Latest F1 news in brief

Vettel practicing the view he will have of the new Mercedes in 2016. Mercedes is sandbagging. Can the new Ferrari really challenge them in 2016?

Red versus silver battle begins in Barcelona
Renault engine still struggling in 2016
F1 not much louder for 2016 – report
Ecclestone comments trigger storm before Geneva meeting
Today's F1 is 'broken' – Briatore
Ecclestone 'must be paid' for new Monza deal – Briatore
F1's loss of sponsorship caused by same stupidity inflicting IndyCar
Honda's Arai leaves McLaren project
Vettel labels SF16-H a 'step forward'
Haas flying in front wing for second day
Hamilton: Mercedes test start 'remarkable'
Haryanto: Talent backs up financial support
Ryan: Manor aiming for 'respectability'

Red versus silver battle begins in Barcelona
(GMM) The opening salvo was fired on Monday as the 2016 protagonists went head-to-head at the start of pre-season testing.

With the red team openly aiming to "cancel the smile" on Mercedes' face this year, the debut of the bold 2016 Ferrari was promising as Sebastian Vettel topped the times.

"They are confident in their abilities and James Allison is a clever engineer," Mercedes chief Toto Wolff said in Barcelona.

"I think Ferrari will be our main rival," he added.

But Mercedes also had jaws dropping with the out-of-the-box reliability of its evolved title-defending machine, as Lewis Hamilton rolled out more than two race distances.

"I've never had a first day with a new car like this," the triple world champion beamed.

He also promised to be back in top form for the start of the season, having been beaten by teammate Nico Rosberg in the last three grands prix of 2015.

"After winning the championship I enjoyed the end of the season – in and out of the car – more than I have ever done in my entire career," Hamilton explained.

As for being beaten by Vettel's Ferrari on Monday, Hamilton said: "They look fast, but we did not look at the setup or the times today."

Indeed, rumors are swirling that a visibly innovative new front nose and wing will be added to Mercedes' package on Tuesday or Wednesday.

"The first time I saw them (the innovations), I was surprised," Wolff hinted.

Carlos Sainz, the Spanish youngster driving for Toro Rosso, said he expects a red versus silver battle in 2016.

"Mercedes and Ferrari are in another league, ahead of – in my opinion – Red Bull and Williams," he told the Spanish sports daily AS.

"I don't think we can compare Toro Rosso with Red Bull yet. What Christian Horner said I think is to remove some pressure, but after the big teams, they (Red Bull) are there," said Sainz.

Jolyon Palmer says new Renault improved, but not enough

Renault engine still struggling in 2016
(GMM) Now a fully-fledged race driver for a new works team, Jolyon Palmer nonetheless cut a disappointed figure on Monday.

Renault's 2016 car is an obvious evolution of its Mercedes-powered Lotus predecessor, which Palmer drive throughout last season as third driver.

"The car feels not so different," the Briton said.

But he managed only 37 laps, and was dead last on the timesheets.

The difference, it seems, is the team's switch from Mercedes to Renault power.

"We knew that it would not be easy and we wouldn't do 100 laps. But 37 laps is not the ideal start," said Palmer. "That's basically one of my four days gone."

Regarding the engine, "You could feel the difference," he admitted. "The Mercedes has more power but the Renault has advantages for example with drivability."

Similarly, Toro Rosso has switched the other way – from Renault to Ferrari power – and Carlos Sainz liked the feel of more horse power on Monday.

"The car is an evolution of last year," he told the AS sports daily, "so what I've noticed so far is the engine. I can only say positive things about Ferrari."

And Sainz said more power is not the only advantage of having moved away from Renault.

"Everything is also much simpler," he explained. "There are fewer changes to make on the steering wheel — fewer buttons, more (is) automatic, more power."

As for a team that has stayed with Renault power, Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo said after Monday's running: "It feels pretty much like the end of last season."

