The 2016 FIA Formula One World Championship was the 70th season of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA)'s Formula One motor racing. It featured the 67th Formula One World Championship, a motor racing championship for Formula One cars which is recognised by the sport's governing body, the FIA, as the highest class of competition for open-wheel racing cars. Teams and drivers took part in twenty-one Grands Prix—making for the longest season in the sport's history to that point—starting in Australia on 20 March and finishing in Abu Dhabi on 27 November as they competed for the World Drivers' and World Constructors' championships.

Formula One, commonly known as Formula 1 or F1, is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The FIA Formula One World Championship has been one of the world's premier forms of racing since its inaugural running in 1950. The word formula in the name refers to the set of rules all participants' cars must follow. A Formula One season consists of a series of races, known as Grands Prix. Grands Prix take place in multiple countries and continents on either purpose-built circuits or closed public roads.