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Scuderia Ferrari, McLaren, Force India, Williams, Mercedes, Haas and Red Bull have all launched their cars for the 2016 Formula One season.Some teams have debuted new liveries, others with minor tweaks – and some others have seen significant structural changes to their vehicles.Here’s a quick look and analysis of each following the first day of pre-season testing at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
#11 Haas F1: VF16
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The only new team on the circuit this year, and the first American team in over two decades, Haas will have two drivers with Formula One experience piloting its vehicles.
The team, widely considered a b-team for Ferrari, who are using its wind tunnels, field their former test and development driver Esteban Gutierrez alongside the more experienced Romain Grosjean, who left Lotus at the end of the 2015 season.
Gutierrez did have a primary seat in Formula One, driving for Sauber for the 2013-2014 season, but having not shown results, took on the test driving role at Ferrari the following year.
With no previous car to draw comparisons to, the Haas VF16, with the V for ‘Vertical’ according to team owner Gene Haas, has a mix of dark grey, light grey and red in its livery.
The livery is inspired by “from the scheme of Haas Automation’s complete line of vertical and horizontal machining centers, turning centers and rotary tables and indexers,” according to a release on the team’s website.
Haas, founded by American Gene Haas, is the largest manufacturer of machine tools in North America, a strong reason behind their choice of livery.
Structurally, there are not many similarities to the 2016 Ferrari vehicle, with the car neither particularly wide nor narrow, but with wide-set sidepods. The front is also relatively higher than those of other cars on the track this year, with the nose slightly wider and higher as well.
#10 Sauber: C35
Sauber, who finished third from the bottom in the standings in the 2015 season, had 10 points finishes between drivers Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr, both of whom have been retained for the 2016 season.
As those finishes were all near the bottom of the points, the team did not have much to show for from that season, which was also in the news for several reasons, among them financial and legal issues involving owner Monisha Kaltenborn and former driver Giedo van der Gaarde after the team promised the driver a seat in the 2015 season and dropped him at the last minute.
The courts ruled in favour of van der Gaarde, with Kalternborn and Sauber settling out of court for an undisclosed amount.
The C35 on first glance appears to be identical to its predecessor, the C34, retaining the same livery and with no apparent structural changes as well.
Marcus Ericsson was on track for the team today, with Nasr sitting the session out; Ericsson posted the 7th fastest times of the day with a few hours remaining in the day’s session, behind Jenson Button.
#9 Scuderia Toro Rosso: STR11
The junior team to Red Bull Racing, Scuderia Toro Rosso will see both Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz Jr. continue to race with the team. Verstappen in particular had a standout season on his Formula One debut, and impressed with his speed, aggression and overtaking skills, although Sainz put in consistent racing as well.
They will race the STR11 this year.
Both Toro Rosso and Red Bull looked to move on from Renault power in 2015, with both teams suffering seriously with the Renault engines’ lack of reliability.
Bosses approached Ferrari to supply engines in the 2016 season, but while Red Bull were rejected, Ferrari agreed to supply Toro Rosso. They will be using the 2015-spec engine from the Maranello-based outfit, but this is still a marked improvement on the 2015 Renault engine; principal Christian Horner has said he expects “0.8 seconds of time shaved off.”
It will be interesting to see what the two drivers, both the youngest on the track, can do on Ferrari engines, given that they both showed promise last year.
The team ran a plain blue livery at the Barcelona test, and sees structural changes. The nose is shorter than the long, narrow one the team ran last year, and this year is shortened with ‘nostrils’ for aerodynamic improvements. Apart from this, the structure appears to have remained largely the same, with the team saying they will unveil the new livery in Melbourne.
#8 Red Bull Racing: RB12
Although there have been no driver changes at Red Bull Racing, with Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat both remaining at the team, there have been some other reshuffles. The two had a seriously contentious 2015 season, which saw both teams lash out at each other in a long drawn-out public spat, with Red Bull allegedly signing papers to dissolve the working relationship between the two.
This year, the team will field the RB12, designed as last year by iconic F1 engineer Adrian Newey.
