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.
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