With just eight days of testing to prepare for this season, the teams and drivers will be facing a big challenge coming into this weekend – especially newcomers Haas and the 3 rookies. Mercedes are likely to stay on top but the fight from Ferrari is ever-increasing. And, with rain forecast for qualifying, things could get exciting!
Mercedes
Showing amazing reliability and speed in testing, Mercedes look set to take their third title in a row this season and are likely to win the opening race. Despite losing the championship to his teammate, Rosberg won the final 3 races of the 2015 season so it’ll be interesting to see how the fight between the Mercedes duo unfolds this year. Winning in Australia would give them the upper hand psychologically. Also, if Ferrari mount a challenge, Mercedes may be forced to chose one driver over the other so being on top in the first part of the season will be crucial.
Ferrari
Ferrari are confident that they have closed the gap to Mercedes this season but we don’t yet know exactly where their performance is in relation to Ferrari. It is going to be exciting to see how they do this weekend, as it will be a good indication of what is to come in the rest of the season. Both drivers have made the same tyre selection as Rosberg – Hamilton with one less medium set.
Williams
After another strong season in 2015, Williams are looking to come back as strong and hope to be closer to Mercedes and Ferrari. They will want to have a good start to the season, unlike last year when Bottas missed the race with a back injury. They looked stronger than the other Mercedes-powered cars (except for Mercedes themselves) in testing and should be able to score good points on Sunday.
Red Bull
Although they are at a disadvantage with the underpowered Renault engine, Red Bull look to have a strong chassis. They have chosen to use 7 super-soft tyres and just 2 medium sets. This is one more set of supersofts than Mercedes or Ferrari and suggests they may be attempting a one-stop race on Sunday.
Force India
Last year, they started the season a long way back, before massive improvements towards the end of the season – seeing them scoring points consistently. Force India team principal says:
I think we can pick up where we ended last year…We want to be qualifying and racing inside the top ten from race one.
If they have a good race on Sunday, it will give them a boost going into the following races.
Toro Rosso
With the 2015 Ferrari power unit instead of the Renault engine, they are hoping to see a step forward in performance. Although this decision wasn’t made until December, they had a strong test and should be competitive going into the opening race. Last year, both drivers ran well here but Verstappen suffered a power unit failure and failed to finish.
Renault
Held up by multiple technical issues in testing, Renault will be hoping to have these sorted ready for the race. However, reliability is likely to cause problems this weekend. Two years ago, Magnussen took a podium here for McLaren, although a podium this year for him looks unlikely.
Sauber
Having missed the first test as their car wasn’t ready, Sauber are already behind. They have split their tyre strategies for each driver with Ericsson matching Hamilton’s strategy and Nasr on the same as Rosberg.
McLaren
One of the biggest question marks going into this season is McLaren. Honda claim to have found another 200 horsepower – but testing shows that they are still further behind the other power units. However, it seems that they may have solved their reliability issues and they will hope to see both drivers finish in Australia.
Manor
After failing to get their cars started last race, they will hope to have a trouble-free weekend in Australia. Neither Haryanto or Wehrlein have raced here before, so it looks to be a tough challenge. But, with a Mercedes engine, they should be more competitive than last year.
Haas
Soon to take part in their first Formula One race, Haas will be hoping to just get to the chequered flag as team principal Guenther Steiner said:
Our goal is to have both cars finish…to show that we can compete and be proud of what we are doing.
However, they will want to be competitive and score points as soon as possible. After this weekend, we should be able to judge where they line up overall.