MOTORSPORT: Formula 1 season preview

The new Formula 1 season dawns with the Australian Grand Prix this week, the biggest questions being whether Mercedes’ dominance of the hybrid era can be toppled, whether Daniel Ricciardo can start winning again and whether the tweaked exhausts will be loud enough for the fans.

While the cynics would say ‘no’ on all three counts, hope springs eternal in most of us.

There’s a lot more to it than those queries, too.

A new qualifying format, new and more tyre compounds (although the ultrasoft Pirellis won’t be used in Melbourne), a new race (in Azerbijan, once part of the Soviet Union) and a record 21-GP calendar, Renault back as a constructor, a new American-owned team, and three rookie drivers – a Brit, a German (the pick of them), and the first Indonesian, who has some form although that wasn’t greatly evident in pre-season testing.

Ricciardo’s Red Bull Racing couldn’t shed itself of the Renault power units it was so unhappy with last year and those it will use this season will differ from those of the French manufacturer’s born-again factory team only in carrying TAG Heuer badging.

Ricciardo, three times in 2014, and Sebastian Vettel, three times last year with Ferrari, are the only drivers other than Mercedes pair Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg to have won races in the 38 GPs of the past two years with the controversially quiet 1.6-litre V6 hybrids that are largely blamed for dwindling interest in F1 in many major markets.

The noise was supposed to have been turned up 25 per cent this year through the splitting of the exhausts, but the evidence from testing was that the increase is not that much.

If that is a concern for already disgruntled fans, and F1’s own ringmaster Bernie Ecclestone has said that the sound – or lack of it – has made the show not worth the price of admission now, there’s something more ominous for Australians, especially this weekend.

The Red Bull camp has predicted that its junior team Toro Rosso, now with last year’s Ferrari power unit rather than a Renault, could head the cars of Ricciardo and his Russian teammate Daniil Kyvat in the first half of the season.

That’s despite Red Bull energy drink tycoon Dietrich Mateschitz branding Adrian Newey’s RB12 model an aerodynamic “masterpiece”.

At best Red Bull will be fighting for third place again with Williams-Mercedes and perhaps Force India, which remains amazingly competitive with Mercedes power too despite the financial woes of owner Vijay Mallya.

At worst, if Renault has not greatly improved its power unit, Red Bull could be lurking towards the back of the field with new US team Haas and Sauber, both – like Toro Rosso – using last year’s Ferrari unit which cannot be upgraded now – and Manor, formerly Marussia and now with Mercedes power, and perhaps Renault itself.

That could mean Ricciardo on the seventh row of the grid or even further back, rather than the third or fourth, where he might otherwise reasonably expect to be with Mercedes and Ferrari seemingly certain to remain the top dogs and Williams perhaps next in line again.

Mercedes’ edge over Ferrari was calculated to have averaged almost 0.7 seconds a lap last season, but the recent Barcelona testing indicated the Italian team’s SF16-H model has narrowed – perhaps halved, or more – that gap.

However, Mercedes may not have fully stretched the legs of its W07 yet, despite covering almost the combined distance of the 21 GPs in the eight days of testing and 30 per cent more kilometres than Ferrari.

Melbourne will produce the first true indication of the new Merc’s pace – and it could be demoralising for the opposition.

Only Vettel and Ferrari are likely to be capable of serious challenge. Kimi Raikkonen is in the twilight of his career, some would say past it, with a lot of interest in who will get his seat at the most famous team in the sport next year.

Perhaps the Aussie with the Italian name?

In the meantime Ricciardo and Kyvat are under enormous pressure to produce the maximum at Red Bull, with Marko making no secret that he will urge promotion of Toro Rosso’s youngsters Max Verstappen – still only 18 – and Carlos Sainz Junior if they continue to excel as they did on debut last year.

Survival of the quickest is the motto within the Red Bull racing 'family'.

Mercedes has signalled that it will allow triple world champion Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg more freedom to race each other this season.

Soon we will see whether Rosberg has gained the upper hand, after six consecutive pole positions and three straight race wins at the end of last season, or whether Hamilton had taken his foot off the pedal a little.

He attributed the swing in the pendulum late last season to the higher minimum tyre pressures stipulated not suiting him so well.

McLaren and its exclusive power supplier Honda will come under close scrutiny after 2015’s disappointing reunion that left them ninth among 10 teams in the constructors’ championship.

Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button, both world champions, surely cannot endure another season like that – the worst in the history of McLaren, now winless since 2012, and even more embarrassing for Honda, which has changed its project leader in recent weeks. Yusuke Hasegawa is the new man, while Yasuhisa Arai counts down to retirement back at home base.

McLaren racing director Eric Boullier claims “massive progress” with the MP4-31 model, and Volkswagen’s motorsport director Jost Capito – who has overseen a hat-trick of world rally titles – is to come aboard soon as the team’s chief executive.

