Can Ferrari take on Mercedes? Will Rosberg's winning run continue? How will McLaren fare? Will Haas prompt a new way of entering F1?
Friday 18 March 2016 07:12, UK
Are Ferrari ready to take on Mercedes?
It has been the question which has been front and centre of F1's long winter and, barring something completely unforeseen, is the one which looks set to shape 2016's season-opening weekend.
After two years of near-unprecedented domination by Mercedes, the widespread expectation since last season ended has been that Ferrari, belatedly getting their act together with both engine and chassis in F1's hybrid turbo era, will be closer to their Brackley rivals in the new campaign.
But how close - and can they be right with the double champions straight away in Melbourne? Forecasting season-long performance based on winter testing is a notoriously risky business, but the evidence from F1's fortnight in Barcelona suggests that Ferrari have trimmed Mercedes' pace advantage over both short and long runs.
When is the Australian GP on Sky Sports?
The idiosyncrasies of Albert Park's parkland track mean that there will be plenty of caveats attached to Sunday's race result - whatever way it goes - but one area where a snap judgement on Ferrari's 2016 title prospects could be made is via the SF16-H's qualifying pace on Saturday.
If regular, rather than 2015's occasional, victories are to come Ferrari's way at Mercedes' expense this year then it will likely be the result of improved qualifying form. Single-lap pace has long been the Scuderia's Achilles' heel - incredibly, they have claimed just five poles since their last title in 2008 - and if the title-winning sequences of first Red Bull and now Mercedes have proved anything then it's that front-row possession is nine tenths of the modern race-winning law.
If Ferrari get close in Melbourne then F1 2016 could really have a title scrap on its hands.
Can Lewis Hamilton halt Nico Rosberg's winning run?
No, the headline above isn't the wrong way round. While Hamilton starts 2016 as F1's double reigning champion, it was Rosberg who ended 2015 on top. Lest we forget, not only did Rosberg round off the year with three successive victories, but his pole position in Abu Dhabi was his sixth in a row.
Now, as you might also recall, there were plenty of reasons why Rosberg's late-season resurgence could be dismissed as an irrelevance. First and foremost, of course, Hamilton had already won the championship and the Englishman, by his own admission, switched off after wrapping up the title in Austin.
"Honestly it was good for him at the end of the year," said Hamilton last month. "I did not do the bare minimum, but I did what I needed to do to finish the year. If you fight for the championship you have to bring that extra five or ten per cent - after I had bagged the title I didn't need that anymore. I used my energy elsewhere."
But he would say that, wouldn't he? No driver will ever accept he has been beaten fair and square and Hamilton's rivalry with Rosberg is the most intense team-mate battle in the sport at present. Now the talking begins again on track, with the start of 2016 providing the definitive definition of 2015's conclusion. An irrelevant flash in the pan or the start of a shift in the balance of power at Mercedes? Melbourne will tell us plenty.
Gain or more pain for McLaren?
This time last year McLaren were in complete disarray after a dismal off-season at the start of their Honda partnership.
The team completed more than double their total laps of 2015 in Barcelona this time around but while that may mean improved reliability, is that really enough for such a prestigious outfit?
Eric Boullier admits they are heading into the weekend with 'a number of unknowns' and McLaren will be trialling their full 2016 specification for the first time on Friday.
At pre-season testing they found themselves in the middle of the pack, ahead of Haas, Manor and Sauber but slower than Force India and Toro Rosso. Their quickest time of Test Two was a couple of seconds down on Ferrari's leading pace.
Jenson Button is in the last year of his contract and seemed to be falling out of love with the sport last season. Fernando Alonso's radio rages and glum press conferences happened far too often.
Both are looking forward to an "unpredictable" weekend at Albert Park but as former world champions, they'll need convincing early on in the season that results will pick up.
After suffering their worst season in 30 years McLaren - their fans, their partners, their staff - need results now.
A new era for new teams
Haas will become F1's newest team when they make their grand prix debut in Australia and their journey into the sport could set a fresh precedent for any other forthcoming new arrivals.
Starting a new F1 team from scratch requires huge investment as the correct personnel and facilities are put together. But even that might not be enough as new teams take on squads with half a century of experience.
The struggles of Virgin Racing, HRT and Lotus/Caterham in 2010 are a vivid reminder of how tough F1 can be as the three newbies found themselves cut adrift at the back of the pack.
Haas, though, have taken a different approach and formed a technical partnership with Ferrari to try and assist them with fast-tracking the learning process.
The deal has seen Haas given access to Ferrari's state of the art wind tunnel while some of the VF-16's underpinnings are supplied by the Scuderia, and during pre-season the team seemed more prepared than any other recent arrival in F1.
"The last three new teams we saw enter F1 were a shambles compared to the way we have seen Haas come in," commented Sky F1's Ted Kravitz after the first pre-season test.
"Not since Toyota came in in 2002 with a £200m budget have we seen a new team impress the way Haas have."
Haas' preparation was underlined on just their fourth day of pre-season testing when they felt confident enough to attempt a race simulation at the Circuit de Catalunya with their new car.
The team are already targeting points in Melbourne and if they hit the ground running, forging a partnership with an existing squad could be how we see new teams enter the sport from now on.
The first race of the 2016 F1 season, the Australian GP, is exclusively live on Sky Sports F1. The race in Melbourne starts at 5am on Sunday March 20.
