2016 Formula One season

Lewis Hamilton will start the season as the defending World Drivers' Champion.

Mercedes will be the defending World Constructors' Champion.

The 2016 Formula One season will be the 67th season of the FIA Formula One World Championship, a motor racing championship for Formula One cars which is recognised by the sport's governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), as the highest class of competition for open-wheel racing cars. Teams and drivers are scheduled to take part in twenty-one Grands Prix—making for the longest season in the sport's history—starting in Australia on 20 March and finishing in Abu Dhabi on 27 November as they compete for the World Drivers' and World Constructors' championships.^[1]

The 2016 season will see the grid expand to 22 cars with the addition of the Haas F1 Team entry.^[2] Renault will return to the sport as a constructor after a four-year absence following their takeover of Lotus prior to the start of the season. The calendar will also expand, with the return of the German Grand Prix and the revival of the European Grand Prix in Azerbaijan.^[1]

Lewis Hamilton will start the season as the defending Drivers' Champion for the second year running, after winning his third World Championship title at the 2015 United States Grand Prix.^[3] His team, Mercedes, will start the season as the defending Constructors' Champion, having secured its second championship title at the 2015 Russian Grand Prix.^[4]

Signed teams and drivers

The following teams and drivers are currently signed to take part in the 2016 Formula One World Championship:

Entrant	Constructor	Chassis	Power unit	Tyre	No.	Drivers
Scuderia Ferrari	Ferrari	TBA	Ferrari 059/5[5]	P	5	Sebastian Vettel[6]
					7	Kimi Räikkönen[7]
Sahara Force India F1 Team	Force India-Mercedes	VJM09[8]	Mercedes[9]	P	11	Sergio Pérez[10]
					27	Nico Hülkenberg[11]
Haas F1 Team[2]	Haas-Ferrari	TBA	Ferrari 059/5[5]	P	8	Romain Grosjean[12]
					21	Esteban Gutiérrez[13]
McLaren Honda	McLaren-Honda	MP4-31[14]	Honda[15]	P	14	Fernando Alonso[16]
					22	Jenson Button[17]
Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team	Mercedes	F1 W07 Hybrid[18]	Mercedes	P	6	Nico Rosberg[19]
					44	Lewis Hamilton[20]
Manor Racing[21][22]	MRT-Mercedes	MRT05[23]	Mercedes[24]	P	94	Pascal Wehrlein[23][25]
					TBA	TBA
Red Bull Racing[26]	Red Bull-TAG Heuer	RB12[27]	TAG Heuer[27]	P	3	Daniel Ricciardo[28]
					26	Daniil Kvyat[29]
Renault Sport F1 Team[30][31][32][33]	Renault	RS16[32]	Renault RE16[34][32]	P	20	Kevin Magnussen[35][32]
					30	Jolyon Palmer[36][37]
Sauber F1 Team	Sauber-Ferrari	C35[38]	Ferrari 059/5[39][5]	P	9	Marcus Ericsson[38]
					12	Felipe Nasr[38]
Scuderia Toro Rosso	Toro Rosso-Ferrari	STR11[40]	Ferrari 059/4[40]	P	33	Max Verstappen[41]
					55	Carlos Sainz, Jr.[41]
Williams Martini Racing	Williams-Mercedes	FW38[42]	Mercedes[9]	P	19	Felipe Massa[43]
					77	Valtteri Bottas[43]
Source:[44]

Team changes

Gene Haas, founder of NASCAR team Haas CNC Racing, will enter a new team in 2016.

Lotus (E23 Hybrid pictured top) were purchased by Renault (R30 pictured bottom).

