, as Haryanto was confirmed as the team's second driver early on February 18th.
The team has already released the video of their first firing up of the car on Twitter (15/02).
It has been speculated that Red Bull will also be revealing their new RB12 on the morning of February 22nd. However the team will be holding a bespoke 2016 livery launch on February 17th in London. It is very likely that the car's livery will feature the logos of their new main sponsors, Tag-Heuer and Puma. The fact that the team will carry out a livery launch before the first test, means that there won't be a camouflage design like the one they used during 2015 preseason.
Renault has announced that will be presenting their drivers line up and their new car on February 3rd at their headquarters in Paris. As of 20th January, the car has passed the crash test.
A couple pictures of what could probably be their new livery have been revealed in the F1 Racing magazine and here they are!
(note: the car shown is a 2015 car but it has the possible new livery on it)
Amidst reports of the French team dropping him to replace him with Kevin Magnussen due to unpaid sponsorship money from PDVSA, Venezuelan driver Pastor Maldonado has confirmed that the will not be in the grid for the 2016 F1 Season. Below, the official statement:
Translation: Today, with the biggest humbleness I inform you that I will not be present for the starting F1 grid of the 2016 season, thanks for all your support messages, passion and preoccupation about my future. I feel so honored with all of your support and proud of my professional performance.
I ratify my feelings of gratitude to God, to my family, my sponsors, my friends, my fans and to everyone who has helped to materialize this big dream of having been able to represent Venezuela in the top tier of car racing. Until later!
Early on February 3rd, it was announced that Toro Rosso had become the latest team to have passed the crash tests. However, the Italian team is still yet to reveal a release date for their car, but they've confirmed that they will be revealing their official livery until the second tests, running an all-blue design on the first test, while using the 2016 car.
A few weeks ago, there was numerous reports about Force India being set to close a deal a few months ago with Aston Martin for a change in the team's administration, its appearance and possibly for a rebranding of the team as well. However, on 14th January, Sky Sports reported that Force India's Otmar Szafnauer had confirmed that the team would not be rebranded for this season but that talks to tie-up with the British car manufacturer still continue for the future. The possible cause of this could have been Aston Martin's presence in the global branding campaign of the movie Spectre.
Today (26th January), it has been reported that Force India has passed the crash tests.
There is still no date confirmed for their car release, but it's almost sure that their car will be ready for the first test in Barcelona. A personal prediction, they'll be another of the many teams to present their car on the morning of February 22nd. On February 16th, my prediction was confirmed and the team revealed that they'll be revealing the car in the pitlane of the Circuit the Catalunya on the morning of the first day of testing.
2017 Car Regulations
Earlier this week, the official website of Formula One announced a set of new regulations to take place for the 2017 season. By the looks of it all, it seems like 2017 will bring on a whole new appearance of the cars with several changes to be applied.
As seen in the following pictures, the height of the front nose will be quote similar whilst the main changes will be around the rear wing, which will be lower and will have a different shape, the width of the rear tires, the new shapes of the rear diffusor, the sidepods and of the car's floor, and the lenght of the front nose as well as a new 'front wing floor' which the cars will feature.
That's a wrap for this post! Much others will surely follow in the future so stay tuned, make sure to follow the blog, as well as my Google+ profile!
Thanks a lot for the support and I'll be writing to you real soon!
