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Well ladies & gentlemen. A new year brings us a new season of racing to slowly start to begin. Of course we have the 24 hours of Daytona starting up in a couple of weeks & I'm excited! Especially with the new GTLM class coming in to IMSA. Then we'll have IndyCar & F1 starting up & so on & so forth. Hopefully this should be a good racing season.

Now the one question for F1 is this? Can anyone stop Lewis from a 4th title or better yet, can anyone stop the Silver Arrows?

For IndyCar, will Dixon repeat?

What will go on in IMSA? PWC? Even the Touring championships?

I'm hoping for a great season of racing as always!!!

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One more year until Canadian Motor Speedway opens. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Motor_Speedway

I'll be keeping my eye on its progress. It's in Fort Erie ON, along the QEW between Niagara Falls ON, & Buffalo NY. I'll be curious to see if Indy gets involved down the road?

Designed by Jeff Gordon, with his stepfather as GM. Supposedly going to be NASCAR, Indy, & FIA approved, though there's little chance F1 leaves Montreal, perhaps one day they might alternate year to year.

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@2001mark

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Well, now there seems to be some rumblings that by 2017, there is the potential of a closed cockpit in F1 coming soon. The FIA have designated some ideas but who knows if we will ever see the light of day but I think it'll happen especially if the drivers want something to protect them. Do you think we will see a closed cockpit finally in F1?

 

Meanwhile, Saturday is the beginning of race season, with the 24 hours of Daytona!!!

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There will be closed cockpits in open wheel racing sooner rather than later, they just need to find the right solution that checks all the boxes.

 

I think a fighter jet style canopy would look pretty badass. The Mercedes designed roll-hoop design seems pretty clunky and not a very good long-term solution.

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I have to agree on the fighter jet style canopy, F1 was always known as cars with jet engines, so may them look like jets & make them safe!

 

Meanwhile, some potential excellent news...

 

http://www.racer.com/f1/item/125612-magnussen-set-to-replace-maldonado

 

Sources have confirmed Magnussen is poised to sign a deal over the next few days, before being officially confirmed at Renault's launch in Paris next Wednesday. It follows a disagreement between the French car manufacturer and Maldonado's long-time sponsor PDVSA, Venezuela's state-owned oil and gas company, that has led to the contract being dissolved.

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Bumping for some updates on some F1 news

 

- Alfa Romeo is rumored to be coming back as a factory team according to Sergio Marchionne

- Ferrari's Livery is rumored to have white in it (kind of a way to honor Niki Lauda)

- Pascal Wehrlein has signed with Manor (so let the whole, who will he bump to get into Mercedes down the road)

- Former F1 driver Max Chilton will drive full time in IndyCar

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So what do we know so far from F1 preseason testing? Mostly my opinions with the odd fact thrown in. Feel free to discuss/disagree:

 

Mercedes - as expected, a number of "mini revolutions" have been made to the 2015 car to turn it into the 2016 car as opposed to a significant redesign. A few areas of note are the air intake above the drivers head which is a fairly unique design and also a set of protruding teeth beneath the sidepod intake. Hamilton and Rosberg have put a ridiculous number of laps in between them and Hamilton was particularly keen to focus on his start procedure. Expecting business as usual from Merc.

 

Ferrari - a much smoother offseason behind the scenes than 2015 has led to them topping the leaderboard for the second day running. Obviously, you can't read too much into times at this point but it seems clear that 2016 Ferrari will be much more of a threat to Mercedes than last year. They have gone back to the push-rod suspension this year and Vettel has said that the front end feels a lot better because of it.

 

McLaren - Button seems happier with the car. So much so that he stayed out for a few extra laps on the first day of testing. Early GPS (no speed traps in use) readings have shown the car to be marginally quicker. Alonso managed to get over 100 laps in today. It's looking like a more reliable and quicker car already and there are plans to add upgrade packages at the next test.

 

Haas - a good introduction to F1... minus the front wing falling off. There still isn't a permanent fix for this but they could have had much bigger issues than that. I'm not expecting too much from them in 2016 but there's no doubt that with the resources behind them and the support of Ferrari they won't be seen as one of the smaller teams.

