The 2016 GP2 Series season was the fiftieth season of the second-tier of Formula One feeder championship and also twelfth and final season under the GP2 Series moniker, a motor racing feeder series that was run in support of the 2016 FIA Formula One World Championship. It was the final season run under the "GP2 Series" name, with the championship being rebranded as the FIA Formula 2 Championship from 2017. It was also originally scheduled to be the final season for the Dallara GP2/11 chassis that was introduced in 2011 and the Mecachrome 4.0 litre V8 normally-aspirated engine package that débuted in the maiden season of the series in 2005 before a brand new chassis and engine package was introduced for 2017, however due to another cost-cutting, the series announced it would keep the current chassis and engine package for one more season.

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.