Sauber unveil their 2016 car, the C35-Ferrari

Sauber have revealed the new C35-Ferrari with which they will contest the 2016 FIA Formula One World Championship.

The car will hit the track for the first time on Tuesday at the start of the second - and final - pre-season test in Barcelona, Sauber having elected to run an evolution of their 2015 machine during the first four-day session in Spain last week.

"We want to clearly improve," team boss Monisha Kaltenborn said. "Obviously, there's a certain position we'd like to achieve.

"But, to start with, it's important to become established in midfield. Only then are we going to focus on individual positions."

The Swiss team say the car is more 'evolution' rather than revolution compared to last year, but insist that a 'slightly changed philisophy' in terms of design - and in particular a revised approach on aerodynamics - has resulted in 'significant' gains.

In addition, Sauber have been able to package the rear of their car more tightly - aided by Ferrari's new gearbox - and to cut weight in several areas relative to last year.

"For the development of the Sauber C35-Ferrari, we slightly changed the philosophy of how we developed the car aerodynamically," technical director Mark Smith explained. "It sounds little, but the impact on the development of the car is significant."

Sauber are the last team to unveil their 2016 car, although Toro Rosso have not yet revealed their livery for the coming season - they will do so from the Barcelona pit lane on Tuesday morning.

(source: f1.com)

A First Look At Baku City Circuit | F1 2016

Looks very nice!

F1 Testing 2016: Who Impressed Most In Week One?

A must see if you are Formula One fan!

Haas ‘exceeded their own expectations’ in first test

Haas surprised themselves with how well their new car - and new team - performed during 2016’s opening pre-season test at Barcelona, according to team principal Guenther Steiner.

The American team racked up 281 laps in total over the four days in Spain, and encountered just one significant problem - on day one, when Romain Grosjean suffered a front wing failure along the main straight. The Frenchman was able to return later that afternoon however, and went on to finish an impressive second fastest on the third and penultimate day.

Steiner admits they had been braced for a more problematic start to their first year in Formula One racing, saying: “We are pretty happy with the progress we have made, we didn’t anticipate that we would get all this running - to do a whole race distance was pretty cool today.

“We have a pretty long list of what we have to fix, but we are working on it - there are trucks leaving in the next few hours to fix things. And it’s not like we are saying ‘woah, how do we fix this?’, so we are in pretty good shape.

“That gives a good feeling. Sure we would have liked to have fewer problems, but we expected to run less, to be honest.

“I am a little surprised [by how smoothly it has gone] - but we had our work cut out too. I wouldn’t call the front wing smooth, that was not enjoyable on the first day. But I am positive because of how well we recovered from it: we had a solution and in the afternoon we were out again. We did some measures, and the next day we were up on top speed again.

“I am very happy with how it went, let’s put it like that.”

Steiner said he had also been impressed with how quickly and effectively the team began working together, adding: “I am quite positively surprised with how quickly the team has gelled. The mechanics got used to the car quickly, and you can see the difference between days one and four - you can measure it.

“Things can go wrong - we need to practice pit stops a bit more, because the reality is a different story to doing it in the garage. It is a new experience for the guys [and] our biggest enemy is that we make mistakes just because we are inexperienced.

“But we have a lot of confidence, a lot of data. We are in pretty good shape.”

(source: f1.com)

Raikkonen and Ferrari top final day in Spain

Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen led the way in Spain on Friday, as this week's pre-season test at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya drew to a close.

Raikkonen’s best lap of 1m 23.477s put him almost a second up on nearest rival Daniil Kvyat in the Red Bull. They were the only two drivers to set their times on Pirelli's new ultrasoft tyre compound.

Despite his table-topping effort, Raikkonen admitted he was still unsure as to the SF16-H's ultimate potential.

"I don't know if this is going to be a good car," he said. "No one can tell, but it seems to be a good car even if there are still many things to try out. We don't look at what the other teams do, we do our stuff and get ready. It's up to us to make sure we are in a good position. There is a good potential but we can still improve."

Force India tester Alfonso Celis was an impressive third fastest, his best supersoft-tyred run yielding a time 1.3s down on Raikkonen's best. The rest of the field clocked their quickest laps on either the soft or medium compound.

After troubles earlier in the week, Renault enjoyed a day of excellent reliability with Kevin Magnussen racking up the day's highest lap total - 153 - en route to fourth in the time sheets, just ahead of Toro Rosso's Max Verstappen and Felipe Nasr in the 2015 Sauber.

