F1 2016 - News/Calendar/Updates

[CLR-GTR]

Since I didn't find a topic to put this in, I went ahead and made one for next year's F1 season. Apparently the F1 calendar for 2016 has already been announced. It sees a new racetrack in Azerbaijan, and the return of the GP of Germany, on Hockenheim. Wikipedia also mentions the joining of Haas F1, a team founded by Gene Haas who also owns a NASCAR Sprint Cup team.

 

F1-calendar 2016

3rd april: Australia

10th april: China

24th april: Bahrain

1st may: Russia

15th may : Spain

29th may: Monaco

12th june: Canada

26th june: Great-Brittain

3rd july: Austria

17th july: Azerbaijan

31st july: Germany

7th august: Hungary

28th august: Belgium

4th september: Italy

18th september: Singapore

25th september: Malaysia

9th october: Japan

23th october: USA

30th oktober: Mexico

13th november: Brazil

27th november: Abu Dhabi

 

 

[CarMadMike]

The addition of Azerbaijan is a tough one. Yes it's a fair distance from any of the other races on the calendar in that it's a positive thing to break into new territories and new audiences....but with F1 in such a difficult place at the moment for obvious and already well-discussed reasons I think adding such a blatant oil money location to the calender adds fuel to the fire if you'll excuse the pun. Those at the very head of F1 appear to have been focusing on that dollah instead of the future of F1.

 

Canada should be later in the season, It's always confused me as to why it's where it is, move it to nearer the US and Mexico races. Canada IS NOT in europe.

[CLR-GTR]

It reminds me of the Europa Cup in football. My favorite club, PSV, had to play in that cup in the past few years, and they always ended up having to visit remote east european and russian clubs. They don't appeal to begin with, especially not for supporters to arrange a whole mid-week trip to there to visit some run-down stadium in somehow always bad weather conditions (too hot, too rainy, too cold etc). It really takes away all the glamour, appeal and excitement of the sport/matches.

 

I agree it might have been better to put some stuff together as far as dates go. China is also quite far away from the rest of Asian countries and they could have put the middle east together.

 

I wonder what's gonna change regarding to the cars. I keep reading about making the cars faster, more exciting etc, with quite some rules already being applied as early as possible, aka the 2016 season.

[Camel]

The timing of some of the races has always confused me too. It boggles the mind the the Canadian race is between European races rather than before/after the European races with the rest of the American races. But what Bernie says goes I suppose. :shrug:

 

Here are some of the new and proposed rules for the 2017 season with some of them being brought in for the 2016 season too. BROKEN NEWS! F1 to bring back refueling, higher revving and louder engines from 2017 | turboduck forum

 

I'm hoping Michelin do make it back into F1 as there will be another tyre wall where both Michelin and Pirelli push each other forwards to make better performing tyres each season.

[Ryzza5]

Maybe Canada has something else on at the other sensible time

[CarMadMike]

Big news for 2016 just in is that Jolyon Palmer, British GP2 driver and 2014 champion, who before today was just a third seat driver for Lotus has been given a full race seat for 2016 :D

 

Really good news that there'll be a new British driver on the grid, especially for what I hope continues to be a fairly decent team. :D

[CarMadMike]

Some sad news for everyone in the world of F1..... Maldonado is leaving the sport. Though we joke, he did bring a lot of entertainment in a period of absolutely dull racing.

 

Also, some liveries are being unveiled in the coming week or two, whether this will be on 2016 cars (revealing the new changes too) i'm unsure and haven't had the time to google haha.

 

Edit: People are saying Kevin Mag is going to replace Maldonar'doh', Mag + Palmer @ Renault is a pretty cool, fun and likable team I think,.

[Camel]

Ohhh, I liked not knowing what he was gonna do next. Crastor Maldonardo will be missed.

 

As far as I know, the earliest reveal is tomorrow with Renault and then Ferrari in a couple of weeks. Less than 2 months until the first race! :)

[CarMadMike]

 

2016 Lotus F1 Car Revealed :nods:

[Camel]

:nods: That does look rather tasty. Shame that the tyre sidewall colours aren't all yellow!