The new F1 engines still sound sick in 2016

F1 not much louder for 2016 – report
(GMM) F1 is louder but not loud enough to meet the expectations of its audience, one correspondent at the Barcelona test reported on Monday.

For 2016, following widespread complaints that the 'power unit' era has left the previously screaming sport with little more than a whimper, the F1 rules were tweaked.

Teams have had to install a separate tailpipe for the so-called 'wastegate', for the sole benefit of turning up the volume of the turbo V6 engines.

Bild am Sonntag, a major German Sunday newspaper, said it learned that Mercedes' 2016 unit is 12 per cent louder than its predecessor, cranking it up from 96 to 108 decibels.

As for what it sounds like in reality, Autosprint's Cesare Maria Mannucci said from Barcelona: "The noise is a bit higher, but nothing in comparison to the V8 and V10s.

"There are 11 cars on the track" in Barcelona, Mannucci added, "but it does not seem that the noise level has increased so much. Or at least to what the viewers were hoping for."

Ecclestone: I would not buy a ticket to see a Mercedes parade with a field full of sick sounding engines

Ecclestone comments trigger storm before Geneva meeting
(GMM) While the Barcelona pitlane was full of brand new F1 cars, the bulk of the paddock banter on Monday was actually about politics.

It had been triggered by F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, who told a British newspaper just hours before the first pre-season test began that he would not waste money on a ticket to a grand prix.

"It's a bit surprising when someone says something like that about his own product," Nico Hulkenberg told Bild newspaper.

Ecclestone's barbs had been fired in all directions, including at Toto Wolff who is one of the main obstacles to radical rules change for 2017 and beyond.

"If that's the way he wants to tread as a promoter," Wolff said, "then that's his decision."

Others were less forgiving.

"Everything is just starting to get going, everyone is very positive and he (Ecclestone) has to do this and destroy everything," F1 legend and Mercedes team chairman Niki Lauda blasted.

"I just don't understand why he does it — the master of the sport being so critical.

"We are having a big meeting with Bernie and I hope someone asks him his reasons for saying those things," Lauda added.

The meeting Lauda is referring to will happen in Geneva on Tuesday, and it is billed as F1's last chance to pass radical reform for 2017 with a majority vote.

"I think Bernie is frustrated with where formula one is," said Red Bull's Christian Horner, who like Ecclestone would like significant rule changes to pass.

"In the old days it would have been easier to fix it. Now we have this democracy it's very hard to get everyone to agree.

"But we need to do it now because if we need unanimous agreement then you might as well forget it," Horner added.

That is because Mercedes, the back-to-back world champions in the controversial 'power unit' era, will not agree to changes that are too radical.

"We believe that an excessive increase in aerodynamic downforce could hurt formula one and be difficult for the tire manufacturer to cope with," Wolff insisted.

"It's like asking the engine guys to build a 2000hp engine. They will say it's impossible. Yet we are going to ask Pirelli to do something impossible?

"We are not against change, but there are diverse opinions from staying where we are to making the cars into airplanes. There has to be balance. The outcome is unknown," said Wolff.

As for Ecclestone's criticisms, Wolff answered: "When I came into the sport, I was upset with criticism but now I understand that Bernie and the headlines is part of formula one.

"Ecclestone always says directly what he does not like, and this causes a reaction. It has always been like that. He is the promoter and these are his tactics."

Indeed, Ecclestone is believed to be preparing to table a proposal in Geneva to give out points to the top-ten qualifiers but then reverse the grid.

"Let's see what happens," said Horner. "He wants to shake things up a bit — he's the promoter, he's got to sell formula one around the world and he wants it to be the most exciting and spectacular that it can possibly be."

Ecclestone also has some other allies who are alarmed that the trend for television ratings in the past few years is sharply downwards.

"He (Ecclestone) is the commercial leader of the sport so if you see your TV figures going down it is concerning," said McLaren-Honda's Eric Boullier.

