2016 Season

Team changes

Haas F1 Team joins the grid as the first American constructor to compete since the unrelated Haas Lola team in 1986. The team uses Ferrari power and a Dallara-built chassis, with Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutiérrez as drivers. Gutiérrez returns to the grid after a season as Ferrari’s test and reserve driver.

Renault returns as a full factory team after purchasing Lotus from Genii Capital — the same team they sold to Genii in 2010. The Lotus name disappears; the entry races as Renault. Jolyon Palmer, the 2014 GP2 champion, makes his race debut. Pastor Maldonado will not race after his sponsors were unable to fulfil their contractual obligations; Kevin Magnussen, released by McLaren after entering only one race in 2015, joins as his replacement.

Marussia’s entry is renamed Manor Racing MRT and switches from year-old Ferrari power to a current Mercedes engine. Team principal John Booth and sporting director Graeme Lowdon have both resigned; the team recruits Pascal Wehrlein — reigning Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters champion — and Rio Haryanto, who becomes the first Indonesian driver in Formula One. Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi are not retained.

Red Bull Racing formally ends its nine-year partnership with Renault, citing poor performance. The engines are rebadged as TAG Heuer. Scuderia Toro Rosso switches back to Ferrari power — using the type 060 unit that ran with the works team in 2015 — after Renault ended customer engine supply.

Sauber is purchased by Longbow Finance in the week before the Hungarian Grand Prix. Team founder Peter Sauber retires, but the Sauber name continues.

Driver changes

Romain Grosjean leaves Lotus for Haas. At Renault (formerly Lotus), Jolyon Palmer takes the seat originally held by Maldonado. Kevin Magnussen joins from McLaren. At Manor, Pascal Wehrlein and Rio Haryanto replace Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi.

Calendar

The season runs to twenty-one races, the longest in the sport’s history to this point. The German Grand Prix returns to the Hockenheimring after being cancelled in 2015 when no venue could be secured. The European Grand Prix also returns after three years away, moving from Valencia to a brand-new street circuit in Baku, Azerbaijan — the first Grand Prix held in the country.

Three contracted events do not appear on the calendar: the Grand Prix of America at the Port Imperial Street Circuit in New Jersey is delayed for a fourth consecutive year; the Indian Grand Prix remains absent following a taxation dispute; and the Korean Grand Prix is omitted for a third consecutive season.

Regulation changes

Tyre supplier Pirelli introduces a fifth dry compound, the ultrasoft, reserved for street circuits. Teams now receive three dry compounds per race instead of two; Pirelli designates two “choice” compounds and supplies the softest available to drivers reaching Q3. Drivers choose their remaining ten tyre sets from the three compounds and must use two dry compounds during the race.

A new elimination-style qualifying format is introduced. Rather than eliminating the slowest drivers at the end of each period, drivers are dropped every ninety seconds once the countdown begins. The format is widely criticised before the season even starts and abandoned after two races; the three-period system used between 2006 and 2015 is reinstated from China onwards.

Cars must incorporate a separate wastegate for exhaust gases to increase engine noise. The number of power unit development tokens is raised from fifteen to thirty-two, matching the 2014 allocation, to allow Renault and Honda more scope for improvement.

Stewards are given greater powers to enforce track limits: drivers must stay between the white lines except in cases of genuine error. Pit-to-car radio restrictions are introduced to curb driver coaching; teams may monitor feeds in real time and communications deemed as assistance can result in penalties. These restrictions are extended and later repealed from the German Grand Prix onwards, applying only to the formation lap. Use of the Virtual Safety Car is expanded to practice sessions. The number of pre-season tests is reduced from three to two, and the maximum events per season raised from twenty to twenty-one.

Pre-season testing

Pirelli conducted a wet-weather tyre test at Circuit Paul Ricard in January. The first team test at the Circuit de Catalunya saw Ferrari fastest on three of the four days, with Nico Hülkenberg topping the timesheets for Force India on the third. A second four-day test in Barcelona ran 1–4 March; Ferrari set the best overall time on the new ultrasoft compound, while Mercedes covered the most distance across both tests at close to 5,000 km. Teams also examined a proposed driver head-protection concept during testing, referred to as the “halo”.