F1 2017 season preview: What to expect, driver changes, schedule, and how to watch in United States

The 2017 Formula 1 season is just about here, and once again many believe Mercedes will be the dominant team. Their power unit has been far and away the best in the sport for consecutive seasons, though last year they were pushed at times by Ferrari and Red Bull Racing.

There have been major, sweeping changes around the sport — from several new changes in the driver lineup, to altered technical and sporting regulations, to a new ownership group for Formula 1 proper.

On top of all of that, last year’s winner of the Drivers’ Championship, Nico Rosberg, elected to retire and call it a career after narrowly defeating Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton for the honor. His retirement prompted a scramble by Mercedes to fill an empty seat.

An empty seat that was surely coveted. Mercedes knew early who it wanted, though, and managed to broker a deal that allowed it to poach Valtteri Bottas from Williams Martini Racing to fill the seat opposite Hamilton. Bottas is considered an up-and-comer in the sport, and he was to be the lead driver at Williams due to the retirement of long-time veteran Felipe Massa.

As part of the deal that allowed Bottas to go to Mercedes, Massa came right back out of retirement to regain his seat at Williams. Lance Stroll, the 2016 European Formula 3 champion, was already brought in to replace Massa, but now will race as his teammate for 2017.

Those are the changes for the top teams, with Ferrari and Red Bull led by drivers Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen for the former, and Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen for the latter. Ferrari has impressed big-time in preseason testing, with many thinking they will have a steady lead over Red Bull and might be able to push Mercedes.

McLaren Honda is a much different story. McLaren has been a top team in years past, but last year opted to go with Honda engines and it went ... poorly. It secured Fernando Alonso from Ferrari and added veteran Jenson Button to field the most-seasoned team on the grid, but the car was simply bad and they were never competitive.

Now Button is retired and Alonso, while committed to McLaren, is still faced with the potential of racing for a terrible team. McLaren’s issues with its Honda engines have not improved this offseason, and though it brought on young up-and-comer Stoffel Vandoorne to pair with Alonso, things are looking bleak.

McLaren has suffered mechanical failure after mechanical failure in preseason testing, and things are not at all looking like they might improve. It was reported in recent weeks that McLaren has met with Mercedes to discuss potentially acquiring its engines for use in the future.

Formula 1 has a new rule this season that gives engine manufacturers an “obligation to supply” to other teams unable to reach satisfactory agreements prior to the start of the season. It’s unclear if this rule would apply to Mercedes and McLaren, however.

Alonso still thinks McLaren can be competitive this season, but it’s less likely it’ll be racing Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull, and Williams, and more likely it’ll be mixing it up with the likes of Sauber, who in 2017 will use year-old Ferrari engines. It’s a similar situation that Toro Rosso was in last year, when it used 2015 Ferrari engines.

Fortunately, this year Toro Rosso will use Renault power units, after the TAG Heuer-branded Renaults in the Red Bulls performed better than expected last year. Toro Rosso could certainly be mixing it up with the top teams, with Carlos Sainz Jr. and Dany Kvyat returning as drivers.

For Kvyat, he’s likely just looking to put the past behind him. He was demoted by Red Bull in favor of Verstappen last season, which means he was sent down to Toro Rosso. It seemed like Kvyat just could not catch a break a season ago, and many feel an offseason of stability would do him some good.

The American-owned Haas F1 Team will continue in its second year of operation. Haas managed to get a few points last season right off the bat. Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutierrez were the drivers last season, but Haas made a move by signing Kevin Magnussen, formerly of Renault.

Gutierrez will not be part of the Formula 1 grid this season. Renault brought in Nico Hulkenberg to fill Magnussen’s spot. Hulkenberg thus vacated his spot with Force India, which was taken by Esteban Ocon, who left the now-defunct Manor Racing Team. Pascal Wehrlein, the other Manor driver, moved to Sauber, where he replaces Felipe Nasr.

There are various changes to the body requirements for the cars, which can be found in our big Formula 1 changes primer right here. The token system put in place to manage engine development — the one that most people believed was too complicated — has been done away with. Power units are now cheaper by a fair margin, and teams are now restricted to four power units per season, regardless of the number of Grands Prix.

In non-technical regulation changes, the grid penalty system has been revamped. Teams can no longer stockpile part changes and then unload them all in a single race, serving a massive grid penalty that did not transfer to the following race. Now teams will only be able to use one new component over their quota per race, with any additional components incurring further penalties.

Another regulation change alters the way races are started and resumed under extreme wet conditions. Previously, races would start under a safety car until they were deemed safe, at which point cars would begin racing as soon as the safety car went in, same as they would under a normal caution. Now, when the safety car pulls into the pit lane, the grid will line up for a standing start regardless of what lap they are on when the track is finally deemed safe.

Liberty Media purchased a minority stake in the sport in September 2016. Bernie Ecclestone, the longtime chief executive of Formula One Group, was ousted after 40 years in the role. The new ownership wants to adopt a business model similar to some of the major sports organizations in the United States, with teams being entitled to purchase a stake in the sport.

There has been a lot of restructuring behind the scenes, and actual changes to rules and regulations should be steadily coming in the next few years. The new ownership also has a goal of reducing overall cost to participate in the sport, something that has been a consistent issue for a long time.

Ecclestone has done a lot for the sport, more than perhaps anybody else in history, but over the last decade or so he has been repeatedly called out of touch and close-minded. It’s seemed for some time like a change was in order, and now that change has been made.

There will be 20 Grands Prix this year, with no German Grand Prix and the 2016 European Grand Prix being renamed the Azerbaijan Grand Prix for its second year at the Baku City Circuit. The only other notable change saw the Chinese and Bahrain Grands Prix swapping places on the schedule.

Coverage of Formula 1 in the United States is carried by NBC and its networks. The races can air at odd times due to the international nature of the sport, with some beginning as early as 1 a.m. ET, though many wind up starting at or around 8 a.m.

Television coverage will be carried by NBCSN, NBC, and CNBC throughout the season. A live stream of all races will be available via NBC Sports Live regardless of which NBC channel the race airs on. Some of those races will require login credentials from a cable or satellite provider.

Below is a full look at the races, their TV channels, and time. All times Eastern.

Live timing and other tracking measures can be found at the official Formula 1 website.