User:Pch172/2016 Formula One Season

The 2016 Formula One season will be the 67th Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) Formula One world championship, a motor racing championship for Formula One cars which is recognised by the sport's governing body, the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), as the highest class of competition for open-wheel racing cars. Teams and drivers will compete for the World Drivers' and World Constructors' Championships. The season is scheduled to commence in Australia on 3 April 2016, the latest start to a season since 1988.

Team Changes

 * Haas F1 Team, a team established by NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team owner Gene Haas, will join the Formula One grid in 2016 after the team was accepted to join the championship for the 2015 season before Haas deferred his entry by a year. The team will use power units supplied by Ferrari.

Driver Changes

 * In 2014, Kimi Räikkönen announced that he would then plan to retire at the end of his Ferrari contract.

Rule changes

 * Starting in 2016, the number of pre-season tests will be reduced from three to two.
 * The process new drivers go through in order to qualify for a superlicence will be changed, with additional restrictions put in place. Applicants must be at least eighteen years old, hold a valid driver's licence for roadgoing cars, and will be required to spend at least two seasons competing in recognised feeder series. A point system for feeder series has been introduced, and new drivers must also have scored 40 points in a three-year-period from these series, in order to obtain a superlicence. The changes were introduced following controversy over Max Verstappen qualifying for a superlicence at the age of sixteen after a single season competing in European Formula 3.

Calendar
A leaked schedule released in April 2015 suggested that the Formula One calendar would begin on the 3rd April, two weeks later than previous years as well as being the latest start since 1988. In May 2015, FOM confirmed that the proposed calendar had been leaked, featuring 21 races across 34 weeks. The dates represented below are the dates provided by the proposed calendar.

Calendar changes

 * The European Grand Prix will be held for the first time since with the race to be held on a street circuit in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. The race will be run under the name "Baku European Grand Prix".
 * The German Grand Prix is set to return to the Hockenheimring, after failing to find a host venue after the Nürburgring pulled out in 2015.
 * Despite holding contracts to a race, the Korean and Indian grand prixs as well as the ill-fated Grand Prix of America (which has already been cancelled three times prior to this season) were not included in the leaked provisional calendar.