"We are in favor of making the sport more exciting, faster. We have been talking about this for a long time, so if we can't agree (on Tuesday) that is a failure in my opinion," the McLaren team boss added.

Flavio Briatore with his new face says F1 today is broken. We could not agree more.

Today's F1 is 'broken' – Briatore
(GMM) After Bernie Ecclestone on Monday shattered F1's pre-season optimism, his old friend Flavio Briatore agreed that the sport he once loved is "broken".

"This formula one is broken, it's a broken business platform," the former Renault chief told Italian radio Rai Gr Parlamento.

Ahead of a 'last chance' meeting in Geneva where proposed sweeping rule changes could be nixed, F1 supremo Ecclestone had declared that he would not currently watch the sport as a spectator.

"One of the biggest problems of formula one today is that it has no more appeal to the audience," Briatore agreed.

"The more the budgets increase, the more the technology increases, the more you have races that are not interesting," he added.

"F1 is incredible technically, but I do not think about F1 as a race but as a technical exercise and that is not of interest to the viewer.

"It must be entertainment, about the gladiators, but it is a world championship for engineers now.

"In my time there were 10 to 12 recognizable drivers, now only 2 or 3 would walk into a restaurant and be recognized.

"We have lost the stars and the glamour," Briatore continued.

The flamboyant Italian's solution is to wind back the clock to when F1 was more about the drivers who decided "who wins and who loses".

"You have to change the rules and make them more simple, with cars that are 90 per cent similar, costs 70pc lower, and stop giving 70 per cent of the revenue to the top teams with the rest getting the crumbs.

"We need to return to formula one as it was 20 years ago," he concluded.

As for any hopes that a fully-competitive Ferrari could inject spice into 2016 by taking Mercedes on for the title, Briatore has bad news.

"It would give interest to the championship," he agreed, "but it is difficult to beat Mercedes: it can be reduced but you cannot recover a gap like that in two months," he said.

Ecclestone will give Monza the finger if they don't meet his demands

Ecclestone 'must be paid' for new Monza deal – Briatore
(GMM) Flavio Briatore has warned organisers of the Italian grand prix not to play hardball with Bernie Ecclestone.

As negotiations over a new deal for Monza drag on, regional Lombardy president Roberto Maroni warned last week that "There can be no formula one without Monza".

"I think Maroni's right," Briatore told Italian radio Rai Gr Parlamento. "That the Italian grand prix remaining at Monza is 90 per cent, as long as the (Italian automobile club) Aci pays Ecclestone's price.

"There is still an important difference," the Italian, a long-time friend and business partner of Ecclestone's, added.

"Bernie is not interested in who pays him, but that he is paid."

Finally, Briatore also said he agreed with Ecclestone about not wanting to go and visit their old friend Michael Schumacher at his home in Switzerland.

"I want to remember him as he was," Briatore said. "It would be too painful to see him as he is now.

"It will not help to go and see him so I prefer to keep the pictures of him that I have in my mind," he added.

McLaren can't land a big primary sponsor because TV ratings are down on pay-tv. IndyCar has suffered the same lack of sponsorship money in the paddock due to low TV ratings on NBCSN

F1's loss of sponsorship caused by same stupidity inflicting IndyCar
The world's top motorsports competition is going through some tough economic times as team sponsorship is down by a quarter over the past three seasons, JMI Founder & Exec Chair Zak Brown said. He added the racing series' commercial appeal is "pretty poor" at the moment.

"Team sponsorship has gone from close to a $1 billion and is down by 25 percent over three years," he said. "The world is not a good place right now economically. Formula 1 has some short-term challenges. I think long term the sport is very healthy, but it's got some short-term issues that it needs to work through. The combination of all that makes it a tough environment."

McLaren's ongoing search for a new title sponsor since Vodafone's departure at the end of the '13 season gives an indication of the current commercial state. Brown pointed to F1's current structure and falling TV audience numbers as challenges the series is faced with over the next few years.

