Winter Off-Season Update: More cars and Testing Begins

Greetings Internet, 

If you weren't bored to tears by the last post, I thought I'd make another one just to finish you all off. Because what the Internet needs is more pictures of cars that look more or less the same as one another, with some wierd northern bloke in possession of a quizzical expression attempting to sound knowledgeable. 

Manor

With new drivers and new engine, the team that struggled to make it onto the 2015 grid enter the new season with a more confident package. The new engineering staff acquired over the winter may not have an immediate impact on performance and the car still looks a little primitive in some respects compared to the better funded competition. But at least the team bothered to paint their car properly unlike so many others - the livery is a decent injection of colour into a largely monotone grid. Points may be possible this season through the far more effective power unit especially before other teams are able to develop and overcome and engine advantage held by a smaller team. Similar to the way in which Sauber scored good points in Australia, but fell away as other teams out-developed them. 

Testing so far has gone well for Manor, in the sense that nothing has exploded and the car has been running. Pascal Wehrlein completed a decent number of laps during his time in the car - while Haryanto span on his first day in the car and then crashed on his second effort. It may be speaking a little too soon, but we might have a replacement for Pastor Maldonado to provide an injection of chaos when we need it. The only question is, will the inclusion of a 2016 Mercedes engine bring Manor closer to any other car for the oil funded Indonesian something to run into rather than the barrier. 

Haas

The first new team since 2010 made its first official appearance as testing got under way, and it was rather obvious that several components fell out of the Ferrari spare parts bin. It has been no secret that Haas have been collaborating with Ferrari in their preparations for joining the grid and that collaboration has definitely had an influence on the design of the car. The front and rear wings along with the bargeboards and turning vanes have a slight Ferrari-esque nature to them. While the front and presumably rear suspension components have certainly been dragged from the same supply cupboard. 

With the American connections and a history in NASCAR, I was expecting the team to roll out with something that either screamed 'Murica or drew inspiration from the Ferrari collaboration - maybe a big American flag or fireworks in the exhaust all mounted on Pirelli Monster Truck tyres with a front facing flamethrower. There were even suggestions and rumours that the car might have been yellow... alas it is not to be they've gone with grey. Whoever did a deal with the F1 teams for black, grey and blue paint must be making a huge profit right now. In testing Haas have faired well - a front wing failure on day one didn't halt progress with only one technical failure on the final day of testing hinted at potential reliability concerns. Ferrari themselves had a similar run of reliability with only one breakdown for Raikkonen... or it might have been the car who knows. The pace has been reasonably competitive just of the back of the midfield - but we all know that pace in testing counts for nothing really.

Force India

Force India apparently have a new car, but from looks of it - there seems to be very little difference between the 2016 entrant and their B-Spec 2015 car. After all the team were a little behind on development last season so there may be more updates in the pipeline in time for Melbourne next month. Even though the livery is identical and the unique nose section remains largely unchanged from it's immediate predecessor there are some subtle differences. Like most of the 2016 cars the rear section of the VJM09 has undergone some resculpting probably to work with the newest generation of Mercedes engines that the team will be running once again this season.

However while it may not seem like the squad have been up to much over the winter other than wondering which of their funding sources will end up in court next - but the car does seem to be keeping pace with everyone else... most everyone else. Reliability has been reasonably strong as have all the Mercedes powered runners - and the team even elected to pass the first test day to an actual test driver. While that seems like a reasonable thing to do - Alfonso Cellis' record rather suggests that is was money rather than ability that scored him the lions share of testing milage in the new car. On day three of testing Hulkenberg finished the day with the fastest lap time - not that times matter too much but it does show that the car isn't a static replica of 2015... even if it might look like one. 

Mercedes

If there was a team that probably could have put their feet up during the winter it was Mercedes - with a comfortably dominant car and the best engine what more did they need to do. But when the W07 was presented to the world it appeared that they had been busy rolling out a '100 element' nose section on day two. I haven't counted but surely you can trust a team headed by an Arnold Schwarzenegger impersonator. Ominously Paddy Lowe at the team has said that the W07 has been optimised everywhere - which involves resculpting the sidepods and air intakes to create a much more refined bodywork shape. If the W06 wasn't optimised enough 2016 could easily be an even more dominant season.

In testing I doubt the team have revealed the true pace of the car, but have been crushingly reliable and consistent. Covering over 1,000km more track time than anyone else without a hint of reliability problems - the car works impeccably well and if it has the pace we all suspect it does to go with that, it is going to be a tough act to follow this year. The only hint that things might be interesting is that on three of the four test days, Ferrari ended the testing session with the fastest time. But because times don't matter in testing and don't actually reveal anything - that hope of competition at the front may be a false one.