[CarMadMike]

Sounds like it's temporary though, seems as if both Renault and McLaren are both holding out for a big sponsor.

[Camel]

Oh. Well they had better get a yellow sponsor then. :)

[CarMadMike]

First day of development pre-season testing was this morning in Barcelona.... Not much really can be judged from it:

 

 

• Vettel appears to be quicker than Hamilton, but he was quicker at this point pre-season last term too so assumptions shouldn't be made.
  
• Mr.Horner over at Red Bull is starting the verbal conflict quite early, saying it'll be a tough year for RBR, but that their engine should develop nicely throughout the year.
  
• He thinks that mercedes will win every race unless issues arise, which is a bit meh but I do think Ferrari's car is looking good.
  
• McLaren are quite slow today but they've not had any mechanical issues which is surely some #PROGRESS
  
• Some officials are quoting 25% increase in noise from the engines, but journalists are being a bit more pragmatic and saying it's nearer 10-15% but still an improvement.
  

[superhyper]

Qualifying sessions have undergone some pretty big changes. Elimination style yo.

 

Q1

 

• 16 minutes long
  
• After 7 minutes, the slowest driver will be eliminated
  
• Countdown starts running after that; slowest driver will be eliminated every 90 seconds
  
• = 7 eliminated, 15 carry on to Q2
  

Q2

• 15 minutes long
  
• After 6 minutes, the slowest driver will be eliminated
  
• Same as Q1; from that point one driver eliminated every 90 seconds
  
• Again 7 get eliminated, 8 carry on to Q3
  

Q3

• 14 minutes long
  
• After 5 minutes, the slowest driver will be eliminated
  
• You know the drill; one driver goes every 90 seconds
  
• Only 2 drivers left in the final 90 seconds
  

 

A ballast system has also been considered, where extra time would be added for the top drivers in the world championship standings.

[CarMadMike]

This is for 2017 yah? They have until April to confirm/all decide on these changes.

 

The elimination process might be good, might be bad, will have to see it in practice. The ballast style reverse-grid is not a good idea however, really hope that doesn't get implemented.

 

My main issue here is that Qualifying was never one of F1's issues, and it has SOOOOO many issues at the moment, why are they focusing on qualifying? It really is absolutely hilarious. They do NOT understand.

[superhyper]

No, the new qualifying system will be used starting this season :nods: And I totally agree, if they want to change things, qualifying isn't anywhere near where they should begin :lol:

[hassan1995]

That sounds interesting to say the least, teams will have to dramatically change their strategies. As mike said they have so many issues to address and they focus on the minute things :lol: :fp:

[Camel]

The new qualifying sounds good imo but it is not needed as others have said. The races need to changed in some way.

 

And the slower teams will get even less running with the new format. But at least it will stop the faster teams from sitting out of quali until the last few minutes.

[superhyper]

Bernie has now announced that the new quali system is delayed until the Spanish GP

[CLR-GTR]

Here's a video showing the scenery and route of the Baku GP. I like it, I always had a weak spot for city-based racetracks, especially those with classical buildings (like GRID 1's Milano tracks).

 

[CarMadMike]

Reminds me of some of the racing tracks on PGR4 :nods:

 

As for Quali, it's annoying me, either start it on race 1 or next season, I don't like the idea of it changing mid-season.

[superhyper]

Yet another update regarding the qualifying. New system will be introduced in Melbourne BUT it's only Q1 and Q2 that are affected, Q3 will follow the old rules :nods:

[Camel]

Why can't they just leave it as is for this season rather than implementing a bodge half arsed job after the start of the season?

 

They're just making themselves look like amateurs who don't have a clue what they're doing or where the sport needs to go.

[CLR-GTR]

The first F1 Non-Drophead Coupe has been spotted:

[ATTACH]25293[/ATTACH]

 

See more HERE

[hassan1995]

It's ugly and I hate it.