"The current agreements within the industry, specifically the teams, has proved to not be a good set up for governance and competitiveness," he said.

"I think everybody recognizes that. Unfortunately, the way it's structured no one can do much about until the contracts are up in 2020. So in the short-term we've got some issues around how much it costs to race, etc."

F1's move away from free-to-air and toward pay-TV has resulted in a reduced audience size. With the move toward pay-TV expected to continue, Brown said, F1 recognizes that it has to step up its social media activities.

Despite those imminent challenges facing the series, Brown is bullish about F1's future. He said no other motorsports series comes even close to its size and scale. "[F1] is so much bigger than everything else," Brown said.

"The only thing that competes with F1 in true size is European football." An emerging series that is getting stronger and stronger, Brown said, is Formula E. The electric racing series is currently in its second season. He said, "It's doing great but I would not say it's a challenger to F1." HJ Mai/SportsBusinessDaily

Yasuhisa Arai is toast

Honda's Arai leaves McLaren project
(GMM) Honda has confirmed the departure as F1 boss of Yasuhisa Arai.

Earlier, we reported rumors from Barcelona that the Japanese could lose his job following the disastrous start in 2015 to the new McLaren-Honda works collaboration.

"Yusuke Hasegawa has been assigned to replace Yasuhisa Arai to oversee the development, manufacturing and management of the F1 project," Honda confirmed.

Honda has opted to move Arai to its R&D department, where he will act as Senior Managing Officer, with Hasegawa taking over as Executive Chief Engineer and Formula 1 chief.

Hasegawa's promotion and Arai's new position will be effective from March 1.

In addition, Honda has appointed Yoshiyuki Matsumoto in the role of Supervising Director, in which he will oversee and supervise all Formula 1 activities, with April 1 his official start date.

Vettel says the SF16-H is better, but we doubt it can touch the Aldo Costa designed Mercedes

Vettel labels SF16-H a 'step forward'
Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel believes the outfit's SF16-H is a "step forward" compared to its SF15-T, as he topped the opening day of testing in Spain.

Vettel clocked a time of 1:24.939 during the morning session at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya to eclipse Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton by almost half a second.

Vettel, who finished third in the 2015 championship standings with three victories, is optimistic that Ferrari has progressed over the winter break.

"We got a first feeling from the car and the first impression is good, I think the new car is a step forward," said Vettel after the session.

"I felt confident enough, but we know there is still a lot of work in front of us… for sure there have been changes inside and outside the car.

"Laps times today are not important at all."

Vettel completed 69 laps at the venue compared to the 156 amassed by Hamilton and admitted that more mileage would have been ideal.

"It was good to have some laps," he went on to explain.

"I would have liked to have some more but it is natural that when you have something new and things you want to check you are more conscious, so you stop to have a look at them."

Anti-American Guenther Steiner (L) with Grosjean and Haas

Haas flying in front wing for second day
Haas team boss Guenther Steiner has confirmed that the outfit is flying in a new front wing for the second day of testing at Barcelona.

Romain Grosjean suffered a front wing failure just before lunch on Monday, and returned in the afternoon with a reinforced assembly.

Steiner says investigations are yet to identify an exact cause, but that a new wing will be fitted to the VF-16 for the start of Tuesday's running.

"We've evaluated what was wrong, and we're still checking," said Steiner.

"We fixed one up for the afternoon and went out there, but we just did short runs to always keep an eye on it, and we're getting a new, complete fixed wing being flown in for 8am.

"It broke on the pillars. We know exactly where it broke, we just need to evaluate why it broke. We know where to reinforce it, so we have a solution so we can just keep running.

"That's why we are here, to learn and test."

Grosjean, preparing for his fifth full season in Formula 1, was restricted to just 31 laps due to the failure, but says his initial feelings with the car are largely positive.

"The car felt good; it's important to get the first good impressions," said Grosjean.

"I've had two really good cars, one good car and one really bad, so I kind of know what it is! I felt well in the car this morning; no set-up work, just putting things together and getting it on track.