In the end, left without an engine for the 2016 season, Red Bull chose to return to Renault power for 2016, with Ferrari agreeing only to supply their junior team, Scuderia Toro Rosso, and its drivers Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz, Jr.
The RB12, the successor to last year’s RB11, saw a change in livery, with the colour scheme darker than that of its predecessor. The 2016 edition has a darker blue-purple matte paint job as opposed to last year’s more glossy one.
Significantly, this year’s car will carry Tag Heuer branding, in order to de-emphasize the team’s relationship with Renault, which was featured prominently on the RB11.
The shape of the car itself has remained largely the same, although the sidepods appear to have become wider and higher compared to the RB11.
Ricciardo posted the 4th-fastest times with a few hours to go in the first day of testing.
#7 Renault: RS16
The team are back! After a number of years away from the sport – and then functioning as Lotus, Renault have returned to Formula One. After having won the championship with Fernando Alonso two successive years – in 2005 and 2006, the French outfit never found the form they had had again.
Although Alonso returned to them after a year at McLaren-Mercedes alongside Lewis Hamilton, neither had much success. In fact, Alonso’s form returned only after he moved to Ferrari, where he would remain until the 2014 season.
After confirming last year that Pastor Maldonado would continue to race for them, Renault announced this year that former Lotus test driver and 2014 GP2 winner Jolyon Palmer would drive alongside former McLaren driver Kevin Magnussen, who was replaced at his team by Fernando Alonso in 2015.
They unveiled the RS16, which has a similar colour scheme to the Lotus E23, which raced on Mercedes engines for the first time in two decades last year. Renault will be one of two teams on track with an all-black livery. While McLaren’s will be accentuated by red, Renault will retain the ‘bumblebee’ black and yellow look it sported as Lotus.
Given the fact that it is now functioning as the works team it once was, sponsorships have changed, which reflects on the car. Apart from this, the RS16 has a longer, narrower nose than the E23 hybrid, with a narrower monocoque but wider sidepods.
As a works team, they will be on Renault engines this year – and they’re one of three on the grid now, with Scuderia Ferrari and Mercedes also on their own respective engines.
Renault will also supply Red Bull with engines in what is believed to be the last year of the pair’s partnership, which was very contentious through the 2015 season.
Palmer was 10th fastest on the first day of testing with a few hours remaining in the session.
#6 Manor: MRT05
After abysmal performances last year and a difficult view years for the team in general, Manor have seen a complete overhaul in every sense of the word. The team finished at the bottom of the table last year, unable to score even a single championship point.
They have hired two new drivers entirely in former Mercedes development driver Pascal Wehrlein and Indonesia’s Rio Haryanto, both of whom will make their Formula One racing debuts this year, although Wehrlein has some F1 experience.
Manor’s three drivers – Will Stevens, Roberto Merhi and Alexander Rossi – all failed to fire last year, and in light of that new start the team have changed their livery entirely. Instead of the red and white of the 2015 season, this year they have gone with a distinctive orange and blue paint job – perhaps also to differentiate from a Ferrari that has harkened back to their 1970s heyday with Niki Lauda and Clay Regazzoni.
The team used Ferrari engines last year, which may also be a reason for the connection of old.
They retain the long, narrow nose of last year, with the entire body of the car appearing to have become narrower and sleeker, including the sidepods.
This year, Manor switch to Mercedes power instead.
Wehrlein, who tested for the team on the first day, was 11th on the standings for fastest laps today, bringing up the rear on the timesheets for those on track so far.
#5 Force India F1: VJM09
The team unveiled the VJM09, the successor to last year’s VJM08, at the pre-season test, unlike the majority of other teams, who gave fans a look at their cars before the session.
The silver and black livery from 2015 has been retained, with the car appearing to see no major structural changes this year. Development driver Alfonso Celis has set decent times in the testing session so far, but the biggest changes will be seen after the session is completed.
Drivers Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez, who managed a podium at Monza last season in a year that saw an improved performance at the team, remain with them this year.
VJM09 will be powered by Mercedes’ 2016-spec engine.
