10 Things We Didn’t Expect From F1 2016 So Far

1. Kvyat's mid-season replacement

It’s now pretty rare to see an F1 driver getting replaced mid-season but that didn’t stop Red Bull from ruthlessly demoting Kvyat to Toro Rosso after his messy Russian GP, moving Verstappen up to the main team. Even with Kvyat’s mixed performances, it was a surprise. But Verstappen is now doing a great job at Red Bull, as his results have proved.

2. Seagulls cost Vettel

Sebastian Vettel was pretty annoyed about a pair of seagulls chilling in the middle of the track during the Canadian Grand Prix. He felt avoiding the birds cost him time, which helped Lewis Hamilton close in. That’s definitely a racing driver excuse we were not expecting in F1 2016!

3. The qualifying mess

Who can forget the qualifying debacle? It was a big mess and completely unnecessary - qualifying didn’t need changing yet just prior to the F1 season opener, we got told a new elimination format would debut in Australia. It was dull, annoying and simply didn’t work. It lasted just two races before thankfully the old system returned.

4. Verstappen victorious

Don’t get me wrong, Max Verstappen is one of the most talented F1 drivers out there right now and I expected him to win races (and still expect him to win championships). But I never thought his maiden F1 victory would come in his second season.

As mentioned, the Dutchman was promoted to Red Bull, at Daniil Kvyat’s expense, ahead of the Spanish GP and he put in a storming drive at the Barcelona track - helped by the Mercedes duo taking each other out - to win his first F1 race.

5. Ros vs Ham in Spain

It’s something we’d always hoped for but never really expected. Because with the two Mercs out of the way, it would open things up for other drivers to stand on the top step of the podium (for a change). That’s exactly what happened in Spain and it produced one hell of a race!

6. Vandoorne points

Prior to the season, I didn’t expect Stoffel Vandoorne to be on the F1 grid during the 2016 season, let alone scoring a point on his debut. The GP2 champion is one of the hottest young talents out there and the opportunity to race came about after Fernando Alonso’s big Australia crash. He filled in for the Spaniard in Bahrain and did a pretty mega job to finish 10th.

7. No Maldonado

Rewind to the start of February and I thought the Kevin Magnussen replacing Pastor Maldonado rumours were pretty unlikely. But it actually happened and Maldonado was forced off the grid by K-Mag, who jumped in at the last minute to take over the vacant Renault spot.

It left me with mixed emotions. While Maldonado is a quick driver and his erratic antics made for some pretty funny viewing at times, he was mainly in F1 for his big sponsorship money and more talented drivers deserved a chance. I wasn’t expecting him to not be on the F1 grid this year but I’m glad K-Mag got another shot.

8. Boring Baku

The new Baku City Circuit is downright bonkers, with some great fast sections, slow, narrow parts and long straights. The track hosted some crazy, chaos-filled GP2 races prior to F1 but the main event was quite a disappointment. There wasn’t much to get excited about and it was all a bit underwhelming…

9. Ricciardo loses victory

It was all looking very good for Ricciardo during the early stages of the Monaco GP but it all unravelled at his pitstop, where his tyres weren’t ready. Sat in the pitbox waiting for the Pirelli rubber to arrive, it must have been a truly devastating moment and was a big surprise for many F1 fans watching. It was Ricciardo’s for the taking and it all fell to pieces at that one stop…

10. Haas in the mix

Sure, the last few races haven’t gone particularly to plan for Haas but the new American F1 team made quite a debut. Haas is doing something different with a close technical partnership with Ferrari but even still, few expected Romain Grosjean to finish sixth, fifth and eighth in Australia, Bahrain and Russia respectively. They’re well and truly in the mix, which is great after the struggles of recent new F1 teams.

What else have you been surprised by in F1 2016 so far? Let us know below!