Official 2016 Formula 1 Thread!

[ELVA164]

B*Saint asks, and I deliver! :o

This will be the place to discuss all things F1 for this season. To start, I'll grab some pictures of this year's cars.

Mercedes W07. Drivers: Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton.


Ferrari SF16-H. Drivers: Kimi Raikonnen and Sebastien Vettel.


Red Bull RB12. Drivers: Daniel Ricciardo and Daniil Kvyat.


Haas VF-16, the first American entry since the '80s! Drivers: Romain Grosgean and Esteban Gutierrez.


Williams FW38. Drivers: Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas.


Force India VJM09. Drivers: Sergio Perez and Nico Hulkenberg.


Renault R.S.16 (welcome back!) Drivers: Kevin Magnussen and Jolyon Palmer.


Manor MRT05. Drivers: Pascal Wehrlein and Rio Haryanto.


Toro Rosso STR11. Drivers: Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz Jr.


McLaren-Honda MP4-31. Drivers: Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button.


Sauber F1 C35. Drivers: Marcus Ericcson and Felipe Nasr.

[ELVA164]

Regarding liveries, I think this year's grid has a lot more variety than we've seen the past few seasons. We're finally down to just a couple silver cars and there are a lot of bright liveries. The Ferrari throwback livery looks really neat, too.

[Chinampa]

nice to see another solid color livery too with renault

[b*saint]

I could not believe the start from Ferrari. All my friends were saying they were gonna not be at the Ferrari level this year but I was hoping big. Just a victim of bad tire strategy! They could've won!

[ELVA164]

Yeah, the race results may make it look like more of the same, but Mercedes was definitely under much more pressure from Ferrari. Vettel probably had a good shot at second if not for a few things; the pit stop, the spin...

Also, major kudos to Haas! 6th overall in their debut race! Obviously it was a fair amount of attrition and luck, but the chassis was pretty competitive nonetheless. Interestingly, they also finished the entire race without taking a pit stop!

[ELVA164]

The Bahrain GP starts in a few minutes; anyone watching? Hass qualified well again, Alonso's replacement out-qualified Button, the Ferraris are in position to potentially embarrass the Mercedes at the start again, and poor Magnussen has to start to the back again due to missing a stoplight in Friday practice.

[ELVA164]

Holy crap! Vettel blew up on the assembly lap!

[ELVA164]

Awesome first few laps and Grosjean is kicking ass!

[vinster88]

Glad I stumbled onto this thread, Just tuned in, picking it up at lap 40.

[ELVA164]

Awesome race, definitely the most interesting Bahrain GP I've ever watched. Rosberg kinda ran away with it, but there was excitement all the way down the field. Great result for Grosjean, Manor did a really good job, Alonso's replacement had a great race, and the three tire compounds were an interesting factor.

[Reichart12]

Besides Rosberg doing the Mercedes runaway the race was pretty exciting. The first 10 laps were packed with people destroying some carbon fiber parts. Its nice to see a competitive middle part of the field too.

I didn't really think the tires had much difference between them, well at least the softs to mediums. It didn't seem like people ran mediums much longer than the other tires.

[ELVA164]

I didn't really think the tires had much difference between them, well at least the softs to mediums. It didn't seem like people ran mediums much longer than the other tires.

That's what mixed it up. The mediums were supposed to last longer than the softs, but ended up getting changed even faster in some cases. Really threw a wrench into some of the race strategies. I also thought Haas' balls-to-the-wall tire strategy was very fun to watch, and it ultimately worked pretty well.

[ELVA164]

Wow, China was one of the most exciting races I've seen in a while, especially the first third of the race or so! It was very cool to see such a variety of cars running up front, and a couple faster drivers making their way from the back. A few questionable moves for sure but overall very fun to watch.

[Reichart12]

I haven't been a long time follower but in my history of watching I cant remember them smashing up so many front wings. I thought last race was bad but China was just as bad.

How about towards the end Hamilton basically stalling out in his charge back up. Couldn't get pass Massa and then Ricciardo (I think) and Kimi passing him.

[lukeADE335i]

Pity Ricciardo got the puncture at the start of the race. Given his pace coming back through the pack, he may well have run away with the win.