It’s always fun when a pattern develops. I’m not talking about Nico Rosberg winning once again. While Nico Rosberg has won five races in a row, he might not have done so if not for another pattern that might be developing this season. Lewis Hamilton once again started on pole but couldn’t cleanly get through the first turn which cost him a chance at the win.
Formula One
F1 Power Rankings: Bahrain Grand Prix
Two weeks off and F1 seems on the verge of imploding. The drivers are questioning the decisions of the sport’s governing body and commercial rights holders. The new qualifying format that sent fans home early in Melbourne survives to see another Grand Prix. Bernie continues to chase money with F1 while admitting F1 is broken even though he’s probably the primary cause.
Anyway, among all the controversy over the last couple of weeks, there is a race happening this week. It’s the Bahrain Grand Prix. When Esteban Gutierrez was last there, Pastor Maldonado sent him for a barrel roll. After Australia, hopefully we don’t get any more of that excitement.
F1 Australian Grand Prix: Red Flag Spells Danger
For all the rules changes during the off-season involving qualifying and the radio ban, all it took was new rules over tyre selection and usage and a red flag to shake up the Australian Grand Prix. Remove the red flag and it’s likely that Sebastian Vettel would have won the season-opening race. However, a red flag for a massive crash involving Fernando Alonso and a questionable strategy call gave the win to Nico Rosberg.
F1 2016 Season Preview: Predictions
Our week-long preview of the 2016 Formula One World Championship has finally come to an end. After looking at the driver, teams, rules and video games, it’s finally time for us to pick a winner. The story heading into this season has been whether Ferrari has made up enough ground over the off-season to be able to challenge Mercedes for the top step of the podium. Considering how dominant Mercedes has been the last two years winning 32 of the 38 races since the change in engine formula, that was always going to be a big ask. Perhaps, it’s still far too big for this season.
F1 Power Rankings: Australian Grand Prix
As we are wont to do before every Grand Prix, we preview the upcoming race with a look at the chances of everyone on the grid in the Formula One Power Rankings. As it’s a new season, it’s a fresh set of rankings. Well, it’s a fresh set except at the top because I’m not expecting the front quarter of the grid to be very different.
Can Codemasters Rescue the F1 Series with F1 2016?
Let’s take a break from the on-track action in Formula One and look at the virtual world of Formula One. Codemasters is the current licence holder for the Formula One video game series. The racing game specialists have held the rights to F1 since the 2009 season and while gamers have been happy, not much has changed over the last six years. Last year, satisfaction bottomed out with a barebones effort in F1 2015.
In their second year on the PS4 and Xbox One, Codemasters has to deliver a far superior experience before fans give up on them. They recently released a survey looking for feedback on previous games and ideas for upcoming ones and have brought in prominent members of the community for a private beta test. However, it’s still worth giving them some more longform feedback.
F1 2016 Season Preview: Rules Changes
Day two of the 2016 Formula One season preview has us taking a look at the new rules for the new season. Most of the major rules changes will come next season when F1 introduces the new aero regulations. For now, the only significant rules changes for the 2016 relate to the tyres. Pirelli is bringing three dry tyre compounds to each race and overhauling the tyre regs as you know them.
F1 2016 Season Preview: Drivers and Teams
As is tradition here on The Lowdown, we are doing our annual week-long Formula One season preview series. The 2016 season starts in less than a week with the Australian Grand Prix. To start our F1 2016 season grand prix-view, we’ll take a look at the teams on the grid and the men driving the cars.
There isn’t a lot of change on the Formula One grid this season. While there is a new team on the grid with the addition of Haas, sixteen of the 20 seats on the grid remain the same as last year and three rookies will debut in Australia. While the driver market intrigue for the 2016 season was minimal, there is plenty for 2017. There is also a lot of engine and money news that will shake the grid up this year.
Formula One: 2016 Pirelli Wet Tyre Test
We’re still three weeks from the drivers and teams of Formula One arriving in Barcelona for their two weeks pre-season testing but that doesn’t mean that F1 cars aren’t on track. Last week, Pirelli invited Ferrari, Red Bull and McLaren to the Paul Ricard Circuit in France and turned on the sprinklers to have the teams test various prototype wet tyre compounds for the 2016 season.
F1 Japanese Grand Prix: The Silliest Silly Season
The weekend started with literal and figurative dark clouds hanging over Suzuka. The weekend started with rain as the teams returned to the site of Jules Bianchi’s fatal accident in similar weather conditions. The skies cleared over the weekend but it didn’t give way to a particularly exciting weekend. Lewis Hamilton won the race in a dominant effort but all the real interesting happenings in Formula One aren’t happening on-track.
The Lowdown 