Celis was 9th fastest on the timesheet for the first day of testing, behind Haas F1’s Romain Grosjean.
#4 Williams: FW38
Williams unveiled the FW38, to be driven by Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas this season. With Mercedes’ dominance over the past two years, Williams have finished in third behind Ferrari in each of those seasons.
The car had no major reliability problems in the 2015 season, with only three retirements between the two drivers in addition to a DNS for Bottas at the first race of the season.
The FW38 has kept last year’s livery, and retained the short nose it had last season. It also has ‘nostrils’ akin to those on Ferrari’s new SF16 hybrid, with the most significant changes to its aerodynamics. The new car is narrower than the FW37, with changes to the sidepods.
Team engineers have said, however, that wind tunnel testing is progressing well and that there will in fact be aero changes to the car, but those will be visible by the first race in Melbourne in March.
Williams will run on Mercedes power for the 2016 season, as they did in 2015.
Valtteri Bottas posted the third-fastest time of the day on the first day of testing, behind Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes.
#3 McLaren: MP4-31
McLaren moved to Honda engines for the first time in 2015, and had far more than teething problems that year. One of the most successful teams in the history of Formula One, they saw 2-time world champion Fernando Alonso leave Ferrari to come back to his former team alongside friend and 2009 world champion Jenson Button.
Despite the immense driving talent behind the wheel, McLaren saw a staggering 12 retirements between its two drivers – 7 for Alonso, who is widely regarded as a game-changer in Formula One, and five for Button, who also had a DNS at the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The MP4-31 is marginally sleeker than its predecessor, with the front wing also running nearer the ground than the MP4-30 as a result of running a higher rear on the car.
They have had no problems at the pre-season test so far, and according to those at the track, have been the loudest. Driver Jenson Button was fifth-fastest on the first day of testing.
McLaren, as last year, remain the only team on Honda power. They had serious issues last year, but motorsport boss Yasuhisa Arai has said these issues will be ironed out in 2016, and the team have already seen a significant improvement just comparing last year’s testing to 2016.
#2 Mercedes AMG Petronas: W07 Hybrid
Reigning double world championship winners Mercedes have dominated proceedings in Formula One over the past two seasons, with no other team really posing much of a challenge to them by way of the championship.
The W07 Hybrid is quite similar to its predecessor, the W06, which has been one of the most successful cars in Formula One. The team have retained the narrow nose, with the livery remaining nearly identical to last year.
Chief engineer Paddy Lowe, who designed the W06 as well, has said there are several changes – including to the exhaust of the car, but that the biggest improvements were related to driver safety.
“The biggest structural change is on the chassis side, where we've raised the protection area around the driver by 20mm and increased the side impact test load from 15 to 50kN,” Lowe said at the launch. “This is a substantial increase in the load that has to be taken by the chassis as that point and will give much greater protection to the driver," he mentioned.
As of lunch break at the first pre-season test, Lewis Hamilton had the most laps in at 64, but set the second-fastest time behind Scuderia Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.
#1 Scuderia Ferrari - SF16-H
The stables of the Prancing Horse revealed the new SF16-H (the H is for hybrid) in Maranello last week in a session with team principal Maurizio Arrivabene, drivers Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen, and each of the car’s engineers.
Ferrari have gone back to basics with the 2016 livery, which is significantly different from that on the SF15-T. At first glance, they appear to have gone back to the colours they used in the mid 1970s – and then in the 1990s, with the car most reminiscent of the F312T, notably driven in 1975 by Niki Lauda, who would win that year’s championship.
The car is slimmer than the SF15, most notably in the rear. It has a similar nose to the shortened one Williams are using on their car, with all others preferring to use a longer, more tapered nose instead.
Most significantly, chief designers Simone Resta and James Allison have introduced ‘nostrils’ that allow for more dynamic air flow in the car, which engineers and Arrivabene have both said will run on a new improved chassis and engine.
Mercedes engineers have also mentioned that Ferrari will be a potential threat in the 2016 season, and pre-season testing will show what speeds are like.
As of the first day of testing, it is Sebastian Vettel who, with 36 laps in, has set the fastest time ahead of Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton.