• Haas F1 Team, a team formed by NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team owner Gene Haas, will join the Formula One grid, becoming the first American team to compete since the unrelated Haas Lola team competed in 1986.^{[45][N 1]} The team will use power units supplied by Ferrari and a chassis developed by Dallara.^[47][48] Dallara last participated in Formula One as the chassis manufacturer for HRT in 2010.^[49]
• Marussia applied for their team name to be changed to Manor Racing, a request granted on 19 January 2016.^[21] The team will switch from Ferrari to Mercedes power,^[24] with the team upgrading to a 2016-specification engine after having used a year-old Ferrari engine in 2015.^[50] The team will undergo a management reshuffle following the resignation of team principal John Booth and sporting director Graeme Lowdon.^[51] Following the collapse of HRT in 2012 and Caterham in 2014, the resignations of Booth and Lowdon mark the departures of the last key figures involved in the sport's expansion in 2010.
• Red Bull Racing formally ended their nine-year partnership with engine supplier Renault at the end of the 2015 season,^[52] with the team citing the lack of performance from the Renault Energy-F1 2015 engine as a leading factor in the change.^[53] The team will continue to use Renault engines, however, although rebadged as TAG Heuer. Team principal Christian Horner named Renault's partnership with Mario Illien and his company Ilmor as a reason for staying with the manufacturer.^[27]
  • Horner said that the team had held exploratory talks with the Volkswagen Group about entering the sport as an engine supplier, but that negotiations came to a halt following the emissions scandal that broke in September 2015.^[54] Plans to obtain power units from Mercedes,^[55] Honda,^[56] and Ferrari fell through as well.^[57]
• Renault will return to Formula One as a full factory-supported team after they purchased Lotus from Genii Capital,^[31] the venture capital firm they had originally sold the same team to in 2010, and supplied engines to up until the end of 2014. Lotus' participation in the 2016 season was in question pending the resolution of a High Court case brought against the team by HM Revenue and Customs over unpaid PAYE tax.^[58][59]
• Scuderia Toro Rosso will return to using Ferrari power units, as they had done so prior to the start of 2014, after Renault announced that they would no longer supply customer engines.^[40][60] The team will use the 059/4 power unit used by Ferrari teams in 2015 after Ferrari received approval from the World Motor Sport Council to supply year-old engines on the grounds that the extensive revisions to the engine design meant that they would not be able to manufacture additional 2016 specification engines in time for the start of the season.

Driver changes

• Romain Grosjean left Lotus at the end of the 2015 season.^[61] He joined the newly formed Haas F1 team for 2016,^[12][62] where he will be joined by former Sauber driver Esteban Gutiérrez. Gutiérrez will return to competition after spending a season as Ferrari's test and reserve driver.^[13]
• Jolyon Palmer, the 2014 GP2 Series champion, will make his race début with Renault, replacing the departing Grosjean.^[37] Palmer had previously made regular free practice appearances with the team in 2015.^[63]
• Despite originally having signed a contract with Lotus for 2016,^[64] Pastor Maldonado announced he will not be driving for Renault in the 2016 season. This is due the failure of his sponsor PDVSA to pay his sponsorship for the season.^[35] He was replaced by Kevin Magnussen, who was released at McLaren when they chose not to renew his contract after he entered a single race for the team in 2015.^[65][66]
• Manor signed 2015 Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters champion Pascal Wehrlein to a one-year deal.^[23]

Scheduled events

Nations that are scheduled to host a Grand Prix in 2016 are highlighted in green, with circuit locations marked with a black dot. Former host nations are shown in dark grey, and former host circuits are marked with a white dot.

The following twenty-one Grands Prix are scheduled to take place in 2016.^[1]

Round	Grand Prix	Circuit	Date
1	Australian Grand Prix	Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit, Melbourne	20 March
2	Bahrain Grand Prix	Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir	3 April
3	Chinese Grand Prix	Shanghai International Circuit, Shanghai	17 April
4	Russian Grand Prix	Sochi Autodrom, Sochi	1 May
5	Spanish Grand Prix	Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, Barcelona	15 May
6	Monaco Grand Prix	Circuit de Monaco, Monte Carlo	29 May
7	Canadian Grand Prix	Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal	12 June
8	European Grand Prix[67][68]	Baku City Circuit, Baku[69]	19 June
9	Austrian Grand Prix	Red Bull Ring, Spielberg	3 July
10	British Grand Prix	Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone	10 July
11	Hungarian Grand Prix	Hungaroring, Budapest	24 July
12	German Grand Prix	Hockenheimring, Hockenheim[70]	31 July
13	Belgian Grand Prix	Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Stavelot	28 August
14	Italian Grand Prix	Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Monza	4 September
15	Singapore Grand Prix	Marina Bay Street Circuit, Singapore	18 September
16	Malaysian Grand Prix	Sepang International Circuit, Kuala Lumpur	2 October
17	Japanese Grand Prix	Suzuka International Racing Course, Suzuka[71]	9 October
18	United States Grand Prix	Circuit of the Americas, Austin, Texas[N 2]	23 October
19	Mexican Grand Prix	Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, Mexico City	30 October
20	Brazilian Grand Prix	Autódromo José Carlos Pace, São Paulo	13 November
21	Abu Dhabi Grand Prix	Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi	27 November
Source:[1]

Calendar changes

Formula One will visit Azerbaijan for the first time in 2016 for the revival of the European Grand Prix, with the race to be run on a street circuit in the capital, Baku.

New and returning races

• The European Grand Prix will return to the calendar with the race to be held on a street circuit in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. It will be the first Grand Prix to be held in Azerbaijan.^{[67][68][72][73]}
• The German Grand Prix will return to the Hockenheimring after the event was cancelled in 2015 when a venue could not be secured.^[70] The circuit had previously hosted the race in 2014 as part of their agreement with the Nürburgring to host the event every even-numbered year.

