Formula One - 2016

Welcome HAAS F1, good bye Lotus/hello Renault....

2 current depictions of the Haas livery

Really? With the Ferrari engine no less. I had no idea Haas had interest in F1.

I wonder what plans Ferrari has for the 2016 power plant...

I really dig that bottom livery.

I was a bit disappointed that Haas brought it the two drivers that have a hard time keeping it on the track and didn't sign Rossi. Ferrari specifically vettel seem very confident about next year, which might be helpful to Haas, scratch new teams always have issues.

paranoid_android74 wrote: Really? With the Ferrari engine no less. I had no idea Haas had interest in F1. I wonder what plans Ferrari has for the 2016 power plant...

where have you been for the last 2 + yrs ?

In reply to trigun7469:

It all comes down to $$$. Those E36 M3ty drivers are probably bringing more sponsorship and/or personal money with them than Rossi. Gentleman drivers have long been a staple of F1...

Keep in mind how close Gene is with Ferrari and that they've been developing the chassis for over 2 years. I think they might do very well out of the gate. I predict a finish higher than STR, for example.

Rosberg is going to stew all winter and start taking Hamilton out on track next season AND Vettel/Ferrari are going to destroy Mercedes.

Grosjean is a good driver. He is being paid by Haas. The Mexican driver is bringing some sponsorship but I don't think he is a pay to play driver.

Haas is buying large chunks of the car from various sources, mostly Ferrari.

I expect less teething issues than most rookie teams.

I wouldn't be surprised if they are 6th in the championship.

Reminds me of the Benson & Hedges Jordans from about 10-15 years ago.

Hass is basically pushing the limits of what it means to be a constructor. They'll use as much Ferrari as they're allowed by the rule set, and it turns out that's actually a fair bit.

I don't think Ferrari will destroy Mercedes, but it could be a good fight. Rosberg will fall further and further behind as Vettel and Hamilton bring their A games.

wvumtnbkr wrote: Grosjean is a good driver. He is being paid by Haas. The Mexican driver is bringing some sponsorship but I don't think he is a pay to play driver. Haas is buying large chunks of the car from various sources, mostly Ferrari. I expect less teething issues than most rookie teams. I wouldn't be surprised if they are 6th in the championship.

Gutierrez is part of the Ferrari driver stable, so I think there are some political links there. Personally I like what Haas has done, even if it is stretching the rules a bit. If you are going to start a F1 team from scratch, I'd want all the help I could get.

Keith Tanner wrote: Hass is basically pushing the limits of what it means to be a constructor. They'll use as much Ferrari as they're allowed by the rule set, and it turns out that's actually a fair bit.

chassis is being built by Dallara... but yeah much of everything else is Ferrari.... BUT... that was pretty much how he entered NASCAR... as a junior team to Hendrick Racing..... He's done well since then too

I don't think it's a bad plan, really.

Should be a very interesting year...

wbjones wrote:

paranoid_android74 wrote: Really? With the Ferrari engine no less. I had no idea Haas had interest in F1. I wonder what plans Ferrari has for the 2016 power plant...

where have you been for the last 2 + yrs ?

Not following F1 very closely

Haas has four Cup teams worth of race engineers, access to Hendrick resources, and owns his own wind tunnel. There's not one reason in the world for the Haas F1 cars to be slow. News machine has Renault possibly bringing back yellow cars. If Haas does run with the above color scheme, that might be an awful lot of yellow for a 20 car grid. I'd be happy if the Ferraris and the Mercedes were dead equal in 2016. That would create some serious racing.

In reply to ncjay:

Except Haas can't use his full sized wind tunnel. Other than that, I agree that the typical teething problems will be less.

I think they will do better than expected, especially with the 2016 engine vs the 2015 that STR will get.

Javelin wrote: AND Vettel/Ferrari are going to destroy Mercedes.

Why would you think this? Perhaps you don't think Mercedes will continue to develop the engine or the chassis?

I think Williams is going to be up front a bit next year considering they quit developing the 2015 car before the summer break and started focusing on the 2016 car.

z31maniac wrote:

Javelin wrote: AND Vettel/Ferrari are going to destroy Mercedes.

Why would you think this? Perhaps you don't think Mercedes will continue to develop the engine or the chassis?

Because Ferrari started working on their 16 car early and can actually capitalize on some fundamental design changes now. Basically their rate of improvement is greater than Merc's.

alfadriver wrote: In reply to ncjay: Except Haas can't use his full sized wind tunnel. Other than that, I agree that the typical teething problems will be less.

is there a F1 rule precluding the use of a full size wind tunnel ?

I know this has been a point of discussion and there are constantly changing regulations in place, but last time I checked, Haas can use his own wind tunnel. Other F1 teams already do, and unless the FIA is going to post someone at the front door, it would be pretty difficult to stop him. Between the Windshear tunnel and Ferrari's wind tunnel, I think everything's covered on that end anyway. http://www.windshearinc.com/services/services.htm#Services

It's unlikely that Haas will use a yellow scheme.

wbjones wrote:

alfadriver wrote: In reply to ncjay: Except Haas can't use his full sized wind tunnel. Other than that, I agree that the typical teething problems will be less.

is there a F1 rule precluding the use of a full size wind tunnel ?

Yes, and if I were still working this year, I would reference the racecar engineering article about Haas that points out their strategy to deal with it. Iirc, they are using the Ferrari tunnel.

wbjones wrote:

alfadriver wrote: In reply to ncjay: Except Haas can't use his full sized wind tunnel. Other than that, I agree that the typical teething problems will be less.

is there a F1 rule precluding the use of a full size wind tunnel ?

Yeah, IIRC everyone was using 50% wind tunnels and then someone built a 60% one and they decided to limit them to 60% rather than have an ongoing arms race.