McLaren 

While Mercedes could have gone on holiday over the winter, McLaren certainly couldn't following a dismal 2015 campaign in which they only avoided finishing last because Manor were running with a very undeveloped car. Over the winter there were some promising rumours flowing from the Honda side of the equation - claiming they had found around 200hp, a rumour that slowly started to disintegrate as it turned out that figure only referred to the hybrid system. Therefore this sudden gain in power would only manifest for a few seconds a lap at maximum energy deployment. When the car was revealed to the world it looked angrier and more menacing than it's predecessor with a mainly black livery. But when it fired up it wasn't quite menacing the competition.

On the first day of testing Boullier pointed out that the updates were not good enough and the speed trap data still showed that the McLaren Honda combination was noticeably slower than it's rivals. If that wasn't damming enough on the day of the first test - the man in charge of the Honda partnership resigned from the post... if more key staff also start to go missing in the coming days, it becomes a clear sign that things have not worked at all well over the winter. However on the reliability front the car has been running, on three of the four days Button and Alonso put in a decent amount of laps. On day four however Fernando only managed three laps before the car broke with a fluid leak... if only Barcelona had some deck chairs to spend the rest of the day on.

Red Bull

After a season long argument with Renault ending in divorce - Red Bull have reluctantly jumped back into bed with the French engine manufacturer and in an effort to make things work, they've rebranded the power unit Tag-Heuer. What the watchmakers are actually allowed to do to make their mark on the engine is a topic for discussion between actual engineers. This hindered development of the 2016 car as the team didn't know which engine to make room for in the back of the chassis. Despite this the team turned up with the RB12 and like Mercedes have gone for optimisation rather than a radical design approach, focussing more on the rear suspension and diffuser. It has always been assumed that Red Bull under Newey's guidance have developed the strongest chassis designs and this newest iteration should follow suit.

This RB12 faired well in testing, setting the third fastest overall lap time, and completed a lot more laps that they did in 2015. Reliability seems to have improved on the Renault side and the engine seems to be integrating with the rest of the car reasonably well. But it is far too early too say if this season will be more fruitful than 2015 and if there will be fewer arguments between team and engine supplier...

Toro Rosso

The junior team decided that the current drivers weren't allowed to play with paint anymore and released a bland monotone testing livery leaving the paints back at HQ until Max is old enough to join in. After the engine divorce Toro Rosso went back and shacked up with Ferrari, but because it had been a long time - the Italians only handed them an older version of the power unit. Of all the teams it seems that Toro Rosso have been breaking down more often - probably a legacy of a late engine supplier change. However despite this, none of the breakdowns have proved terminal and the overall millage completed by the team surpasses that achieved by their supposedly more competent sister team. The only team to complete more laps were Mercedes, so despite a few minor hiccups, the car is quite reliable.

Hidden by the plain colour scheme the STR11 is an evolution of the previous model with a flatter nose and retaining the innovative central rear wing pylon that passes through the exhaust. The engine change has meant the rear of the car had to adapt to house the Ferrari power unit, with some breathing room for cooling. As the season progresses the car will get slimmer as the cooling is dialled back to meet the narrow sidepods. 

Renault

After a strange and slightly pointless launch event in which they didn't actually launch anything - I suppose that they just figured that replacing Maldonado was a good enough excuse for a party - Renault turned up with a 2016 car. But like Toro Rosso they too forgot to bother painting most of it - and settled for the same mostly black design they showed to the world in that odd party. As someone who isn't exactly well versed in the world of technical analysis - the R.S.16  looks to have a more exposed rear section in and around the rear suspension. You see the Ferrari and more so the Toro Rosso with flared bodywork while the sidepod tucks underneath. At the front Renault have kept the nicer looking nose that Lotus ran before Renault re-adopted the team but other than that nothing really stands out. 

In testing the car was slow to get off the ground in terms of laps completed dealing with early struggles and a very smoky engine early on. But on the final day of the test Magnussen achieved the greatest number of laps and set Renault's fastest time putting them on pace with the mid-field. The interesting comparison this season will be between themselves and Red Bull, since the latter is now a customer team and it would be most amusing if Renault were able to beat them after Red Bull were less than kind to the French manufacturer. Alas at the moment is does seem like the opposite is in play with Red Bull in front, but it is only early days yet.

As for Sauber

One team don't have a new car yet, and that is Sauber - although they did turn up to the Barcelona test with a 2015 car so that they could still get used to the new spec tyres and keep an eye on the competition. Using the older car didn't seem to harm the lap times as the C34 stayed on midfield pace, but that is a fully developed 2015 car versus the first running versions of the newer machinery. Unsurprisingly Sauber racked up a considerable amount of testing laps on par with Toro Rosso - both using a 2015 Ferrari engine. We'll have to see what Sauber brings to the playing field when their C35 is released in time for the second test.