"We have fixed the [front] wing for tomorrow, which is good."

Hamilton knows no one will beat the Aldo Costa designed W07

Hamilton: Mercedes test start 'remarkable'
Lewis Hamilton has described Mercedes' start to the pre-season period as "remarkable", after a faultless first test day at Barcelona.

Hamilton racked up 156 laps at the Spanish Grand Prix venue on Monday, more than two race distances, and above the 700km mark.

Hamilton's best time of 1:25.409 was enough for second position, half a second down on pace-setting Ferrari rival Sebastian Vettel.

"It's been an amazing day. I've never had a first day like today," said Hamilton, who also beat the W06's opening day test mileage record.

"To get in a new car and to have so few problems on the first day is just a remarkable job by the team. 156 laps is quite a long way here, that's for sure."

Hamilton says Mercedes has improved across the board with its new car.

"It's always hard to improve, but you're always searching for perfection, which is always shifting. It's the golden target, and it's always moving," Hamilton commented.

"A huge amount of work has gone into making the steps on this car, because it's the third year, an evolution. That’s why I'm so encouraged from today, to see that the car is better."

He added: "It's overall an improvement, the whole car.

"On the mechanical side of things it's better, the packaging and the aero performance. Mercedes have built the best engine for some time – it feels just as strong as last year."

Nico Rosberg will take over the wheel of the W07 today.

Rio Haryanto insists he has the talent to match his big 'check'

Haryanto: Talent backs up financial support
Rio Haryanto insists that financial backing from his native Indonesia was not the single factor behind him securing a Formula 1 race seat at Manor Racing for the 2016 campaign.

Haryanto, 23, has spent the past four seasons in the GP2 feeder series, and has been heavily backed by the Indonesian government to make the step up to Formula 1 for 2016.

Amid criticism that the move came through money alone, Haryanto made reference to his efforts in 2015, which included three wins and two further podiums en route to fourth in GP2.

"Formula 1 has always been the goal," Haryanto told reporters, including GPUpdate.net.

"To get to Formula 1 is not just about the support but also I need to perform as well. Last year we had a good season in GP2 and I think that was the push to be in Formula 1."

Haryanto feels that he is joining Manor at an exciting time, following a number of key technical signings, and the arrival of Mercedes as the team's engine supplier.

"I think they have new people with a lot of experience," added Haryanto, who has penned a one-year deal with the outfit, which will also field Pascal Wehrlein.

"I hope that this year will be a huge step up for Manor Racing.

"We all know that the team's target for the season is to be among the midfield runners. If there are any opportunities to score points, then we will definitely go for points.

"I'm looking forward to seeing what the car feels like to the ones [I've tested] before."

Manor launched its MRT05 in Barcelona on Monday morning.

Manor Racing Director Dave Ryan

Ryan: Manor aiming for 'respectability'
Manor Racing Director Dave Ryan says the outfit is targeting "respectability and competitiveness" in 2016, after its MRT05 was launched in Barcelona on Monday.

New recruit Pascal Wehrlein completed a single exploratory lap in the new car at 10:20 local time at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.

Manor endured a troublesome 2015 after its revival last winter and was substantially off the pace, but Ryan is sure of progress in 2016.

"Respectability and competitiveness," said Ryan, when asked of Manor's expectations for 2016.

"We are done with just turning up just to make everyone else look good and every single person in this team is looking forward to the first race in Melbourne in a few weeks' time.

"We know we have to improve in every area and in no way do we underestimate the opposition.

"But we have assembled a great group of people, we have a fantastic technical partnership with Mercedes-Benz and Williams Advanced Engineering and now it's up to us to deliver."

Ryan is also confident regarding rookie pairing Wehrlein and Rio Haryanto.

"Pascal and Rio are a great addition to our team; they are young and hungry but, crucially, experienced racers with a lot of talent and a great deal of potential," he said.