F1 2016 F1 Car Launch

[Rainer271]

McLaren launches its 2016 car, the MP4-31



The McLaren team has presented its 2016 challenger, with which it hopes to bounce back from a very difficult 2015 season.

McLaren described the new car as "innovative".

The Woking-based team finished in ninth place in the constructors' championship last year after a season full of reliability problems with the Hondaengine.

The Japanese manufacturer returned to the sport in 2015 after having left following the 2008 season.

But its power unit proved uncompetitive and unreliable and McLaren managed a fifth place in Hungary as its best result.

Now the team is optimistic that several changes to the Honda engine will help turn its fortunes around in 2016.

The new car, pictures of which were leaked on the Internet before the scheduled launch, continues the "size zero" philosophy it opted for last year.

The MP4-31 also retains the very short nose ran last season.

"As we embark on the second year of our renewed McLaren-Honda partnership, all of us remain united in our purpose," said Ron Dennis.

"That purpose is to develop our team towards our shared ambition: to win.

"We'll make no predictions as to when those wins will come, but I can say without fear of contradiction that every member of our team has worked with truly relentless dedication over the past few months.

"The result is that MP4-31's developmental trajectory has been usefully steepened over the winter, and I'm consequently very proud of our team's efforts."

McLaren's new car will kick off its testing programme tomorrow at Barcelona in the hands of Jenson Button.

Source: Motorsport.com

 

[Rainer271]

Sauber F1 team reveals modified 2016 livery


Sauber has revealed the slightly tweaked livery that will be run on its updated C34 for the first pre-season Formula 1 test at Barcelona on Monday.
The Hinwil-based outfit is not launching its new car until the second test on March 1, having elected not to change its original construction schedule plans when the calendar changed.

It means that Felipe Nasr and Marcus Ericsson will be the only team running an updated version of last year's car for this week's first test.

On Sunday, the team released images of the colour scheme it will be running, which retains the blue, yellow and white livery it ran in 2015.

However, there appear to be new sponsors on the rear wing – including IFS.

Broadcaster CNBC, which announced a partnership with Sauber over the winter, has also got a big presence there too.

Source: Motorsport.com

 

[Rainer271]

New Mercedes F1 car breaks cover


Mercedes has officially unveiled images of its new Formula 1 car.

With only spy shots and teasers of the W07 having been available so far, the Brackley-based team finally showed off the first clear pictures of its new 2016 F1 challenger.

While attention is grabbed by a slightly reworked paint scheme, the car features more refined aerodynamics and changes to the air and engine cover area of the chassis.

It has already completed a shakedown at Silverstone in the hands of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg, and will be revealed properly on Monday.

Although there is not a dramatic overhaul on the car because the regulations are stable, executive director Paddy Lowe said a lot of work had gone in to making changes.

And he hints that there have been some signification tweaks made underneath the skin – most likely in the suspension area of the car.

"It's difficult to have a complete revolution when the rules have stayed pretty much the same year on year," he said.

"But we aim to make minor revolutions wherever we can - even within a small context.

"We may look at a completely new packaging solution or suspension concept, for instance.

"So, while the car may look very similar to its predecessor from the outside - as is inherent within stable regulations - underneath there are quite a lot of mini revolutions that make up an overall evolution for the new season."

Still ways to improve
Lowe added that despite the dominance of the team last year, there were still issues that needed addressing if the team was going to stay at the top.

"After a highly successful season all round in 2015, our priority has been to identify the areas in which we were weakest and to try to improve on those," he said.

"Our objective is excellence in all areas and, while we had some fantastic results last year, there are many areas in which we can still be much better.

"That's the kind of culture we try to instill throughout the whole organisation - one of constantly striving to reach something better.

"We had a number of races that didn't go to plan in 2015 - Singapore in particular - so there were a lot of things that needed improving for 2016. We are seeking optimisation absolutely everywhere."

Engine push
Mercedes has also pushed hard with its power unit development as well, with engine chief Andy Cowell saying it has not been held back by the 32 development token limit.

"32 tokens is quite a lot, so we haven't had to restrict any of our development activity to a specific area," he said.

"Anything which could yield a decent efficiency improvement - and therefore a decent performance improvement - has been explored and we're now working to make sure our package is sufficiently durable in time for Melbourne."

Cowell also made clear that the increased allowance of engines this year because of 21 races – up to five from four – had not actually made life much easier.

"On the face of it, an increased allocation of Power Units would seem to give manufacturers an advantage, in that each unit is required to complete fewer races, thereby putting less pressure on the life cycle of different components," he said.

"But the reality is that our durability targets have remained the same. Our target is to make sure that each Power Unit can last for at least five races, meaning that theoretically we only need to use four per driver, across the season.

"We believe this gives us a good opportunity to react if we have a reliability problem - or potentially to use the extra units to our advantage for a performance enhancement at key races."

Source: Motorsport.com

 

[Rainer271]

Haas launches its first ever F1 car


Formula 1's newest team Haas unveiled its first car on Sunday, ahead of its first public running at Barcelona on Monday.

The Ferrari-powered challenger, named VF-16, is the result of more than two years of effort from the American outfit as it enters grand prix racing for the first time.

The origin of naming the car "VF-16" goes back to the first CNC machine manufactured by Haas Automation, the VF-1, launched in 1988.

