- 12 Feb 16, 13:50#439303
After the agony of defeat, success will be sweet!
Sudha Sundar wrote:">F1 Preview – Top 10 reasons to look forward to 2016 – Part 1
When the curtain comes down on the last race of the season in Formula 1, the thoughts of diehard fans immediately turns to making plans to endure through the off-season. This period has grown shorter and shorter as the racing seasons have become longer. The 2016 season will feature 21 races. This is the highest number of races in a season ever. The return of the German GP at Hockenheim (2015 German GP at Nurburgring was cancelled) and the new Grand Prix in Baku, Azerbaijan has added to the tally of nineteen races of 2015. The travelling circus that is F1 keeps reaching new shores and abandoning just visited ones with gay abandon. So as Turkey, India and South Korea have disappeared from the calendar, Austria (comeback), Russia, Mexico and Azerbaijan have been added.
The 2015 season saw the second year of dominance of the Mercedes team. The Silver Arrows won sixteen of nineteen races in the 2014 and 2015 season and both their drivers finished 1-2 in the world drivers’ championship. Especially in 2015, with both constructors’ and drivers’ championships clinched with a few races to go, the dominance of Mercedes caused much angst. The fans want to see multiple teams and drivers winning and closer racing, especially in front. So as we build up to the car launches and the first pre-season test on February 22, 2016 (Barcelona), the experts and fans have started reading the tea leaves. The sport wants to see more teams take the fight to Mercedes and see new stars emerge. The F1 team at Sportpulse.net has put forth its thoughts on what we are looking forward to in the 2016 season.
This is will be the first of a series of articles on the 2016 season rules changes, the new cars and the pre-season tests that will provide a preview of the 2016 season.
1. Will Ferrari mount a real challenge for the titles this season?
After a dismal and winless 2014 season that saw the exit of Fernando Alonso, the Italian team had a much improved 2015 season. A win for their new star driver and four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel in the second race in Malaysia raised the hopes of the Tifosi. But the challenge especially in the constructors’ championship did not materialize. The Red team challenged Mercedes at certain tracks that suited the characteristics of their car. Ferrari Chairman Sergio Marchionne has said he expects the team to win the first race in Australia, ramping up pressure on the team. Our F1 team is looking forward the most to see how the campaign of Ferrari will unfold in the 2016 season:
2. Will the McLaren-Honda team be competitive again?
To say the McLaren team had a wretched 2015 season is a painful understatement. The Woking-based team has been on a downward slide since 2013. Honda made a return to F1 as the engine supplier and resumed its haloed partnership with McLaren. But the 1.6L V6 hybrid engines from the Japanese manufacturer were unreliable and far behind the class-leading Mercedes engines. McLaren finished second last, just ahead of the Manor F1 team. The marquee team is in the midst of its longest winless streak, the last win coming at the last race of 2012 in Brazil. The team, with twelve drivers’ and eight constructors’ championships, has legions of fans and the only way is up for this team. Jost Capito, former head of Volkswagen Motorsport, joining the team as Chief Executive is a significant personnel change for the 2016 season.
Dessi: What is actually wrong with McLaren Honda? Is it a severe case of miscommunication between McLaren and Honda on the size zero car and other issues?
3. How will the new Haas F1 team perform?
New entrants in F1 are rare as it is a difficult sport with a high barrier to entry because of the technical expertise and high investments needed. Two of the three new teams that last entered the sport in 2010 (Caterham, HRT) are no more. Virgin Racing has since mutated into Marussia F1 and now Manor F1 and just survived through six seasons. So the entry of the American Haas F1 team has created huge interest. The owner Gene Haas has a championship winning team in NASCAR and is the founder of Haas Automation. The team has a close technical collaboration with Ferrari to the extent that they are called the Ferrari-B team.
4. Where will Renault slot in on its return to F1?
The 2008 Crashgate scandal saw Renault exit the sport in 2010. The French manufacturer sold its stake to Genii Capital of Luxembourg. Renault scaled back its involvement in F1 to an engine supplier only. The team morphed into the Lotus F1 team and did well in the 2012-2013 seasons with cars penned by James Allison. But the scarce resources of the debt-ridden team saw the exit of many talented engineers from the excellent Enstone-based engineering team. A switch to Mercedes engines in 2015 brought some respite. But it was clear the team could not survive without a huge infusion of funds. Renault was in need of a works team to come back into F1. This led to the acquisition of the Lotus team by the French manufacturer.
5. How will Toro Rosso fare after their switch to 2015 Ferrari engines?
The torrid relationship between the dominant team from the 2010-2014 era Red Bull and its engine supplier Renault was one of the big sideshows of 2015. Toro Rosso, the junior team of Red Bull was an innocent bystander in the whole drama. Even as the senior Red Bull team fumed and raged, the Faenza-based team accumulated the highest point tally in its history. The team’s two rookie drivers Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen made a dazzling debut and the team earned brownie points from all the fans. The Red Bull team decided to end its contract with Renault, only to return back as we shall see later. But as the engine suppliers refused to supply the Red Bull teams with the 2016-specification engine, Toro Rosso accepted the 2015-spec Ferrari engine.