Winter Off Season Update 1: We finally have new cars to look at - and other things

Greetings Internet, 

It has been a while since my fat stubby fingers were slammed against the keyboard in this part of the internet - but against my better judgment and disappointment of everyone else online Blog HQ is still here. Over the winter there have been many storylines and events which for the most part involved Red Bull complaining about engines... and then everyone else complaining about engines. The engine saga will likely rumble on for all of eternity, or at least until someone finally manages to build something that can give Mercedes a good kicking from time to time. For some reason I think the end of time might happen first - and as the universe collapses in on itself Christian Horner will still find ways of blaming the apocalypse on Renault. Speaking of Renault, there was a slight change in their driver line-up timed to coincide with a rather pointless launch event, but more on that later. 

Who else will build barrier forts now?

F1's demolition derby specialist Pastor Maldonado ran into a bit of a financial concrete wall as his Venezuelan overlords at PDVSA forgot to pay Lotus (now Renault) the money for 2016. So without money to cover the frequent flyer miles to the stewards office and those hefty repair bills - Pastor suddenly found himself sitting in the unemployment line. As a replacement Renault turned to McLaren exile Kevin Magnussen, when the Dane was announced earlier in the year Renault instantly noticed that their insurance premiums was significantly reduced. In some respects it is a shame to see Pastor crashing out of the sport, because his destructive madness and general lunacy was entertaining and the world as a whole had someone to laugh at. Magnussen is a better prospect in the long term we assume, but a lot less fun - that said he did equal Pastors tally of number of opponents flipped when he upended Massa in Germany. We have gained Gutierrez at Haas who came close to scoring as many penalties as Maldonado, and of course there is Mad Max Verstappen to inject a bit of chaos in the absence of the lord of destruction.

Elsewhere in other news Manor have now finalised their drivers and thus the grid is complete ahead of testing on Monday. With the acquisition of Mercedes engines for the new season Manor opened the crates containing the new power units only to find the German manufacturer had stashed a new driver in amongst the polystyrene packaging. Just like the Grosjean move to Haas - the rest of the world sort of knew that there might be a stowaway in the Mercedes deal. That stowaway is DTM Champion Pascal Wehrlein following the same route into F1 as Paul Di Resta and to a less successful extent Christijan Albers. 

Can we move the German GP to the Norisring?

The deal is similar to the one that placed Bianchi at Marussia with help from Ferrari - Pascal is quite highly rated and just like Jules did, have the potential to get the most out of the underdog chassis. Alongside Pascal is another new face, Will Stevens can return to England and pursue a career as a Danny Dyer impersonator as his seat was handed to another well funded rooker. Just like Pastor Maldonado, national oil money paid for a drive for Rio Haryanto from Indonesia. Rio finished 4th in last season's GP2 championship - it might have been third if the final race lasted more than two corners before being abandoned. He doesn't come with impeccable credentials but he has money, and for a small team like Manor - money is rather important. 

A new car at last

So onto to the main theme of today's surprise post - the first car has been revealed to the world. There have been other launches in the past few days and weeks but this is the first actual car presented by Williams. 

Williams' revolutionary idea to build race car designed to go round corners

On the surface it doesn't seem like the squad have done too much different, the livery is the same, the nose is the same and so on. But apparently the team have done some revolutionising - which could mean anything from setting the suspension up at a new angle or plotting to overthrow the government. The latter sounding more entertaining but I think they might need to re-hire a certain Venezuelan to truly make an impact in parliament. The idea Willams have had is to focus more on going round corners - which probably a solid idea given that there are quite a few corners - instead of focusing on ultimate low drag speed. The aim is to have a car which is more versatile and doesn't turn into a sloth as soon as the heavens open. The only evidence of this on the car is the emergence of a few winglets on top of the sidepods and some resculpting around the air intakes in comparison to the 2015 model. It might bring them closer to Ferrari more often, but we haven't seen what the Italians have built... even though several key personnel at Ferrari are actually British. The noises out of Maranello suggest that they have taken a 'radical' approach - whatever that actually means, probably that they've added more pepper and parmesan to everything in the catering truck or something 

Another New Car...

While I was writing about the revolutions at Williams and things Ferrari decided to get in on the act and present their new shiny car. Across the void of cyberspace... and probably the real world too but I try to avoid that place... people were concerned about the amount of white paint that rumours suggested would be on the car...