The “V” stands for vertical, which is an industry standard designation for a vertical mill.

Gene Haas, founder of Haas Automation, added "F1" to the name to unofficially designate it as the company’s “Very First One".

As well as being powered by Ferrari , the team whose European headquarters are in Banbury also has a close technical collaboration with the Italian marque, and uses the Maranello-outfit's wind tunnel.

"Our goal with this car is to score points," team boss Guenther Steiner said. "First, we need to go out there and show that we can do the job, that we can finish races, that we are respected by the fans and other teams in the paddock. Then, we want to score points. That is the ultimate goal."

The new car will be driven by Esteban Gutierrez, who is returning to F1 after a year as Ferrari test driver, and Romain Grosjean who has joined from the former Lotus team.

Haas completed an installation lap with the new car at Barcelona on Saturday.

Source: Motorsport.com

 

[Rainer271]

Tech analysis: Ferrari’s eight key changes to topple Mercedes


Ferrari made a bold statement of intent about its Formula 1 World Championship ambitions when it unveiled an aggressive SF16-H on Friday.
With Maranello's technical chiefs talking about “innovative” concepts of the car, it was clear from technical director James Allison that there was a sense of pride about the new machine.

Ferrari has worked on multiple areas to improve its chassis since 2015, and we have identified eight key areas (outlined at the bottom of the story) it has concentrated its efforts on.

“We know Mercedes were very strong last year, very strong the year before,” said Allison. “But we also know that we have extremely talented people at Maranello.

"We've put nearly a thousand man years of work into this car, and we've done our absolute best to try to make this one a step up, to make this one a bold step forward, to give it the competitiveness that it will need to be a proper winning car.

“I hope we've done enough, but we'll only really know for sure once we start racing it. But I can tell you with absolute confidence that the love and effort and skill that has gone into this car is beyond question.”

"All our hopes are in this car"
Allison stressed that the team has improved in all areas since he joined from Lotus.

“I think it's probably fair to say that back in 2013 Ferrari was not at the right level, not at the championship level, in probably anything except probably doing pit stops very quickly.

"We didn't have enough power, we didn't have enough downforce, the kinematics on our suspension were not ideal, and our packaging left a lot to be desired as well.

“We've worked very hard, the whole team has worked very hard on all those areas.

“Last year was a decent step forward, and we hope that this car will be another good step forward, another step to make us properly competitive.

"But it isn't true to say that one area has done any better than any other area, we've improved across the board, horsepower, downforce, handling, everywhere.

“All our hopes are in this car, we're very proud of what we've done, and we can't wait to see it run on track.”

Key technical changes
by Matt Somerfield

Motorsport.com will bring you a full technical analysis, including exclusive drawings from technical editor Giorgio Piola, of the SF16-H's details in the near future.

But these are the eight key changes that Ferrari has made to its SF16-H car compared to last year's challenger.1. Short 'thumb'-style nose.

2. Return to push-rod suspension at the front of the car.

3. Re-designed sidepods, accommodating a different cooler configuration.

4. Sidepod airflow conditioners amended to suit the sidepods leading edge.

5. Enlarged radiator louvres alongside the cockpit.

6. Airbox shape has changed from a trapezoidal design to a more conventional inverted U, whilst the roll bars support spar has been lent back.

7. Rear bodywork tightened with the side cooling outlets raised to allow more airflow into the coke bottle region.

8. Two wastegate exhausts, one either side of the main exhaust outlet.

Source: Motorsport.com

 

[Sunny]

Mclaren is so boxy, looks like it is made from lego blocks.
Ferrari livery is ugly as sin.
Merc still looks cleanest and quickest. And that huge air intake for the engine is very ominous.

 

[Monster]

First day of testing, expecting to see lots of photos of cars on the track.

Brand new RB 12

And the new Hass F1, the VF-16

And the Renault RS-16

 

[Monster]

Mclaren is so boxy, looks like it is made from lego blocks.
Ferrari livery is ugly as sin.
Merc still looks cleanest and quickest. And that huge air intake for the engine is very ominous.

The rear end of that Mclaren looks pretty compact and tight, the same can't be said for the Renault. So far it is visually the least impressive car with the bulkiest side pod.

And onto the most stunning looking car, the Toro Rosso STR 11, notice it has the huge muti section air intake, which is almost identical to the Mercedes. This is very interesting, considering the Toro Rosso is running the final 2015 spec Ferrari engine, and Ferrari didn't feel the need to have such a large intake. Perhaps it is sized to compensate for the extremely compact side pods and intakes.

The back end of this car is extremely compact.

 

[Monster]

RB 12 Studio photos. Very unusual surface treatment on the surfaces just behind the side air intake.

http://www.redbullracing.com/gallery/rb12

 

[Deleted member 25]

The STR is unbelievable.

 

[Car Nut]

The STR is unbelievable.

That STR does look good. With both this car as well as the Benz having such large overhead air intakes, I wonder whether they will have some sort of S-duct (just a duct) running through the engine cowling and directing air to the rear diffuser. It may be that this is done at circuits where cooling is not such of an issue and thus there is an over supply of air coming through this big opening(keeping in mind that this air intake does not only supply the engine with air but also has cooling functions). Mercedes had several different engine covers for different tracks last year. I suppose we will find out.