The 2016 Formula One season is almost among us, with pre-season testing starting in a little more than a month. The 2015 was a bit boring for the fans and may have left them without enough teams to follow. However, 2016 will have no shortage of teams to follow. Here are the top five teams to watch this season.
Serving as the runner ups to Mercedes in 2015, Ferrari was the only team capable of providing some competition to the Silver Arrows. All eyes will be on Ferrari to see what they can do in 2016 and whether they will be able to take home to World Drivers’ Championship title or even the World Constructors’ Championship. Unfortunately, Mercedes’ pace appears to be far too strong for Ferrari to be able to take any of the titles. The Prancing Horse just wasn’t close enough in pace last season. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to see how large of a performance increase the Ferrari team has been able to achieve over the winter.
Another reason to watch the team is because of one of their drivers. Although many expected 2015 to be his final season, Kimi Räikkönen signed a single season contract extension part way through the season for 2016. At the age of 36, he is quickly approaching the retirement age. Therefore, the 2016 season will likely be the last time that we will see The Iceman behind the wheel of a Formula One car. Although he is often overshadowed by his German teammate, Räikkönen is still capable of performing quite well. It will be sad to see him retire, so we should enjoy him while we still can.
Many eyes will be on the Haas F1 Team, for obvious reasons. They are a new constructor and the first American Formula One team is years. It isn’t unusual for fans to be interested in new teams, but Haas isn’t just a new team. Firstly, fans will be expecting the team to perform well because of their backing from Ferrari. Unfortunately, it is a tall order for a team to perform great right out of the gate, but that seems to be the general consensus between fans and what the team seem to be implying.
The second reason that Haas is such a big deal, is that they are appealing to a new region. North American motorsport fans haven’t had an American team to cheer on in Formula One for so long. Therefore, the North American market should be very interested in supporting the team. This doesn’t only include the United States, but it also includes Canada as well. Since Canada is without a national driver, the nation will be more likely to support Haas because they are close. Mexico has two national drivers in the sport, one of which is at Haas, so some of the Mexican Formula One fans may support Haas, while others may support Force India. It will be interesting to see how much interest the team can drum up in the North American market.
After a nightmare season for the team, fans will be hoping that they can improve their performance for 2016. Over the winter break, the team have reported big improvements, which gives the fans of the team something to hope for. Based on their performance last season, they cannot get much worse. To put a positive spin on things, that means that there is really nowhere else to go but up. At this point, any increase in performance would surely make the team and the fans happier than they were last season.
Another reason to watch this team is because of the driver lineup. Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso make a great team and it is probably one of the most powerful combinations on the 2016 grid. Unfortunately, because of the overshadowing reliability issues, we never really got to see the true performance of the McLaren duo. If McLaren and Honda can work together to produce a competitive car, it might be surprising to see what the partners can do.
After a lot of uncertainty at the end of last season, Renault official purchased the financially collapsing Lotus F1 Team. This means that for only £1 and a lot funds spent on paying off Lotus’ debts, Renault will be the owners of a works team once again. Much like Haas, fans will be watching the new team because they are new to the grid. However, their story is a bit different. Yes, they are a new team. However, they are not starting from the ground up, as they will have access to the Lotus F1 Team’s equipment and staff. Although, we will be watching to see what changes to team personnel they make.
The Renault F1 Team has a big legacy in the sport of Formula One and they had a fan base that will probably be returning to the team, now that they are revived. There will be a big pressure for the team to out perform their customer team, Red Bull. Firstly, it is important for the works team to perform better than the customers, but given the level of criticism from the Austrian team last season, Renault will also need to show them that their power units are not the loads of rubbish that Red Bull was complaining about.
Manor is a team that many people wouldn’t expect to be interesting to watch. In 2015, they failed to score a single point and found themselves battling their own team in the race… after being overtaken by the leader. Despite their poor position last season, they will be in a much better position this upcoming season. Their major improvement will be getting the Mercedes power unit. Ever since we changed to the V6 turbocharged engines in 2014, Mercedes has been able to produce the most powerful and highest performing engine on the grid. In 2015, Lotus was the lowest Mercedes powered car in the World Constructors’ Championship when they finished the season in sixth position. This is miles ahead of Manor’s tenth position in the championship and the Mercedes power unit could be the ingredient to advance further up the championship board.
In addition, some staff members have changed on the team, so they could be able to produce a better car design. Unfortunately, because the team is still recovering from bankruptcy in 2014, they will probably hire a pay driver or a low budget driver. This means that they will be lacking in the driver talent area.=, but hopefully the new power unit will compensate for that.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any other agency, organization, employer or company. Assumptions made in any analysis contained within this article are not reflective of the position of any entity other than the author.