Date changes

• The Malaysian Grand Prix—which had been held in the early months of the year since the 2001 season—will now be held later in the year, paired up with the Japanese Grand Prix in October.^[1]
• The Russian Grand Prix will be brought forward from its October date to May, becoming the fourth round of the season.^[1]

Failed race bids

• The Grand Prix of America was set to be held for the first time at the Port Imperial Street Circuit in New Jersey, in accordance with a fifteen-year contract.^[74][75] The race was originally scheduled to début in 2013, but has been delayed for four consecutive years.^[75]
• In 2006, Formula One Management signed a seven-year contract to run the Korean Grand Prix at the Korea International Circuit beginning in 2010. However, the event was discontinued in 2014, and was omitted from the calendar for the third consecutive season in 2016.^[76]

Rule changes

General changes

• The FIA and Formula One Management will be granted greater power to change the Sporting and Technical Regulations and to make decisions affecting the governance of the sport.^[77]

Technical regulations

• Cars will be required to be designed with a separate wastegate for exhaust gases to pass through—colloquially dubbed the "screamer pipe"—in a bid to increase the noise of the cars following criticism since the introduction of the 2014 generation of engines.^[78]
• Tyre supplier Pirelli will introduce a fifth tyre compound known as "ultrasoft".^[79] Pirelli will change their approach to tyre supply in 2016, bringing three compounds to races instead of two and allowing teams the freedom to choose which two compounds they use.^[80][81] Teams are allowed to supply their two cars with a different selection. The choices will be made public two weeks before the race.^[82]
• The FIA has opted to increase the number of tokens available for power unit development stating in 2016. While the initial plans would have given manufacturers fifteen tokens for the season, the number was raised to thirty-two, the same number as 2014, in order to allow struggling manufacturers such as Renault and Honda to improve their development. This decision also allows further development on parts that were initially planned to be closed off, including the upper and lower crankcase, valve drive, crankshaft, air-valve system and ancillaries drive.^[83]

Sporting regulations

• Starting in 2016, the number of pre-season tests will be reduced from three to two.^[84]
• The stewards will be given greater powers in enforcing track limits, with drivers required to stay between the white lines marking the edges of the circuit, except in cases of driver error.^[78] The change was introduced after an investigation by Pirelli into Sebastian Vettel's high-speed blow-out at the 2015 Belgian Grand Prix that concluded that Vettel's off-track excursions had been a significant factor in the incident.
  • The FIA is also exploring a number of solutions to discourage drivers from abusing track limits and aid in their policing, including GPS tracking, the reprofiling of kerbs, the installation of pressure-sensitive sensors and the use of high-speed cameras.^[85]
• Any driver who causes the start of the race to be aborted will be required to start the race from pit lane at the restart.^[78]
• The procedure for issuing gearbox penalties will be amended so that penalties are applied in the order that they are awarded, bringing the system in line with the wider grid penalty system.^[78]
• The Virtual Safety Car system will be used in practice sessions as well to avoid the unnecessary use of red flags and session stoppages.^[81]
  • The drag reduction system, which is deactivated when under Virtual Safety Car periods and full-course yellow flags will be available as soon as a Virtual Safety Car period has ended;^[81] drivers previously had to wait two laps before the system was reactivated.^[86]
• The process new drivers go through in order to qualify for a superlicence will be changed,^[87] with additional restrictions put in place as part of the wider FIA Global Pathway.^[88][89] The changes were introduced following controversy surrounding Max Verstappen qualifying for a superlicence at the age of sixteen after a single season competing in European Formula 3.^[88]

Season report

Pre-season

For the second year in a row, Hamilton decided not to exercise his option of switching his car number to 1, as was his prerogative as reigning World Champion, and would instead race with his career number 44.^[44]

A pre-season tyre test was held at the Paul Ricard Circuit in France on 25–26 January 2016, conducted by Pirelli to evaluate their wet weather tyres. Taking part were Red Bull Racing, Ferrari, and McLaren. On the first day, Daniel Ricciardo, Kimi Räikkönen, and Stoffel Vandoorne took the wheels for their respective teams, with Räikkönen and Ricciardo being replaced by Sebastian Vettel and Daniil Kvyat on the second test day.^[90] Due to the specific nature of the test, it did not count towards the official pre-season testing allowances.

Pre-season team tests are scheduled to take place on 22–25 February and 1–4 March at the Circuit de Catalunya.^[91]

Footnotes

References

External links

• Official website
• Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile