1996 Formula One season

The 1996 Formula One season was the 47th season of FIA Formula One motor racing. It featured the 1996 FIA Formula One World Championship, which commenced on March 10, 1996, and ended on October 13 after sixteen races. Two World Championship titles were awarded, one for Drivers and one for Constructors.

Damon Hill won the Drivers Championship two years after being beaten by a point by Michael Schumacher, making him the only son of a World Champion to have won the title. Hill, who had finished runner-up for the past two seasons, was seriously threatened only by his teammate, newcomer Jacques Villeneuve. Williams Renault easily won the Constructors title, as there was no other competitor strong enough to post a consistent challenge throughout the championship. This was also the beginning of the end of Williams' 1990s dominance, as it was announced that Hill and designer Adrian Newey would depart at the conclusion of the season, with engine manufacturer Renault also leaving after 1997.

Two-time defending drivers' title holder Schumacher had moved to Ferrari and despite numerous reliability problems, they had gradually developed into a front-running team by the end of the season. Defending Constructors champions Benetton Renault began their decline towards the middle of the grid, having lost key personnel due to Schumacher's departure, and failed to win a race. Olivier Panis took the only victory of his career at the Monaco Grand Prix.

Teams and Drivers
The following teams and drivers competed in the 1996 FIA Formula One World Championship.

Forti Grand Prix were declared bankrupt after the British Grand Prix and took no further part in the championship.

Rule changes
The race weekend schedule was changed for the 1996 season compared to the 1995 season. The number of free practice sessions was increased from the two to three with the number of laps allocated for each day increased from 23 to 30. Also, to increase the spectacle, the Friday qualifying session was dropped, with the FIA World Motor Sport Council opting to have only one qualifying session, held on Saturday afternoon.

The old system of having a red and green light to start the race was replaced by the current system of five red lights coming on individually and then all going out to start the race.

This year saw the introduction of the '107% rule', which meant all cars had to be within 107% of the pole position time in order to qualify for the race.

A new numbering system for cars was adopted for 1996 and remains in place as of 2011. Previously the reigning Drivers Champion's team had simply swapped car numbers with the previous Drivers Champion’s team to carry numbers 1 and 2, with all other teams retaining their existing numbers. For 1996 the reigning Drivers Champion was given number 1 and his team-mate number 2 with the rest of the teams numbered in the order of their finishing position in the previous year's Constructors' Championship. Any new teams were allocated the following numbers.

Drivers Championship
$†$ Drivers did not finish the Grand Prix, but were classified as they completed over 90% of the race distance.

Drivers Championship points were awarded on a 10-6-4-3-2-1 basis to the top six finishers in each race.

Constructors Championship
Constructors Championship points were awarded on a 10-6-4-3-2-1 basis to the top six finishers in each race.