As we all know there have been a few changes to the cars and rules this year; narrower front tyres (reduced from 270mm to 245mm), minimum car weight increased to 620kg, longer wheelbase to accommodate larger fuel tanks, no refuelling so cars start the race with a full fuel load, etc.
All the while the engineers are trying to claw back the time lost by the rules which the FIA introduce to slow the cars down.
I thought therefore it would be interesting to do a comparison of fastest lap times for all sessions between 2010 and 2009.
This is by no means scientific or definitive and is based purely on the overall fastest lap time rather than an average or one specific team or driver.
Bahrain of course we can't compare due to the change in track layout.
Malaysia qualifying can't be compared either due to the different weather conditions, likewise with the China race.
The other circuits however throw up some interesting results.
In most cases, practice and qualifying times are quicker in 2010 than in 2009 so despite the narrower tyres and longer wheelbases the cars are faster.
The race fastest laps are, in general, around half a second down on 2009 so it will be interesting to see if the teams can reduce this over the course of the season or whether the pace of development will match 2009 and the gap will remain fairly constant.
The following table lists all the times.
Entries in green denote the faster time from the alternate year for each session.
The 2 end columns (FL & Year) denote the overall circuit fastest lap and the year it was set.
[Click for larger version]
All the while the engineers are trying to claw back the time lost by the rules which the FIA introduce to slow the cars down.
I thought therefore it would be interesting to do a comparison of fastest lap times for all sessions between 2010 and 2009.
This is by no means scientific or definitive and is based purely on the overall fastest lap time rather than an average or one specific team or driver.
Bahrain of course we can't compare due to the change in track layout.
Malaysia qualifying can't be compared either due to the different weather conditions, likewise with the China race.
The other circuits however throw up some interesting results.
In most cases, practice and qualifying times are quicker in 2010 than in 2009 so despite the narrower tyres and longer wheelbases the cars are faster.
The race fastest laps are, in general, around half a second down on 2009 so it will be interesting to see if the teams can reduce this over the course of the season or whether the pace of development will match 2009 and the gap will remain fairly constant.
The following table lists all the times.
Entries in green denote the faster time from the alternate year for each session.
The 2 end columns (FL & Year) denote the overall circuit fastest lap and the year it was set.
[Click for larger version]