 

Manor - Two new inexperienced drivers, a host of new experienced engineers and a new racing livery. They've had a good 2 days by their standards but I fully expect them to still be fighting it out at the back with Sauber.

 

Sauber - Running last year's car. More to the benefit of their drivers than the team itself. A cash strapped team I expect to really struggle in 2016.

 

Renault - A late purchase of the Lotus team and switch of engine supplier will likely show in 2016 for Renault. Their car will effectively be a rebadged version of the 2015 chassis until some upgrade packages can be installed later in the season. There's a good chance that Renault will keep Manor and Sauber company at the back of the grid this year.

 

Force India - Another team to eclipse 100 laps in a single day. More than likely not going to be challenging for top spot in 2016 but there's a chance of challenging Williams and Red Bull on a few occasions.

 

Williams - Seems like business as usual. They have racked up a decent number of laps with Bottas but have not troubled the top of the timesheets. However, Williams are known to run fuel heavy in practise sessions for as long as I have been watching the sport (which I have just realised is over 20 years:o). Other than that there isn't much to say. I expect them to be within touching distance of Ferrari and Mercedes but not a genuine threat.

 

Red Bull - The team seems to have fixed some of the issues they had last year getting the chassis and engine to work together nicely. A lot of their systems were compromised because of this as well as the reliability. I imagine they will be better than last year but the Tag Heuer (Renault) engine will still mean they are not quick enough to challenge the cars at the very front.

 

Toro Rosso - The late deal to secure the Ferrari engines for 2016 has apparently compromised development at Toro Rosso - and that comes from Carlos Sainz. I still expect them to outperform Red Bull on several occasions and with two young confident drivers onboard STR should be in the points more often than not. They have the same split airbox as Mercedes. Not sure what effect that will have though.

UBI FIDES IBI LUX ET ROBUR

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I'm happy to see Ferrari doing well in testing, they'll need every bit of help when it comes to fighting the silver arrows. I'm hoping McLaren will keep up & I'm glad to see the car is keeping stability, I'm just hoping for at least one podium this season with them (wishful thinking). Haas is looking well, despite the wing issue but I'm still hopeful that they will be doing some damage in the midfield this season. Toro Rosso is still taking time to adjust to the Ferrari engines & Red Bull IMO could be hit or miss this season. 

 

Although, there were some bad news for F1 but great news for Indycar!

 

http://www.racer.com/indycar/item/126375-indycar-andretti-team-confirms-rossi-signing

 

Alexander Rossi will make his Verizon IndyCar Series debut in 2016 with Andretti Autosport, the team confirmed Tuesday morning. Rossi, who will make the transition from Formula 1 to IndyCar, will drive the No. 98 Dallara-Honda, which recently joined the Andretti stable as a result of a merger between Bryan Herta Autosport and Michael Andretti's organization. Rossi will make his first appearance with the team with a rookie test day March 1 at Sebring.

"I'm very much looking forward to making my IndyCar Series debut this season and am proud to be racing with a team of such high caliber and pedigree as that of Andretti Autosport," said Rossi. "As a racer through and through, I cannot wait to get started; our goal is to be competitive immediately at the first race in St. Petersburg."

 

It's great to see Rossi get a full time ride but along with Connor Daly, I really wish it was in F1. I mean, just look at the F1 drivers that are coming into IndyCar, you have Rossi, Daly, Chilton & possibly, Maldonado may get in. However, this is looking like a very strong rookie class in IndyCar!

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So.... This is how qualifying will work in F1 now.

 

The basis of the new elimination format is as follows:

Q1

  • 16 minutes
  • After 7 minutes, slowest driver eliminated
  • Slowest driver eliminated every 1 minute 30 seconds thereafter until the chequered flag
  • 7 drivers eliminated, 15 progress to Q2

Q2

  • 15 minutes
  • After 6 minutes, slowest driver eliminated
  • Slowest driver eliminated every 1 minute 30 seconds thereafter until the chequered flag
  • 7 drivers eliminated, 8 progress to Q3

Q3

  • 14 minutes
  • After 5 minutes, slowest driver eliminated
  • Slowest driver eliminated every 1 minute 30 seconds thereafter until the chequered flag
  • 2 drivers left in final 1 minute 30 seconds

The final elimination in each session occurs at the chequered flag – not when time is up.

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