Quote:
Originally Posted by Reg
I find this hard to believe. Surely the 2023 Ferrari car would qualify for races in 2024. Isn’t it more of an evolution for a few years once the regulations are set per agreement?
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I know it's incredible, but yes, they build a new car every year that incorporates what their engineers learned over the course of the previous year. Not just on track, but back home in their offices and shops as well. It's an unrelenting process.
Even a given year's car is developed over the course of the year, with upgrades allowed at specified times to be applied as the season progresses. The top teams will find several seconds per lap over the course of a season, maybe as much as four to five seconds. That is the difference between pole and not qualifying. And that is just through what they are applying as upgrades during the season, the changes made on next year's car put it even further ahead.
The FIA endeavors to reduce pace at the beginning of each season, through regulations changes, to a desired target lap time. They do this throughout all forms of racing under their authority. They have determined that each kind of car, from GT3 class cars to F1 cars, are only "safe" to race at a certain pace. Beyond that begins to exceed a given platform's, and its drivers, ability to react sufficiently on track. It's a fascinating game they play, now having decades of data regarding all of this. A real "cat and mouse" game, wherein the teams seek pace and the FIA seeks to keep a lid on it.