Formula One World Championship is a motor racing tournament for race cars, conducted by the FIA (Federation Internationale de I’Automobile). It is the highest class of competition for open wheel racing cars. This year’s competition is the 67th season of FIA F1 World Championship.
Can Ferrari come out of Mercedes’ shadow and win F1’s championship this season
Mercedes are the reigning World Champions in the field of F1 car racing. Their performance in the previous F1 world championships were almost close to perfection. They have two of the world’s best racers, Lewis Hamilton (384 points and 11 victories) and Nico Rosberg (317 points and 5 victories) on their team. Mercedes have morphed their dominant W06 Hybrid into a new and improved Hybrid W07 during this winter. Completing over 6000 km with just a transmission problem on the final day, it had hardly missed a beat during the testing. Mercedes F1 W07 is extremely fast and is also bulletproof. Heading to the opening race, Mercedes have more data than any other team, along with the obvious benefits of a reliable car which will be vital for shaping update packages and also for finding the perfect set up for the early rounds. Mercedes didn’t feel the need to showboat on anything and used medium tires rather than using the soft, super soft or the latest ultra soft tyres.
Can Ferrari come out of Mercedes’ shadow and win F1’s championship this season
Ferrari is the second major team in F1 World Championship. The chairman of Ferrari, Sergio Marchionne has high hopes for the company. He thinks that Ferrari can make it to finals, while according to other former Formula 1 drivers, Ferrari can’t catch up that quickly as the gap between Ferrari and Mercedes was too much at the end of the last season. It looked very strong during the Barcelona testings’, however reliability will still be one of their lingering concerns. It has an engine for Melbourne. Ferrari’s 2016 car has adopted appendages like nose, seen previously on cars of teams like McLaren, Williams and now defunct Caterham. This allows the overall nose to be shorter. With two motors, a turbocharged 1.6 litress V-6 works in conjunction. While one of the motor is mounted to the main driveline, the other is integrated with the turbocharger. There are some new fins on the flanks and the rear surface of the car appears to be shorter. With the Italian team’s power unit and gain in the SFH-16, Ferrari had drawn the attention of Mercedes over the winter.
They have the ability to increase the pace this season. Ferrari is trying to win the F1 championship since 2008, and for this to be possible they should make sure that these gains are significant enough to sustain a challenge over 21 races in this season. Ferrari has a well experienced driver Kimi Raikkonen and a new rising star: world’s third best F1 driver, Sebastian Vettel on their team. Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton who had won three consecutive world titles has shown a low key performance in Spain, so this is the best chance for Vettel to stop Hamilton from winning the fourth title. Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel has set additional super soft tyres in the luggage, and this can prove to be an advantage for Ferrari as every team is bound to qualify on the super soft. However there are chances of the car to stop, if it rains during the race.
Championship 2016
In the opening round of F1 team championship 2016, Mercedes leaded with a 2-1 finish. Nico Rosberg came first and was followed by his teammate Lewis Hamilton. Sebastian of Ferrari was close behind and secured the third place. however due to lack of consistency, his teammate Kimi Raikkonen retired due to a turbo failure during the 21st lap.
Even if Ferrari performs better than last time, we can’t expect Mercedes to not maintain the edge this time. We can only hope that 2014 and 2015’s account of Mercedes’ success does not replay. Ferrari is the only team that can give Mercedes a fierce fight. Their race strategy is crucial. It’s going to be difficult for Ferrari to dominate, but they are not going to let go of the F1’s championship without a strong fight.