“I certainly have had a workout over the last couple of days with over 260 laps completed!" quipped Magnussen. "It feels so good to be back in an F1 car and working through the programme and making strong progress. Our race simulation went well and I’m really gelling with the team; it’s a real pleasure to be driving here and I can’t wait to get back in the car on Tuesday.”

Manor rookie Rio Haryanto had an encouraging morning for Manor, only to lose control and nudge his MRT05 into the barriers at Turn 4 early in the afternoon. The Indonesian driver thus finished 11th, but was still happy with his start to the 2016 pre-season.

“It’s been an important week for me and the team here in Barcelona and generally it’s gone well," he said. "I’ve learned a lot about the new car and identified some areas for improvement, to make the second test even more positive for me.

"I did make a mistake this afternoon and the damage to the car could not be repaired quickly, so it’s a shame we didn’t complete our programme today. Generally though, we’ve achieved a lot of mileage and completed some good evaluation work."

The only man behind Haryanto was Fernando Alonso, whose day was limited to a frustrating three laps due to technical problems on his McLaren.

Thursday's unofficial testing times from Barcelona

POS	Driver	Team/Car	Best lap	Gap	Laps
1	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari SF16-H	1:23.477		78
2	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer RB12	1:24.293	0.816	94
3	Alfonso Celis	Force India-Mercedes VJM09	1:24.840	1.363	75
4	Kevin Magnussen	Renault R.S.16	1:25.263	1.786	153
5	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR11	1:25.393	1.916	110
6	Felipe Nasr	Sauber-Ferrari C34	1:26.053	2.576	121
7	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes F1 W07 Hybrid	1:26.187	2.710	86
8	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes F1 W07 Hybrid	1:26.295	2.818	99
9	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes FW38	1:26.483	3.006	54
10	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas-Ferrari VF-16	1:27.802	4.325	89
11	Rio Haryanto	Manor Racing-Mercedes MRT05	1:28.266	4.789	51
12	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Honda MP4-31	No time		3

Hulkenberg and Grosjean lead the way on day three

An old picture I took of Nico Hulkenberg when he drove for Sauber.

Nico Hulkenberg headed Romain Grosjean as Force India and Haas finished first and second fastest on the third day of pre-season testing at Barcelona on Wednesday.

Hulkenberg, also fastest in the morning, shaved around two seconds off his lunchtime benchmark using the supersoft tyres to work his way down to a 1m 23.110s - the second fastest time seen so far in testing, and comfortably quick enough for the German to end the day on top.

Grosjean meanwhile continued Haas’s impressive start to their inaugural season by vaulting into second late on - albeit nearly three seconds down on Hulkenberg.

Kimi Raikkonen was third fastest in what was a disjointed first day in Ferrari’s new SF16-H.

The Finn only set four laps - none timed - in the morning due to fuel system checks, but enjoyed a more productive afternoon, clocking up close to 80 laps and finishing third on the timesheets, fractionally ahead of the Renault of Kevin Magnussen.

The Dane suffered his own technical glitch late on, but was able to return and was one of four drivers to break into triple figures in the lap count - a welcome day after separate issues halted the team on the first two days.

Mercedes opted to split the day between their two drivers in order to keep them fresh after mammoth stints on the first two days - and the trend continued as Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton surpassed 150 laps combined.

The German was the faster, booking fifth for Mercedes, while Hamilton - driving in the afternoon - was half a second down in eighth.

Splitting the pair was the Toro Rosso of Carlos Sainz and the Sauber of Felipe Nasr - with both men also enjoying huge mileage.

Sainz was the busiest of all drivers, moving past the 160-lap mark on his second day in the new Ferrari-powered STR11, while Nasr managed 115 in the 2015-spec Sauber.

Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat was ninth, narrowly ahead of Williams’ Felipe Massa and McLaren’s Jenson Button. The Briton managed just 51 laps, the fewest of any driver, and had his day brought to an early end due to a hydraulic leak.

Rio Haryanto, making his first official appearance as a Formula One driver, completed the timesheet in 12th. The Indonesian brought the red flags out when he spun at Turn 5 in the morning, and ended up more than 5s off the pace - although he also elected to abandon a faster lap in the closing stages of the day.

