What defines "a certain year's car"?

[NowyszRacing6]

I've been a little confused about how teams and the FIA define a certain "year" of car for a team. There area almost always rule changes for the next season, and i know that defines a lot of the car, but the teams always change/upgrade parts. So what I'm trying to figure out is, how much of the car are teams allowed to upgrade during the season vs building "next year's" car? Without going outside of the rules, couldn't teams technically show up to each race with a 100% different car than the previous race, therefore not (technically) racing the same car, and then the performance between teams would vary a lot more during the season? Or is it more like the carbon fiber tub itself has to be homologated for the year, and you can change most of the other parts? It just seems like so much of the competitiveness of a f1 team comes from getting the car right before the season starts, so I don't get why (with so many upgrades available) the order stays relatively close to that, and also how much is allowed to be changed? Is it just all down to the way teams develop from what they start with, or does a lot of the speed come from getting the homologated parts right from the start? hopefully this makes enough sense, let me know if i can clarify any of it

[beelsebob]

I've been a little confused about how teams and the FIA define a certain "year" of car for a team. There area almost always rule changes for the next season, and i know that defines a lot of the car, but the teams always change/upgrade parts. So what I'm trying to figure out is, how much of the car are teams allowed to upgrade during the season vs building "next year's" car? Without going outside of the rules, couldn't teams technically show up to each race with a 100% different car than the previous race, therefore not (technically) racing the same car, and then the performance between teams would vary a lot more during the season? Or is it more like the carbon fiber tub itself has to be homologated for the year, and you can change most of the other parts? It just seems like so much of the competitiveness of a f1 team comes from getting the car right before the season starts, so I don't get why (with so many upgrades available) the order stays relatively close to that, and also how much is allowed to be changed? Is it just all down to the way teams develop from what they start with, or does a lot of the speed come from getting the homologated parts right from the start? hopefully this makes enough sense, let me know if i can clarify any of it

The simple answer is that very little of the car is homologated – basically, the chassis, the gear selection, the engine and the engine control unit. The rest is pretty much freely changable by the teams all season. Even the chassis in fact, can be changed – it must simply be re-crash-tested before it can be raced.

[NowyszRacing6]

I thought a few more people might add some details on this...but you're saying the way the order doesn't shift a lot more from race is mostly down to how well teams evolve their package from the start of the season? Does anybody know how far teams have gone with changing parts during the season? If it's true you can change the whole chassis, has anybody done that before?

[Slife]

I thought a few more people might add some details on this...but you're saying the way the order doesn't shift a lot more from race is mostly down to how well teams evolve their package from the start of the season? Does anybody know how far teams have gone with changing parts during the season? If it's true you can change the whole chassis, has anybody done that before?

If you look at older seasons like in the 70s or 80s you can that the teams ran multiple different chassis throughout the year.

A more recent example in 2002 Ferrari used the 2001 car at the start of the season.

[raymondu999]

More recently, Marussia (nee Virgin) in 2010. They miscalculated the drag figures of F1 level aero and their fuel tank couldn't last a whole race.

[Raptor22]

the designations of the car are determined by the team not the FIA. the team can crashtest a chassis and still call it F2012 even if they intend to use it for 2013.

In teh modern era the redesignation is done mostly for marketing reasons as the sponsors can talk about the "New" F2013 and not a revised F2012.

traditionally, the engineer would call it a new car if he had to change the suspension, tub and floor. These days these revisions are happening on a race by race basis so the cars are evolving all the time.

IF a team has found a good package they tend to evolve it as far as tehy can, e.g Ferrari F199, F2000, F2001, F2002, F2003, F2004 F2005 adn Williams race cars from 1995 through to 1997, McLaren MP4/4 through MP4/5A and 5B.

In a lot of the above mentioned cases the carswere simply evolved versions of their predesessor.

[marcush.]

More recently, Marussia (nee Virgin) in 2010. They miscalculated the drag figures of F1 level aero and their fuel tank couldn't last a whole race.

c´mon .The issue was with the fuel density .Virgin had wrong information from Cosworth and used the wrong fuel specifications for their fuel tank size calcs as far as i understand.

Nevertheless it was completely rediculous to rework the cars as much as they did .Just money down the drain for what? I bet they have not gained anything by this apart from experience..

[raymondu999]

Aha. My bad. I knew the reason was along the lines of some miscalculation. But in the context of this thread the example stands though.

[marcush.]

of course it does.
RedBulls first own car -powered by Ferrari -had a terribly wrong layout of the cooling package .They had to cut huge holes into the sidepods already in winter testing to get some mileage .
I´d say not even Newey can be sure of not completely getting it wrong ...He certainly got it wrong most of the time with Leyton House..

[Raptor22]

hmmmm not so sure about that. At Leyton House he developed great aerodynamics to make up for a underpowered engine but lost out on Chassis stiffness due to lack of budget. It was either build a stiff slow car or a fast slippery one that could excell under the right conditions. France 1990 a case in point.