2016 Formula One season

The 2016 Formula One season will be the 67th season of the 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 are scheduled to take part in twenty-one Grands Prix—making for the longest season in the sport's history—starting in Australia on 20 March and finishing in Abu Dhabi on 27 November as they compete for the World Drivers' and World Constructors' championships.

The 2016 season will see the grid expand to 22 cars with the addition of the Haas F1 Team entry.Renault will return to the sport as a constructor after a four-year absence following their takeover of Lotus prior to the start of the season. The calendar will also expand, with the return of the German Grand Prix and the revival of the European Grand Prix in Azerbaijan.

Lewis Hamilton will start the season as the defending Drivers' Champion for the second year running, after winning his third World Championship title at the 2015 United States Grand Prix. His team, Mercedes, will start the season as the defending Constructors' Champion, having secured its second championship title at the 2015 Russian Grand Prix.

Racing wheel

A racing wheel is a method of control for use in racing video games, racing simulators, and driving simulators. They are usually packaged with a large paddle styled as a steering wheel, along with a set of pedals for gas, brake, and sometimes clutch actuation, as well as various shifter controls. An analog wheel and pedal set such as this allows the user to accurately manipulate steering angle and pedal control that is required to properly manage a simulated car, as opposed to digital control such as a keyboard. The relatively large range of motion further allows the user to more accurately apply the controls. Racing wheels have been developed for use with arcade games, game consoles, personal computers, and also for professional driving simulators for race drivers.

Force feedback

Racing wheels started off as simple plastic wheels hooked up to a rotary potentiometer, which were sprung by springs or bungees. Eventually manufacturers began to use electric motors in the controllers, in place of springs, in order to achieve a level of force feedback, first seen in Microsoft's Sidewinder wheel. At first this technology simply provided the centering force and other artificial effects such as shaking the wheel in a crash or other vibrations. However, as driving simulations have evolved, their physics engines have become more accurate and the developers have linked their in-game physics more closely to the force feedback. This allows the user to truly feel what forces go through the steering rack, instead of just artificial effects, and genuinely enhance the realism of the game. Despite this, some high end manufacturers believe that force feedback has still not been perfected, and therefore companies such as Thomas SuperWheel have not adopted a force feedback system in their products. Frex, on the other hand, has gone the other way and equips their high-end Simwheel with powerful force feedback and no mechanical centering device.

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton,MBE (born 7 January 1985) is a British Formula One racing driver from England, currently racing for the Mercedes AMG Petronas team. He is the 2008, 2014 and 2015 Formula One World Champion.

In December 1995, at the age of ten, he approached McLaren team principal Ron Dennis at the Autosport Awards ceremony and told him, "I want to race for you one day ... I want to race for McLaren." Less than three years later McLaren and Mercedes-Benz signed him to their Young Driver Support Programme. After winning the British Formula Renault, Formula Three Euroseries, and GP2 championships on his way up the racing career ladder, he drove for McLaren in 2007, making his Formula One debut 12 years after his initial encounter with Dennis. Hamilton's contract for the McLaren driver development program made him the youngest ever driver to secure a contract which later resulted in a Formula One drive.

Coming from a mixed background, with a black father and white mother, Hamilton is often labelled "the first black driver in Formula One", although Willy T. Ribbs tested a Formula One car in 1986.

Ferrari 458

The Ferrari 458 Italia is a mid-engined sports car produced by the Italian sports car manufacturer Ferrari. The 458 replaced the Ferrari F430, and was first officially unveiled at the 2009 Frankfurt Motor Show. It is replaced by the Ferrari 488 GTB, which was unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show 2015.

Specifications

In Ferrari's first official announcement of the car, the 458 was described as the successor to the F430 but arising from an entirely new design, incorporating technologies developed from the company's experience in Formula 1.

The body computer system was developed by Magneti Marelli Automotive Lighting.

Engine

The 458 is powered by a 4,499 cc (274.5 cu in) V8 engine of the "Ferrari/Maserati" F136 engine family, producing 570 PS (419 kW; 562 hp) at 9,000 rpm (redline) and 540 N·m (398 lb·ft) at 6,000 rpm with 80% torque available at 3,250 rpm. The engine features direct fuel injection, which is a first for Ferrari mid-engine setups in its road cars.

Transmission

The only transmission available on the 458 is a dual-clutch 7-speed GETRAG gearbox, in a different state of tune shared with the Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG. There is no traditional manual option, making this the fourth road-car after the Enzo, Challenge Stradale and 430 Scuderia not to be offered with Ferrari's classic gated manual. It is the first mainstream model to not be offered with a manual transmission.

Nico Rosberg

Nico Erik Rosberg (born 27 June 1985) is a German racing driver for Mercedes Formula One team. He races under the German flag in Formula One, and has also briefly competed for Finland very early in his career. He holds dual nationality of these two countries.

Rosberg won the 2005 GP2 Series for the ART team, having raced in Formula 3 Euro Series previously for his father Keke Rosberg's racing organisation Team Rosberg. Rosberg entered Formula One in 2006 with Williams, the team with which his father had won the 1982 championship.

For the 2010 Formula One season, Rosberg joined the re-branded Mercedes team, formed by Mercedes's takeover of 2009 constructors' champions Brawn GP. Since then, Rosberg has enjoyed his most successful period, winning 14 Grands Prix and earning 22 pole positions. His biggest career achievements have been in 2014 and 2015 when he finished runner-up in the Formula One World Championship behind team-mate Lewis Hamilton and being the fourth driver in history to win the Monaco Grand Prix three times in a row.