my first post on this site, just wanted to share something in my opinion pretty interesting.
I created the following chart out of pure boredom; it displays the fastest laps driven in races from 1994 to today:
Now you may be thinking "Well, just some data, nothing interesting here". And you'd be right. But the reason why I created this chart is that i wanted to see, how much faster or slower F1 cars got over the years. But how can I draw any conclusions out of the data, if tracks keep changing and therefore pure lap times don't tell you the whole story?
Well, let me explain:
First, I took every F1 track that held a race since 1994 and made separate columns for each variation of that track.
I then took the average lap time for the track and multiplied it by 107%; every lap time over that limit was excluded from the results, because those point of date would have flawed the whole statistic. Those excluded results are marked red.
Right to the list of tracks you find 19 boxes, each of which spans over two seasons. The left column in those boxes show the average lap time for the two seasons it is linked to; and here is the whole clue of the chart:
To compare two seasons, only tracks were included where they drove in both seasons without any alteration to that track (red lap times over 107% were excluded, so if e.g. Brazil 2003 is red, Brazil nor was included to determine the difference from 2002 - 2003, neither from 2003 - 2004).
The yellow box on the far right shows the speed in total.
For better visualization, I also put the data from the yellow box in a graph:
Conclusions:
- From 1998 to 2004 with relatively stable regulations the lap times dropped consistently.
- The cutbacks in aero-regulations in 2005 and the introduction of the V8s in 2006 slowed cars down reasonably.
- From 2006 - 2008 with stable regulations team clawed back some pace.
- The big change in 2009 set cars back to the pace of 2006.
- The ban of refueling in the race, ban of the DDD, and ban of exhaust blown diffusors slowed cars from 2010 - 2012.
- In 2013, stable regulations led to faster cars again. 2013 is almost back on the levels of 2011 again.
Q: But what about wet-races?!
A: Since there are different level of wet-races, it would have been way too much work to include that factor. I worked from the assumption that the amount of wet-races in each season more or less balance each other out. Only "monsoon-races", where the lap times are nowhere near the pace of the cars, were excluded due to the 107% rule.
Q: Why didn't you take quali laps? Fastest laps in the race aren't always flat out since drivers drive more cautious, have older tires etc at the end of the race when the cars are on low fuel!
A: Yes, but the fact that before 2010 quali-pace was heavily influenced by race-fuel and in 2011/12 by unlimited DRS, race-pace is much better for comparisons in my opinion.
If you see any flaws in the chart, or have any suggestions, please feel free to tell me.
PS: English is not my first language. So please don't wonder if i made any typos.
