2016 is go go go!!!

Welcome back managers, the 2016 season is almost upon us and we're all getting rather excited here at Gaffer towers. There have been a few changes ahead of the start of the season, a new team in Haas and we welcome back Renault in their own right.

We wave goodbye to Will Stevens, Alexander Rossi, Roberto Merhi and Pastor Maldonado. We're certainly going to miss Pastor more than the crash barriers, who as we speak are breathing a huge sigh of relief.

So who's going to take Pastors mantle, lets start by taking a look at the new boys heading into this year:

Jolyon Palmer
Jolyon Palmer joins Renault with a year of testing with Lotus under his belt and as the 2014 GP2 champion. He's well prepared and we're expecting him to match up well to his team mate, but there still has to be a question about the grunt in those Renault engines.

Kevin Magnusson
Not a new boy at all, Kevin completed a full season in 2014 with McLaren and stood up pretty well against Jenson Button. In 2015 he had to settle for a test role as Fernando Alonso joined, so after a year on the side lines, expect him to be eager to impress.

Esteban Gutiérrez
Another returnee, Gutierrez raced for Sauber in both 2013 and 2014. Whilst he has experience, he never dazzled, expect consistent results, but nothing spectacular.

Pascal Wehrlein
Pascal is a Mercedes protégé, winner of the DTM last year he has pedigree. He will have his eyes firmly fixed on securing a seat in the works team in the future, so expect fireworks from the youngster in an improving team.

Rio Haryanto
Haryanto brings with him a substantial chunk of money providing him a fast track into . A three time race winner at GP2 and fourth overall in the championship last year, he should provide a solid wingman for Pascal Wehrlein.

No obvious candidates there, my money would be on Max "I can see a gap" Verstappen. However we hope he continues with his hugely entertaining Banzai approach, giving him our award for most entertaining driver last year.

Now that we all have a heads up on what has changed in the real world, lets take a look at the things that have changed in GP Gaffer. Well there are a couple of changes afoot...

After a successful first year there will be a few tweaks to the way the points are awarded, we've been looking to reward the drivers with a few more points. There are additional points for their race placements (top 10 in particular) and we will also be awarding a bonus point for every place they make up over their qualifying position. This will give those gambling on drivers further down the grid a real chance of scoring big. Check out the rules to see a full break down on points.

The points for chassis stay unchanged, but with engines we'll be rewarding reliability. If your cars finish you will get 5 points more than the chassis, but if your car is classified as a DNF (not finished) then your team will get no points for that car (the other will still score if it finishes).

Finally, we are looking to change how the hot lap setup works for drivers. Last year this only affected drivers qualifying in the top 10, as a result became redundant for a large part of the field. This year hot lap setup will give your driver 1.5 times qualifying and race points.

Race setup for your driver remains at 2 credits and applies to just the race, but remember your now getting all those extra points for drivers making up places. This could potentially give you the biggest score in the game.

So why not go on and start picking your team, it is and always will be free to play. Remember you can change your selections at no cost as many times as you like before the cut off for the Australian GP at 03:00 on 19th March

Have fun and good luck managers.