When the curtain comes down on the last race of the season in Formula 1, the thoughts of diehard fans immediately turns to making plans to endure through the off-season. This period has grown shorter and shorter as the racing seasons have become longer. The 2016 season will feature 21 races. This is the highest number of races in a season ever. The return of the German GP at Hockenheim (2015 German GP at Nurburgring was cancelled) and the new Grand Prix in Baku, Azerbaijan has added to the tally of nineteen races of 2015. The travelling circus that is F1 keeps reaching new shores and abandoning just visited ones with gay abandon. So as Turkey, India and South Korea have disappeared from the calendar, Austria (comeback), Russia, Mexico and Azerbaijan have been added.
The 2015 season saw the second year of dominance of the Mercedes team. The Silver Arrows won sixteen of nineteen races in the 2014 and 2015 season and both their drivers finished 1-2 in the world drivers’ championship. Especially in 2015, with both constructors’ and drivers’ championships clinched with a few races to go, the dominance of Mercedes caused much angst. The fans want to see multiple teams and drivers winning and closer racing, especially in front. So as we build up to the car launches and the first pre-season test on February 22, 2016 (Barcelona), the experts and fans have started reading the tea leaves. The sport wants to see more teams take the fight to Mercedes and see new stars emerge. The F1 team at Sportpulse.net has put forth its thoughts on what we are looking forward to in the 2016 season.
This is will be the first of a series of articles on the 2016 season rules changes, the new cars and the pre-season tests that will provide a preview of the 2016 season.
1. Will Ferrari mount a real challenge for the titles this season?
After a dismal and winless 2014 season that saw the exit of Fernando Alonso, the Italian team had a much improved 2015 season. A win for their new star driver and four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel in the second race in Malaysia raised the hopes of the Tifosi. But the challenge especially in the constructors’ championship did not materialize. The Red team challenged Mercedes at certain tracks that suited the characteristics of their car. Ferrari Chairman Sergio Marchionne has said he expects the team to win the first race in Australia, ramping up pressure on the team. Our F1 team is looking forward the most to see how the campaign of Ferrari will unfold in the 2016 season:
2. Will the McLaren-Honda team be competitive again?
To say the McLaren team had a wretched 2015 season is a painful understatement. The Woking-based team has been on a downward slide since 2013. Honda made a return to F1 as the engine supplier and resumed its haloed partnership with McLaren. But the 1.6L V6 hybrid engines from the Japanese manufacturer were unreliable and far behind the class-leading Mercedes engines. McLaren finished second last, just ahead of the Manor F1 team. The marquee team is in the midst of its longest winless streak, the last win coming at the last race of 2012 in Brazil. The team, with twelve drivers’ and eight constructors’ championships, has legions of fans and the only way is up for this team. Jost Capito, former head of Volkswagen Motorsport, joining the team as Chief Executive is a significant personnel change for the 2016 season.
Dessi: What is actually wrong with McLaren Honda? Is it a severe case of miscommunication between McLaren and Honda on the size zero car and other issues?
3. How will the new Haas F1 team perform?
New entrants in F1 are rare as it is a difficult sport with a high barrier to entry because of the technical expertise and high investments needed. Two of the three new teams that last entered the sport in 2010 (Caterham, HRT) are no more. Virgin Racing has since mutated into Marussia F1 and now Manor F1 and just survived through six seasons. So the entry of the American Haas F1 team has created huge interest. The owner Gene Haas has a championship winning team in NASCAR and is the founder of Haas Automation. The team has a close technical collaboration with Ferrari to the extent that they are called the Ferrari-B team.
4. Where will Renault slot in on its return to F1?
The 2008 Crashgate scandal saw Renault exit the sport in 2010. The French manufacturer sold its stake to Genii Capital of Luxembourg. Renault scaled back its involvement in F1 to an engine supplier only. The team morphed into the Lotus F1 team and did well in the 2012-2013 seasons with cars penned by James Allison. But the scarce resources of the debt-ridden team saw the exit of many talented engineers from the excellent Enstone-based engineering team. A switch to Mercedes engines in 2015 brought some respite. But it was clear the team could not survive without a huge infusion of funds. Renault was in need of a works team to come back into F1. This led to the acquisition of the Lotus team by the French manufacturer.
5. How will Toro Rosso fare after their switch to 2015 Ferrari engines?
The torrid relationship between the dominant team from the 2010-2014 era Red Bull and its engine supplier Renault was one of the big sideshows of 2015. Toro Rosso, the junior team of Red Bull was an innocent bystander in the whole drama. Even as the senior Red Bull team fumed and raged, the Faenza-based team accumulated the highest point tally in its history. The team’s two rookie drivers Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen made a dazzling debut and the team earned brownie points from all the fans. The Red Bull team decided to end its contract with Renault, only to return back as we shall see later. But as the engine suppliers refused to supply the Red Bull teams with the 2016-specification engine, Toro Rosso accepted the 2015-spec Ferrari engine.
Last edited by sagi58 on 12 Feb 16, 13:52, edited 1 time in total.
After the agony of defeat, success will be sweet!