Williams would like their nosecone back

Well those rumours were not wrong when the new Ferrari finally broke cover today - the engine cover and the cockpit are have been bleached of the former scarlet paintwork. The other dashes of white don't seem out of place but while the engine cover is a evolution of the livery... it just seems wrong. Adding to the list of things that seem out of place  - the 2016 nose is almost identical to the Williams and is the first Ferrari to go with the... extension at the front since they made an appearance in 2014. The nose is probably more fit for purpose and for the regulations but looks less well designed than its predecessor. The rear of the car however does seem more delicately sculpted as the sidepod vanishes underneath the rear suspension housing. I'm not an aerodynamicist or even a proper engineer but it sort of looks like a car designed by a committee, or at least painted by one. However there is no real disagreement at blog HQ that is certainly is a departure from recent exports from the team and might make things interesting at the front... well almost.

Mercedes

While we are all looking at new pictures surfacing as testing approaches Toto and his gang have been running the new car at Silverstone in what will likely be called a filming day/shakedown. From the one photo that is doing the rounds on twitter at the moment it seems as if the Germans might find 2016 a little more challenging...

Mercedes already so far ahead they've won the British GP in February 

After all, going for a blurry, slightly pixelated design can't be the most aerodynamic option. Given the fuzziness of the shot it is unclear what changes have been made - but the team could probably slap the engine in a golf cart and lap the field with it... Besides since the rate of development is so high, the parts that are fitted to the car for testing in Spain might be completely different to those on the car at the Silverstone 'test' event. 

Red Bull... not a new car, but new paint

Red Bull took some time off from berating their engine this week to have a little launch of their own. After falling out with almost every other engine supplier at the back end of 2015, the team eventually crawled back to Renault and asked watchmaker Tag-Heuer to help out. Clearly Horner has decided that if he can't have all the power he wants from the car, he'll team up with someone who can tinker with the timing to make the lap time look more favourable. All this meant that the team have been a little busy trying to get the car ready so when it came to launch time - they slapped on some paint to an older chassis and showed that off insead. 

If losing - pretend to be Toro Rosso

It seems Red Bull have run out of the shiny paint they have been using over the past few seasons - perhaps Infiniti took it with them when the brand parted company with the team. The new paint is a lot darker than we've been used to and is probably geared to make them look more similar to the Junior Squad at Toro Rosso - because it is reasonably likely that those whippersnappers might have a faster car with their Ferrari engines. The matte paint may take some getting used to but we'll see when their actual car is revealed.

Renault... not really a new anything of sorts

Then there was Renault... they were the first out of the gate with a launch party event, but didn't actually launch anything. They announced that they were releasing Maldonado back into the wild and that Kevin was the named replacement but that's it. Yet the launch contained a car painted... well some of it was painted... in a livery they weren't planning on using, and the car itself was the 2015 model. So they didn't have anything to share with the world other than reminding us that they have officially taken over the Lotus team and have become Renault after selling the naming rights at the end of 2011. 

In an urgent appeal - Renault are asking for donations of yellow paint

As you can see Renault just painted an old car black and slapped some stickers on it - the rear of the engine cover used some of Red Bull's matte paint, something they probably claimed in the divorce. The team have said that this 'livery' isn't its final form - so with any luck they will pay a visit to their Formula E team's paint shed and stick a eDams-esque colour scheme on it before sending it back out into to the world. 

Blog HQ in 2016

I have received literally zero questions about the plans for 2016 from the tens of people who accidently end up on this part of the internet, and I'm not entirely sure I have any answers to those non-existent questions. I am aware that the latter half of 2015 did enter a little bit of a decline... well more of an accelerated spiral into a dark and endless silence. That was fuelled by many factors, most of those relating to time. Over the course of a standard race weekend, operating this corner of the internet does take up a large amount of time - which includes watching the race itself and delivering the reports and things afterwards. Time I was struggling to find in the latter races of last season and as a result several reports were not completed or were delayed by several days. I have been spending a lot less time in the house and as a result the simple act of sitting down and watching a race on a Sunday afternoon isn't as simple and as easy as it once was. A lot of this is Bernie's fault - because in the end it is always a good idea to blame Bernie - the price of F1 has made it increasingly inaccessible to the general public. Free-to-air coverage is a bleak shadow of what it once was and therefore when I am away from Blog HQ catching up with the sport is often far more difficult. 

Even on free TV weekends, other commitments mean that time is also thin on the ground. It took three days to watch the Abu-Dhabi finale last year over a series of lunch breaks. It isn't practical to devote eight or nine hours on a Sunday to watch and document each lap and each on track duel. But at the same time I would ideally like to keep this part of the internet operational in some shape or form, it would require a restructure of how things are delivered and since Blog HQ has been running since 2011 it would be a shame to see it die out. At this moment in time I don't really know how to proceed, whether it is through a series of sporadic articles rather than needlessly long qualifying and race reports. I would like to revive the bonus points tally after it fell into disrepair last season. There should be a couple of posts during testing as more cars are revealed, but as far as the main season goes that is very much undecided.