HAVE YOUR SAY WE NEED YOU! GET INVOLVED WITH MN MN SAYS... Hopes and desires for 2016

WRITE TO US Motorsport News Haymarket Consumer Media, Bridge House, 69 London Road, Twickenham TW1 3SP Lots of unknowns as the new F1 campaign gets underway

A new Formula 1 season always poses many questions. And, as we all know, few of them get truly answered during testing. Nevertheless, the confidence (or lack thereof) coming from the teams and the early testing performances can give tantalising hints.

It’s no surprise that Mercedes is confident and is expecting to run at the front. The Anglo-german operation has been the benchmark since the new turbo/hybrid rules were introduced and has already racked up some impressive miles. No, the teams we are most interested in are Ferrari, Mclaren and, to a lesser degree, Haas.

Domination doesn’t offend me as much as it does many, but there’s no doubt that F1 benefits from true battles between teams at the front. Ferrari, off the back of a revitalised season in 2015, is clearly best placed to challenge Mercedes. The squad sounds fired up and knows the expectation is that it can give Sebastian Vettel the weapons to battle Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg regularly in 2016.

Mclaren-honda suffered a dire 2015 and, apart from the most hardened anti-fans, everyone will be hoping the squad can move swiftly forward. A jump to the front is surely pure fantasy, but a significant step into the midfield would at least give the impression that there is indeed some potential in the new version of an iconic F1 partnership.

Any new team is to be welcomed given F1’s financial issues, even more so given that Haas is the first American squad for three decades. Haas seems to have gone about things the right way, taking its time and building relationships with (and getting technical input from) established people in the sport. It would be fantastic if it could be closer to the midfield fight than Lotus, Virgin and HRT were in 2010. We’ll find out a lot more in the coming weeks. Kevin Turner, Editor