Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFerrari

2016 Ferrari passes FIA crash tests

Ferrari's 2016 car has passed the mandatory FIA crash tests ahead of the start of pre-season testing.

While Ferrari has yet to make any public announcement, sources have confirmed to F1i the 2016 car has successfully completed the tests which must be carried out before it can run in testing. The team is due to launch its new car online, with an expected launch date of February 19.

Three teams have already confirmed they have successfully passed the crash tests this winter, with Renault, Manor and Haas all making announcements in January. Following the mandatory tests, teams can then focus on the car build itself.

So far only Sauber has opted to miss the first test in order to give itself more development time with its car, with McLaren admitting it needed to take on additional shifts to ensure its car will be read for the start of testing after the first race of the season was brought forward to March 20.

Teams will have only two pre-season tests during which to prepare their cars this year, with both taking place at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya from February 22-25 and from March 1-4.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.