How much do cars improve over a season?

[billyblister]

Just wondering if anyone has looked up on this, but just how much (on average) do cars improve?
Excluding parts/ engines for next season if possible.
With Wurtz breaking all the records at the moment how do these time compare with Barcelona tests at the start of the season??

[Adam43]

It is an interesting point, but I fear one that is difficult to really pin down to an exact figure (from the outside).

The conditions at test tracks change a lot. Although I think conditions in teh winter can be favourable (cooler air). However there is nothing to say that the conditions can't be perfect at anytime of year.

Also do you want to consider the effect tyres have? They are probably the single part that effects performance the most. Maybe McClaren were testing some particular sticky tyres because they are suitable for Suzuka? Or these are development tyres that were very good?

If I had to guess I would say that cars get up to 1s quicker, but I base this on very little! Some comes from learning the car better, some from improvements and new parts.

Of course some teams have more opportunity to make big changes and make big imporvements (Jaguar?).

[shiny side up!]

Well, I don't have this info but I'm sure someone else will: How much faster was the 01 Ferrari at Melborne this year than it had been the year before? Not everyone develops at the same rate as Ferrari, but it might give us a rough idea...

[Adam43]

Hey, that's a good comparison. Although we still have conditions to factor in, but lets forget that!

2001:
qualifying
MS: 1.26"892
RB: 1'27"263
race
MS: 1h38'26"533
RB: 1h39'00"024

2002:
qualifying
MS:1'25"848
RB:1.25"843
race
MS: 1h35'36"792

So that's about 1s in qualifying. And 2m 50s in the race (how much did they back off?).

It's an indication, but...

[Jukebox]

If one were to observe the trend of most teams this year like Williams, Jaguar and BAR that had made considerable amount of changes to their cars this year (aerodynamic and setups) as to compare with Ferrari and McLaren which still maintains the original specs.

This shows of how competent their workforce is....i wonder what were they doing last year and throughout the winter season?

[BootsOntheSide]

Of course in Australia this year it was wet so the teams only got 2 dry weather runs in, but of course there were also 2002 parts on the Melbourne cars.

A second a lap still sounds about right, but how different would it be at Spa, Monaco, Monza or Suzuka? In other words, does the handling, grip, acceleration or 'grunt' improve the most? Ver difficult questions.

[steve_r]

When Sauber were new to F1 they started most seasons with a reasonably competitive car, and generally seemed to become less competitive throughout the season. I've heard people attribute this to a lack of devolpment throughout the season. This may give you some kind of idea of the speed of devolpment in F1.