Wednesday morning's unofficial testing times from Barcelona

POS	Driver	Team/Car	Best lap	Gap	Laps
1	Nico Hulkenberg	Force India-Mercedes VJM09	1:23.110		99
2	Romain Grosjean	Haas-Ferrari VF-16	1:25.874	2.764	82
3	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari SF16-H	1:25.977	2.867	78
4	Kevin Magnussen	Renault R.S.16	1:26.014	2.904	111
5	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes F1 W07 Hybrid	1:26.084	2.974	74
6	Carlos Sainz	Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR11	1:26.239	3.129	161
7	Felipe Nasr	Sauber-Ferrari C34	1:26.392	3.282	115
8	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes F1 W07 Hybrid	1:26.421	3.311	88
9	Daniil Kvyat	Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer RB12	1:26.497	3.387	74
10	Felipe Massa	Williams-Mercedes FW38	1:26.712	3.602	109
11	Jenson Button	McLaren-Honda MP4-31	1:26.919	3.809	51
12	Rio Haryanto	Manor Racing-Mercedes MRT05	1:28.249	5.139	78

F1 bosses vote through dramatic qualifying format overhaul

Formula 1 bosses have voted unanimously to deliver a dramatic overhaul of the qualifying format for the upcoming season.

Following a meeting of the Strategy Group and F1 Commission in Geneva, the format change has been voted through to spice up the show.

Qualifying will remain as a one-hour session, split into three segments, but drivers must be on track throughout each part until they get knocked out.

Details on how the new qualifying format will work exactly have yet to be decided, but the general outline has been agreed.

Q1 will now last 16 minutes and after seven minutes the slowest driver will take no further part in the session.

Every 90 seconds thereafter, the slowest will be knocked out until there are only 15 drivers remaining.

After a short break, Q2 will commence and last 15 minutes with the slowest driver eliminated after six minutes.

As was the case in Q1, the slowest driver at the time will be knocked out at 90-second intervals until eight remain.

Q3 will last 14 minutes and see the process repeated again with the slowest taking no further part after five minutes.

The next five drivers will drop out at 90-second intervals leaving the final two drivers to fight it out for pole in the final 90 seconds.

The change will require ratification by the World Motor Sport Council, which next meets on March 4.

(source: autosport.com)

Vettel and Ferrari stay in front in Barcelona

Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari continued their impressive start to pre-season testing on Tuesday by topping the timesheets for the second successive day in Spain.

Vettel clocked a lap of 1m 22.810s on his first run with Pirelli’s brand-new ultrasoft compound tyres shortly before lunch, and that time held up as the day’s fastest as most runners focused on racking up mileage.

Vettel’s best lap was nearly two seconds quicker than last year’s pole position time in Spain, as well as being 0.715s quicker than Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo could manage on the same rubber.

Sergio Perez was third quickest for Force India after leaping ahead of Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg with an impressive run on the supersoft tyres in the afternoon session, but Rosberg could satisfy himself with being the day’s overwhelming lap leader.

The Silver Arrows pilot circulated an astonishing 172 times in his F1 W07 Hybrid, just a day after team mate Lewis Hamilton had completed 156 laps in the new car’s maiden outing.

Six other drivers made it into triple figures for laps, including Fernando Alonso who racked up more mileage in one day than he had in all of the 2015 pre-season tests as McLaren’s promising start to the new campaign continued.

Elsewhere there was encouragement for Manor as Pascal Wehrlein lapped his MRT05 over five seconds faster than the team managed in qualifying in Spain last year, but disappointment for Jolyon Palmer and Renault as a power unit-related problem curtailed their running.

Palmer brought out the red flag when he coasted to a smoky halt between Turns 2 and 3 in the afternoon - one of three stoppages on the day, the others caused when Max Verstappen parked his Toro Rosso with an electrical issue early in the morning and and then when Vettel stopped his Ferrari five minutes from the chequered flag.

Tuesday's unofficial testing times from Barcelona

POS	Driver	Team/Car	Best lap	Gap	Laps
1	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari SF16-H	1:22.810		126
2	Daniel Ricciardo	Red Bull Racing-TAG Heuer RB12	1:23.525	0.715	112
3	Sergio Perez	Force India-Mercedes VJM09	1:23.650	0.840	101
4	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes F1 W07 Hybrid	1:24.867	2.882	172
5	Marcus Ericcson	Sauber-Ferrari C34	1:25.237	2.427	108
6	Esteban Gutierrez	Haas-Ferrari VF-16	1:25.524	2.714	79
7	Valtteri Bottas	Williams-Mercedes FW38	1:25.648	2.838	134
8	Pascal Wehrlein	Manor Racing-Mercedes MRT05	1:25.925	3.115	71
9	Fernando Alonso	McLaren-Honda MP4-31	1:26.082	3.272	119
10	Jolyon Palmer	Renault R.S.16	1:26.189	3.379	42
11	Max Verstappen	Toro Rosso-Ferrari STR11	1:26.539	3.729	121