Honda has stubbornly stuck to the “size zero” architecture of its power unit and, while there is said to have been a major advance in its deployment of its hybrid energy, Barcelona suggested the McLaren is still two seconds a lap off the Merc’s pace.

It still has one of the slowest top speeds too. And, on that score, Ricciardo’s Red Bull RB12 was 13km down on Marcus Ericsson in a Sauber-Ferrari in testing.

The new drivers this season include Jolyon Palmer – son of Dr Jonathon Palmer, a veteran of 88 GPs in the 1980s – at Renault, which also has resurrected Kevin Magnussen, the Dane abandoned by McLaren.

The other rookies are Pascal Wehrlein, a German with Mauritian blood and a protégé of Mercedes, along with Indonesian Rio Haryanto, reportedly bringing $23 million in sponsorship his government and a state-owned mining company, at Manor.

Qualifying is to have a new 'face' too, with the slowest drivers eliminated as the three sessions progress rather than at the end of each phase.

The first session will last 16 minutes with the slowest driver out after seven minutes and another six following at 90-second intervals, leaving 15 for the second phase.

The second session will last 15 minutes with the slowest driver gone after six minutes, then another every 90 seconds until eight are left.

The final 14 minutes will see one driver eliminated after five minutes and then one every 90 seconds until two are left fighting for pole position with 90 seconds remaining.

The drivers don’t like the format, although Hamilton says it now has to be given a chance.

It could be said that officialdom has fiddled with something that wasn’t broken, qualifying, rather than fix what clearly has been broken – the racing.

Something that may inject a little more excitement into the Sunday track action though is that drivers will be allowed to use three different Pirelli tyre compounds in races, rather than two – and they must still use at least two.

In all, Pirelli is making five types of tyres this season and for long-haul races like Australia a driver and his team need to settle on 13 sets comprising three compounds 14 weeks in advance, while for European races the deadline is eight weeks out.

The choices could prove decisive to race outcomes, especially when teammates and championship rivals opt for different combinations of compounds – as Hamilton and Rosberg have done for Melbourne.

The champ has gone for only one set of mediums and six each of the soft and supersoft, while his challenger in the other Merc has gone for two sets of mediums, five soft and six supersoft – as have Ferrari’s Vettel and Raikkonen.

All four drivers in the two Red Bull teams have chosen two medium sets, four soft and seven supersoft.

Another factor potentially adding spice to this year’s racing is that teams won’t be allowed to assist drivers over the radio or offer as much guidance as in the past.

And, to the great relief of the teams using Renault power and McLaren with its Honda unit, drivers will be allowed five power units in the expanded season rather than the four before the grid penalties that last year mounted on Red Bull and McLaren in particular.

2016 F1 team and driver line-up (with drivers’ country and car number):

MERCEDES
Lewis Hamilton, Great Britain (44).
Nico Rosberg, Germany (6)

FERRARI
Sebastian Vettel, Germany (5)
Kimi Raikkonen, Finland (7)

WILLIAMS-MERCEDES
Felipe Massa, Brazil (19)
Valtteri Bottas, Finland (77)

RED BULL-TAG HEUER (rebadged Renault engine)
Daniel Ricciardo, Australia (3)
Daniil Kvyat, Russia (26)

FORCE INDIA-MERCEDES
Nico Hulkenberg, Germany (27)
Sergio Perez, Mexico (11)

RENAULT (previously Lotus)
Kevin Magnussen, Denmark (20)
Jolyon Palmer, Great Britain (30) – rookie

TORO ROSSO-FERRARI
Max Verstappen, Netherlands (33)
Carlos Sainz, Spain (55)

SAUBER-FERRARI
Marcus Ericsson, Sweden (9)
Felipe Nasr, Brazil (12)

McLAREN-HONDA
Fernando Alonso, Spain (14)
Jenson Button, Great Britain (22)

MANOR-MERCEDES (previously Marussia)
Pascal Wehrlein,(Germany (94) – rookie
Rio Haryanto, Indonesia (88) – rookie

HAAS-FERRARI (new)
Romain Grosjean, France (8)
Esteban Gutierrez, Mexico (21)

2016 F1 calendar:
March 20 – Australia (Melbourne)
April 3 – Bahrain (Sakhir)
April 17 – China (Shanghai)
May 1 – Russia (Sochi)
May 15 – Spain (Barcelona)
May 29 – Monaco (Monte Carlo)
June 12 – Canada (Montreal)
June 19 – Azerbaijan (Baku)
July 3 – Austria (Spielberg)
July 10 – Great Britain (Silverstone)
July 14 – Hungary (Budapest)
July 31 – Germany (Hockenheim)
August 28 – Belgium (Spa-Francorchamps)
September 4 – Italy (Monza)
September 18 – Singapore (Marina Bay)
October 2 – Malaysia (Sepang)
October 9 – Japan (Suzuka)
October 23 – United States (Austin, Texas)
October 30 – Mexico (Mexico City)
November 13 – Brazil (Sao Paulo)
November 27 – Abu Dhabi (Yas Marina)