Provisional Schedule The Schedule... Round Race Circuit Date 1 Australian Grand Prix Albert Park March 20 2 Bahrain Grand Prix Bahrain International Circuit April 3 3 Chinese Grand Prix Shanghai International Circuit April 17 4 Russian Grand Prix Sochi International Street Circuit May 1 5 Spanish Grand Prix Circuit de Catalunya May 15 6 Monaco Grand Prix Monte-Carlo May 29 7 Canadian Grand Prix Circuit Gilles Villeneuve June 12 8 European GP Azerbaijan Street Circuit June 19 9 Austrian Grand Prix Red Bull Ring July 3 10 British Grand Prix Silverstone July 10 11 Hungarian Grand Prix Hungaroring July 24 12 German Grand Prix Hockenheimring July 31 13 Belgian Grand Prix Spa-Francorchamps August 28 14 Italian Grand Prix Monza September 4 15 Singapore Grand Prix Singapore September 18 16 Malaysia Grand Prix Sepang October 2 17 Japanese Grand Prix Suzuka October 9 18 United States Grand Prix Circuit of the Americas October 23 19 Mexican Grand Prix Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez October 30 19 Brazilian Grand Prix Interlagos November 13 20 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Yas Marina November 27
DRIVER LINE-UPS MERCEDES Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg FERRARI Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen WILLIAMS Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa RED BULL To be confirmed FORCE INDIA Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez Development driver: Alfonso Celis LOTUS Pastor Maldonado and Jolyon Palmer TORO ROSSO To be confirmed SAUBER Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr McLAREN Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso (under contract) Reserve: Stoffel Vandoorne MANOR To be confirmed Engines: Mercedes HAAS Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutierrez Engines: Ferrari
What are the predictions for next season? Another Hammy and Merc samich? (for crashton) Or is someone else going to step up to the plate? What does the M/A F1 brain trust say?
- I'm thinking that Merc takes the Constructor's trophy again. - Driver's trophy may be interesting between Lewis, Nico, and Seb (I think individual races may be somewhat boring, but I think that each of them will win several races) - I thought this year was going to be more successful for Williams, so I don't know what to expect from them
Should be an interesting year coming. After watching Red Bull stomp everyone the Merc domination hasn't bothered me yet. There is a limit though, someone will catch them & drive on past. That is the way this sport has always worked.
Can't wait to root for an American team. Go Team Haas. Too bad they didn't select Alexander Rossi as one of their drivers.
I too was sorry Rossi didn't get the call. Rogro was a good pick, but I'm not sure about Gutierrez. Time will tell I wish them good luck.
Test drivers tend to have a lot of seat time and can communicate well to the engineers....useful in setting up a new car.
I edited the schedule in post #1. The Austin race is in doubt because of a 20% cut in Texas state funding (among other $ related issues) and now officially "subject to agreement". Also, Mexico has been moved up a week to 30 Oct.
Interesting changes in the tire rules "– The tyre supplier will now provide three dry-weather compounds instead of two – Of the 13 sets of dry tyres available to each driver, the tyre supplier will choose two for the race (only one of which must be used in the race), and one set (the softest available) that may only be used in Q3. Each driver may then choose their remaining ten sets from the three available compounds – Unless intermediate or wet-weather tyres have been used, a driver must use at least two different specifications of dry-weather tyres – at least one of these must be the one chosen by the tyre supplier."
This is an awesome looking car. I would love to see F1 go this direction in the next 10 years. The ground effects and under body sculpting is fantastic.
So, Red Bull's 2016 power will be bought from Renault, then the engine will be reworked by Mario Illien (and others) and rebranded as ..... TAG Heuer? TAG Heuer engines? I'm guessing this results from paid naming rights that come with $ sponsorship but in my mind TAG Heuer just doesn't fit as an engine brand (esp. given they still have their Infiniti connection).
Looks like that ^ Illien connection needs a correction. I'd read Ilmor was going to be working with RB to improve the Renault engines but apparently the new deal, announced after Renault made their works effort official, is Ilmor will be working directly with Renault. Renault and Ilmor increase their working relationship in Formula 1 - F1 news - AUTOSPORT.com ... still confused by RB's TAG Heuer engine branding, though.