1996 Season

Driver changes

The 1996 season opens with the most significant driver shuffle in years. Michael Schumacher leaves the Benetton team he drove to back-to-back world titles and joins Ferrari, displacing Jean Alesi, who moves in the opposite direction to Benetton. Gerhard Berger, offered the chance to remain at Ferrari as Schumacher’s teammate, instead opts to follow Alesi to Benetton. Ferrari fills the vacant seat with Jordan’s Eddie Irvine.

Berger’s exit from Benetton pushes out Johnny Herbert, who joins Sauber alongside Heinz-Harald Frentzen. Karl Wendlinger — still not fully recovered from the injuries he sustained at the 1994 Monaco Grand Prix — has left Formula One, as has Jean-Christophe Boullion, who returns to his testing role at Williams.

Williams drops David Coulthard and signs Canadian rookie Jacques Villeneuve — the 1995 CART Champion and 1995 Indianapolis 500 winner — to partner Damon Hill. Coulthard joins McLaren alongside Mika Häkkinen, replacing Mark Blundell, who has moved to CART with PacWest Racing.

Martin Brundle leaves Ligier to replace the Ferrari-bound Irvine at Jordan, partnering Rubens Barrichello. Ligier brings in Pedro Diniz from Forti alongside Olivier Panis.

Footwork has an entirely new line-up: Jos Verstappen from the defunct Simtek team, and 1995 Formula 3000 runner-up Ricardo Rosset. Their three outgoing 1995 drivers have all departed — Gianni Morbidelli has become a Jordan test driver, Max Papis has moved to CART, and Taki Inoue, rumoured to have secured seats at both Tyrrell and Minardi, ultimately lost out on both and has moved to sports cars.

Luca Badoer moves from Minardi to Forti, replaced at Minardi by Giancarlo Fisichella, who has been racing with Alfa Romeo in the International Touring Car Championship, alongside Pedro Lamy. Badoer’s Forti teammate is Andrea Montermini, who raced for the now-defunct Pacific team in 1995.

Tyrrell is the only team to carry an unchanged driver line-up from 1995: Ukyo Katayama and Mika Salo.

Team changes

Benetton takes an Italian constructor licence, though the team continues to operate from its base in Britain.

Jordan gains a new title sponsor in British cigarette brand Benson & Hedges, alongside oil supplier Total and engine partner Peugeot in the team’s official name. Tyrrell loses their title sponsor Nokia and reverts to simply Tyrrell Yamaha. Forti loses the Parmalat dairy sponsorship and any official Ford connection, though they continue using Ford engines. Minardi drops the Scuderia Italia name following the end of their two-year partnership.

Larrousse and Pacific do not appear on the 1996 entry list. Pacific withdrew at the end of 1995; Larrousse repeatedly promised a 1996 return but legal and financial difficulties prevented it.

Ferrari switches from its V12 to a V10, the configuration used by most of the grid. For the first time since 1988, no Formula One entrant uses a V12 engine.

Calendar

The season runs to 16 rounds. The Australian Grand Prix moves from the Adelaide Street Circuit — its home since 1985 — to the Albert Park circuit in Melbourne, and switches from season finale to season opener. The European Grand Prix at Nürburgring moves from late October to April. An Indonesian Grand Prix, scheduled at Sentul International Circuit as the season finale, was dropped from the calendar after the corners were found unsuitable for Formula One cars.

Regulation changes

Driver protection is upgraded significantly: the cockpit sides are raised to mid-helmet height and a wraparound foam head restraint is added — a direct consequence of Häkkinen’s qualifying accident at the 1995 Australian Grand Prix. The cockpit opening is also enlarged. Needle-like nosecone designs, as used on the McLaren MP4/10, Forti FG01, and Tyrrell 023, are banned in favour of blunter nose sections. The minimum weight with driver rises from 595 kg to 600 kg, and front wing endplates must be at least 10 mm thick to prevent tyre damage from contact.

The race weekend schedule changes considerably. Three free practice sessions replace the previous two, each capped at 30 laps per driver. Friday qualifying is abolished; a single 12-lap session on Saturday afternoon now determines the grid. The 107% qualifying rule is introduced for the first time: any car lapping more than 107% off the pole time is excluded from the race.

The five-red-lights start procedure replaces the old red-to-green light system: five lights illuminate sequentially, then extinguish simultaneously to start the race.

A new car numbering system takes effect and will remain in place through 2013. The reigning Drivers’ Champion is given number 1, his teammate number 2, with all other teams numbered in order of their Constructors’ Championship finish the previous year. Ferrari’s Schumacher carries number 1, Benetton takes numbers 3 and 4, Williams 5 and 6, McLaren 7 and 8, Ligier 9 and 10, with number 13 skipped throughout.

Mercedes-Benz becomes the official supplier of Formula One’s safety and medical cars, ending the practice of each circuit providing its own — a system that produced unsuitable vehicles at several races, including the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix.