As part of Read Motorsport’s extensive end of season coverage, over the next nine days, we will be reviewing each month of the 2016 Formula One season.
Starting with March, we take a look back at the goings on of pre-season of the month before and the season opener at Albert Park in Melbourne.
Mercedes, Ferrari, Williams, Red Bull, Force India, Toro Rosso, McLaren and Sauber kept the same driver pairings for 2016.
The newly branded Renault team saw 2014 GP2 Series champion Jolyon Palmer partner former McLaren driver Kevin Magnussen whilst Manor went with Mercedes protege Pascal Wehrlein and Indonesian star Rio Haryanto. F1 welcomed Haas to the grid for 2016, Romain Grosjean would partner former Sauber driver Esteban Gutierrez.
Official testing for the 2016 season began at the traditional venue of Montmeló in Barcelona.
Reigning world champions Mercedes focused on putting significant mileage on their latest challenger with the German manufacturers completing 1294 laps in total, over 200 more than their nearest rival. Despite not setting eye-catching times, Mercedes were clearly still the team to beat going into Melbourne.
After a strong 2015 which saw Ferrari win three races, Sebastian Vettel went into the new season with ambitions of challenging for a fifth drivers’ title. The Scuderia’s pace, albeit on the newly introduced ultrasoft tyre was impressive as Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen set the two fastest times of pre-season testing.
Red Bull, Williams, Force India and Toro Rosso were all closely matched for pace with McLaren-Honda still not finding enough pace over the winter break. Haas struggled to put much mileage on their debut car due to various structural issues with their car meaning the American team were on the back foot going into the season opener on March 20. Manor looked more competitive with the Mercedes power unit in the back of the MRT05.
The first two sessions of the season were hit by rain. FP1 was topped by reigning world champion Hamilton, ending the session 0.421s clear of Red Bull’s Daniil Kvyat. Unlike in the first practice session of the year, drivers could only run on the intermediate conditions. The tricky conditions caught out Rosberg, who crashed at Turn 7 with 30 minutes on the clock remaining.
Although rain fell on Saturday morning, the track had dried by the start of the final free practice session. Lewis Hamilton again set the fastest time with 1m25.624s, less than two-tenths of a second in front of teammate Rosberg, with Vettel in third position close behind.
Prior to the first round of the season, the FIA confirmed that a ‘elimination style’ qualifying system would be introduced for the season ahead. Qualifying was still split up into three parts however drivers would be eliminated at 90-second intervals. The two Manors, Kvyat, two Haas were only able to complete one lap each due to the limited time available whilst the two Saubers were unable to improve on their initial efforts with a second lap.
Q2 was busy at the start but many frontrunners opted not to go out again after setting fast enough times to progress into the shootout. Valtteri Bottas, the two McLarens, Kevin Magnussen and Palmer all failed to make the cut.
The elimination qualifying format meant only the Mercedes duo were able to set fast laps in Q3. Rosberg was third after the first round of laps but improved to go second but wasn’t enough to challenge Hamilton, who secured his 50th career pole position. Vettel was third ahead of Raikkonen, Verstappen, Massa, Sainz, Ricciardo, Perez and Hulkenberg.
Many high profile personnel along with fans on social media criticised the format with Red Bull boss Christian Horner apologising for the move to the elimination format whilst F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone was just as critical. The format would, however, remain for the next round in Bahrain.
Like in 2015, Kvyat was unable to start the race due to an electrical issue meaning the grid was forced to complete two formation laps.
Both Ferraris got off the line well with Vettel taking the lead ahead of Raikkonen, Rosberg and Verstappen. Polesitter Hamilton dropped to sixth behind Massa. Further down the grid, Magnussen was forced to pit after suffering a puncture whilst Gutierrez’s luck continue to be on the bad side, dropping to the back due to electrical issues.
Rosberg was the first frontrunner to come in on the end of lap 11, but the German was unable to undercut leader Vettel. Hamilton stopped on lap 16 with Raikkonen and the order was restored with Vettel leading Rosberg, Raikkonen and Hamilton.
The big turning point of the race came on lap 17, Fernando Alonso ran into the back of Gutierrez, hitting the left-hand barrier before rolling several times against the barrier at Turn 3. Both drivers came away with no injuries, however, it was later announced that Alonso would be ruled out of the next race in Bahrain on medical grounds.
This crash resulted in a red flag period which meant all cars came into the pitlane and were unable to change tyres. Ferrari opted to put leader Vettel on the supersoft tyres whilst both Mercedes went for the mediums, meaning they could go to the end without a stop. Vettel led away at the restart ahead of Rosberg, Räikkönen, Ricciardo, Verstappen, Sainz and Hamilton.
Vettel stopped for tyres on lap 31, emerging in fourth place on fresh soft tyres. Rosberg extended his lead at the front whilst Hamilton passed Ricciardo for second on lap 42. Vettel quickly caught up to the backup of Hamilton’s car but was unable to pass him, running wide on lap 55 at the penultimate corner.
Rosberg secured his second Australian GP win, 31 years after his father Keke Rosberg had won the 1985 Australian GP in Adelaide. Hamilton ensured it was another Mercedes 1-2 after Vettel, who was left the rue Ferrari’s strategy choice to put him on the supersoft tyres after the red flag stoppage. Ricciardo was fourth ahead of Massa. Grosjean scored Haas’ first F1 points in sixth, benefitting from the red flag and being the only driver in the top 10 to stop only once. Hulkenberg and Bottas finished just behind Grosjean with Sainz and Verstappen rounding out the top 10.
