F1 2016: six things you need to know about the Russian GP

After revealing their rival concept to Ferrari’s ‘halo’ head protection device yesterday, Red Bull have given the ‘Aeroscreen’ its maiden track run during the first practice session in Sochi.

Daniel Ricciardo completed an installation lap with the screen attached to his car in order to check for visibility restrictions whilst giving fans a taste of the overall design.

The Aussie driver had asked fans to be “open” to the idea of change, however world champion Lewis Hamilton said the screen looked like a “riot shield” and that he’d rather have the sort of closed cockpits found on fighter jets.

At the time of writing, 92 per cent of TG readers have said they prefer Red Bull’s design over the halo tested on the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen last month.

A decision on which design the sport should adopt will need to be made soon. Is this the future of F1?

As well as airing his views on the aeroscreen, Lewis Hamilton has admitted that he can’t afford any more bad weekends as he aims to close the gap to teammate Nico Rosberg at the top of the standings.

The German driver – who has won all of the last six F1 races, if you go back into last season – currently sits 36 points ahead of the world champion, just three races into 2016.

“I can't really afford to fall any further back than that,” said Hamilton when reminded of the gap as it stands. “Who knows how the weekend will go? It could be as bad as in the past, but I'm hoping it will be positive.”

After the last race in China – where Hamilton was forced to start from the back of the grid following an engine change – the 31-year-old had said he had no “more jokers available” and that he couldn’t afford any more slip-ups.

Fortunately for Hamilton, this year’s 21-race calendar is the longest in history, giving him plenty of time to mount a fightback.

Last week Daniel Ricciardo was challenged to a race by Felipe Massa’s six-year-old son Felipinho around the balcony of the Williams driver’s home in Monaco.

Sportingly Ricciardo accepted the offer, agreeing to a 10-lap sprint contest in a pair of drift karts with Massa Snr acting as race director.

The Aussie won the right to take the inside line, but was immediately overtaken at the start and couldn’t regain the lead before the finish.

As Massa posted a video of Ricciardo’s humiliation on his Facebook page, the Red Bull driver took to Instagram to say: “Dang it. Got beat. The little man taught me a thing or two. May see him in a bigger type of race car in years to come.”

At the last race in Shanghai, Sebastian Vettel was adamant that Daniel Kvyat was to blame for the incident which saw the two Ferraris collide on the first lap as company boss Sergio Marchionne watched on from the garage.

Both Vettel and Kvyat eventually made the podium, and the German took the opportunity to grill the young Russian in the drivers room before the ceremony, blaming him for the accident live on TV.

The Red Bull driver laughed off the accusation at the time, and since then it appears that Vettel has changed his tune.

“In the end it was a racing incident,” conceded the four-time world champion, adding: “Honestly, I'm surprised that two weeks after it's still a topic.”

F1 drivers have a long history of making adverts that contain examples of acting that we’d all rather forget.

Last year Jenson Button and Fernando Alonso took that record to a new with their abundantly terrible Back to the Racetrack ad, although Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen came close to surpassing it with a bizarre guide to Mexican culture a few months ago.

This week however, the McLaren pair have firmly reasserted themselves at the top of the no-future-in-Hollywood pile with a series of utterly hopeless efforts for Mobil 1.

The ads feature different legs of a 16,000-mile road trip that takes in Russia, the United States, Mexico, Dubai and Monaco, and include scripted banter and impressions of American accents.

If the FIA have any sense, ‘F1 drivers may not act for sponsors’ would be a good addition to next year’s regulations...

Teenage sensation Max Verstappen has said that he wants to challenge for podiums next year, and is mindful of the fact that he might have to switch teams in order to do so.

Last year the Toro Rosso rookie twice managed a best finish of fourth place, and has started 2016 with three point-scoring finishes from the three opening grands prix of the campaign.

Asked by Motorsport.com if he would need to leave his current team to move up the grid, the 18-year-old replied: “Well, maybe. You don't know. For me, the most important [thing] is to focus on this season.”

Next winter Red Bull will face some difficult decisions as they look to accommodate four talented drivers in their two-team line-up in 2017.

Toro Rosso drivers don’t usually stay longer than two years as Red Bull uses the sister team to introduce new talent into the sport, however team principal Franz Tost recently claimed that drivers needed three years of practice to fully get to grips with F1.

With some racing veterans approaching the end of their careers, the grid may look very different in a year or two...