Aus GP: Lap times 2004/05 comparison.

[Adam43]

So what difference have the regs made? lets look at the Friday practice times for each year.

	        2004	         2005	        Difference	
Fastest lap	1:24.718	 1:25.376	+0.658
Average lap	1:27.107	 1:27.090 	-0.017
				
Ave of Ferrari	1:24.772	 1:26.360	+1.588
				
Räikkönen	1:26.579	 1:25.676	10.903
Schumacher	1:24.718	 1:26.081	+1.363
Massa	        1:26.969	 1:26.357	-0.612
Alonso	        1:25.853	 1:26.562	+0.709
Button	        1:25.786	 1:26.611	+0.825
Barrichello	1:24.826	 1:26.639	+1.813
Klien	        1:27.724	 1:27.544	-0.180
Sato	        1:26.967	 1:27.891	+0.924
				
Ave of combo	1:26.178	 1:26.670	+0.492

The drivers highlighted are ones that are racing for the same team in '04 and '05 (Jag=RBR). The average of these combos are also shown.

Overall average shows a slight drop, but this is expected as there was no Ferrari and a completely diffferent set of 3rd drivers.

In rough figures the cars are half a second slower than in 2004. Not much I hear you cry. True. However consider the comparison between '03 and '04 shows a huge improvement:
2003 2004 Difference

Fastest lap   1:26.509    1:24.718     -1.791
Ave lap        1:28.405    1:23.478     -4.927
Ferrari ave    1:27.563   1:24.772      -2.791

So instead of seeing a couple of seconds improvement we have seen a half second drop.

Will this trend continue into the race and qualifying. I guess it will be even more marked when we reach these situations, due to the tyres. In Q they may not try as much. In the race you only get one go at new tyres, and one go at light fuel and only (approx) 15 lap old tyres.

[Inigo Montoya]

I agree with you Adam. I think they'll be "saving their tyres" to a certain extent during Qualy's... Similarly, I suspect the laps in the race will be slower with respect to last year, not due to lack of downforce, but due to people looking after their tyres...

[ralf fan]

Last year we talked about slower lap times because teams would want to preserve their engines........they wound up doing times alomost 2 secs better than 03.... so you never know do you...

[shiny side up!]

What was the difference in practice times between Fri and Sat in 2004? If the circuit is really dirty on Friday, the cars are going to be pretty unsettled regardless of aero or mechanical grip changes due to the rules. I would think as the track gets faster, the difference between 04 times and 05 times will get larger.



OK, re-reading that, did I get my point accross? The dirty track is kind of an equilizer between 2004 spec and 2005 spec much in the same way a wet race is an equalizer between strong teams and weak teams. Or maybe not, just a thought!

[Adam43]

Michael was fastest in 2004 on Friday and Saturday. He was actually 0.3s slower on Sat! However others did go faster. By the end of Friday I think most people have settled into it, as has the track. There is little in it, the big difference being what programs people are running, I guess.

Looking at the average times of those who ran on Friday and Saturday in 2004 and looking at the second session on each day then the Saturday session was actually 0.004s slower.

I can't remember the tyre situation then. On Friday everyone runs both the harder and softer compounds, but no doubt on Saturday some have settle for the harder compound.

[Peter Mallett]

Originally Posted by shiny side up!

What was the difference in practice times between Fri and Sat in 2004? If the circuit is really dirty on Friday, the cars are going to be pretty unsettled regardless of aero or mechanical grip changes due to the rules. I would think as the track gets faster, the difference between 04 times and 05 times will get larger.

Dunno about that but the pole time last year if it was based on the two runs averaged was 1:25.168. Are we getting near that?

[shiny side up!]

Yes, I guess my thought was kind of half-baked, eh? In the end, the fact that tires must be managed through 2 qualifying heat cycles as well as an entire race is probably going to have the biggest impact on times between 04 and 05.

[Kicking-back]

While there may not be much difference on qualifying pace, average race pace is likely to be a bit slower this year than last, I believe.

[Adam43]

The fastest lap showed a bigger loss than the 0.5s we saw in Friday practice:

It's quite interesting to see how it has changed through the years, with the rule changes. Of course each race is in different conditions.