Drivers: Sebastian Vettel – 4th, 212 points; Kimi Raikkonen – 6th, 186 points
Best grid position: 3rd – Vettel, Australia, Bahrain, Canada, Azerbaijan, Italy; Raikkonen, China, Russia, Belgium
Best race result: 2nd – Vettel, China, Canada, Azerbaijan; Raikkonen, Bahrain, Spain
2016 World Constructors Championship Position (2015, 2014): 3rd (2nd, 4th)
This was to be the year that Ferrari was to fight the mighty Mercedes for the F1 crown. This was to be the season where Sebastian Vettel would build on a very impressive maiden campaign for the legendary Ferrari name. This was to be the season where we would finally see an end to the dominance shown by Mercedes. It was not to be, and fundamental fractures within the Ferrari camp have surfaced. However for what issues exist within Ferrari, they are certainly not within the pilots of their two cars, who certainly deserved more this year than what the results book will say.
Ferrari F1 2016 Review
Ferrari came into 2016 with a very strong package, with significant changes notably in the design of the power unit, and in the aerodynamics. James Allison, who was the main brain behind the chassis, unfortunately had to depart from the team early into the year due to personal reasons. This was to be just one issue to plague the Scuderia however.
Vettel was nearly flawless in the opening part of the season, but through questionable strategy (Australia, Spain, Monaco, Canada), reliability problems (Bahrain, Russia, Austria, Britain), crashes (China, Russia) or qualifying troubles (Spain, Monaco), Vettel would not pick up a single win, despite the pace clearly being there.
Raikkonen, who certainly challenged Vettel in qualifying in 2016, was also not immune to trouble. He suffered a fire at Australia, a slow start at Bahrain, a crash at China and another crash at Monaco, whilst also having similar issues with strategy and qualifying as Vettel had.
The key moment of the season for Ferrari however was when Red Bull and Renault were able to overhaul Ferrari in the development race. From Britain onwards, the podium would be locked out solely by Mercedes and Red Bull drivers with exception for a single third place for Vettel at Monza, and another at Abu Dhabi. As the season would progress, the frustrations of the drivers and the team would start to show more and more.
Vettel and Raikkonen became considerably more vocal on the radio, with Vettel’s rants at Mexico being the key highlight of this. Vettel’s frustrations were also displayed in his driving – carelessly hitting Nico Rosberg at Malaysia and pulling off a ‘Verstappen’ move under braking on Daniel Ricciardo. Key team members started to refuse to speak to certain members of the media, which is one of those situations where actions (or a lack of) speak volumes more than words can.
Further crashes happened at Belgium, and at Malaysia, whilst Vettel suffered from a broken suspension at Singapore. Raikkonen would retire at the United States through no fault of his own as well. A typical Ferrari weekend in 2016 could be seen at Mexico: a very strong Friday, followed by a poor Saturday, topped off by something going wrong and neither car ending up with a top three finish, let alone a win.
It took until the 21st and final race for Ferrari to get a strategy call right, and they did it with Vettel at Abu Dhabi, where he fought for the win behind the Mercedes drivers. But it was not to be, and Ferrari have endured their second winless season in three years.
Both Vettel and Raikkonen will remain with the team for 2017. As for other key members of staff – who knows? However what is for sure is that some serious changes are going to need to be made to get Ferrari back to the top. Whether the shake up in the chassis for next year helps Ferrari on that path or not is something we will not see until that time comes, but in the meantime, expect names in and out of Maranello over the winter.
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