The first test day of 2017 is half-done and we have our first indication of how much quicker the new generation of F1 cars are.
The new, wider cars have been introduced with a goal of reducing lap times by five seconds. A key reference for this is the pole position time at the Spanish Grand Prix in 2015: 1’24.681 set by Nico Rosberg.
The chart below shows Mercedes are already 1.5 seconds quicker that time. However keep in mind they may have been able to use softer compound tyres than those which will be used for this year’s Spanish Grand Prix. For a potentially more accurate comparison between the cars’ 2017 and 2015 performance, their best times from testing that year have also been included.
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This chart also shows how quick each team is relative to its quickest pace at the Circuit de Catalunya in the race weekend and testing in 2015. So far Force India have made the most progress compared to their best qualifying time at the 2015 Spanish Grand Prix, lapping 4.3 seconds quicker.
But there’s a long way still to go in testing. And the real measure of whether F1 has hit its five second target won’t come until the Spanish Grand Prix itself.
Have they hit the ‘five seconds faster’ target?
How do their lap times compare to last year?
Here’s the same data for 12 months ago:
2017 F1 season
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- Williams revenues rose in 2017 after Bottas deal with Mercedes
- Australian Grand Prix cost government £56 million last year
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- Undisputed champion: 10 titles name Hamilton top driver of 2017
nase
27th February 2017, 12:11
Why 2015 and not 2016?
Joao (@johnmilk)
27th February 2017, 12:15
the new rules started to be formulated in 2015, the goal was to improve lap time while having the 2015 car’s performance as benchmark
nase
27th February 2017, 14:15
I see. Isn’t that a bit trivial, though, considering the significant improvement in 2016? After all, Mercedes already gained more than 2.5 seconds in Barcelona within the old regulations. They might’ve gained 5 seconds in the long run even without changing the rules …
My impression has always been that they wanted to achieve a massive improvement of the lap times that were possible with the old low aero rules without a fixed reference.
frood19 (@frood19)
27th February 2017, 14:53
the whole concept is trivial in my opinion. the only valid reasons for speeding up the cars are to make it physically harder on the drivers (this could have been achieved by all sorts of other means, such as banning power steering or tyre warmers) and to differentiate F1 from the lower formulae.
however, it seems churlish to make judgements on a season that hasn’t yet begun in earnest, so i’ll curtail my rant here.
Joao (@johnmilk)
27th February 2017, 15:40
if we take the decision of implementing the new rules solely based on the lap time alone it is (even though there is much more potential under the new rules, and this lap times are a short term result, one can only imagine what will they do once they converge to the limit of performance)
but F1 needed a change up front, and even though that might not happen, deep down that was the fundamental reason to do this shake up
it appeared that the cars were also too forgiving and did not demand enough of the drivers (some F1 rookies said during the past 3 years that the difference wasn’t that big from junior formulas), and giving back some of that ruthlessness to F1 might be appealing from a marketing standpoint, as it proves again to be the pinnacle of motosport
Sasquatsch
27th February 2017, 12:48
Since test conditions are different than race conditions isn’t it better to compare to the test times of 2015 (or 2016)?
KhanistanF1 (@khanistanf1)
27th February 2017, 13:54
mclaren is not in the table?
Javi
27th February 2017, 14:01
They didn’t set a time yet on 2017.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
27th February 2017, 14:09
@khanistanf1
McLaren failed to set a lap time in the morning session, so impossible to compare.
NeoGalaxy
27th February 2017, 13:59
McLaren has completed just 1 (one) lap, with no time set. Maybe later today?
MaddMe
27th February 2017, 14:22
Not looking good for Red Bull either, they’ve only managed 8 laps so far, compare to 62 and 77 from Ferrari and Mercedes…
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
27th February 2017, 15:37
I hope the power unit isn’t the reason for the delays or the lack of pace.
AceAce
27th February 2017, 16:03
Seems The Red Bull chassis is not impressing people either. But hey, who knows. Ferrari and Merc are looking real good.
Jeffrey (@jeffreyj)
27th February 2017, 14:59
Mercedes well over a 100 laps, Hamilton comforably setting the fasted time so far. On softs HAM is already quicker than his pole lap last year….
Merc looking extremely reliable again and very quick.
kpcart
27th February 2017, 16:05
vettel .1 second beind in Ferrari on mediums
AceAce
27th February 2017, 16:07
Yep very impressive session from Ferrari.
Armchair Expert (@foreverred)
27th February 2017, 16:46
Ferrari showing their hand already, it seems?
camilli1980
27th February 2017, 16:52
Why are they showing there hands? They didn’t set a time on the quicker tyres
DaveW (@dmw)
27th February 2017, 15:25
This track is basically going to be a like a flat oval with an infield section with the new cars, like Phoenix. I’m interested to see if Silverstone is going to be flat or flattish from Luffield to Stowe.
nase
27th February 2017, 16:49
@dmw:
Erm, no, and no. The cornering speeds are going to be impressive, but I think you’re exaggerating the gains by a factor of 2 or 3.
Rick (@)
27th February 2017, 19:28
I have commented this on another article, you can’t just compare race weekends to test days and “the best time from all 8 test days” to the time after 1 day of testing. You should compare Apples with Apples, which is a 2016 vs. 2017 comparison of the lap time after the first day of testing in both years. This leads to the following results today:
Mercedes: 3.644 seconds faster
Ferrari: 3,061 seconds faster
Williams: 4,015 seconds faster
Haas: 5,505 seconds faster
Red Bull: 3,118 seconds faster
Force India: 2,589 seconds faster
Toro Rosso: 2,686 seconds faster
Renault: 4,573 seconds faster
McLaren: 1,883 seconds faster
Sauber: 0,714 seconds faster
Don’t forget that during the 2016 test days the fastest time went down by 2,2 seconds. That’s the difference you’re neglecting in this article. And this goes for each year, albeit in slightly different numbers of course. I expect the fastest time after day 8 in 2017 to be about 2,5 to 3 seconds faster compared to today.
stefano (@alfa145)
27th February 2017, 20:30
good job, I was expecting this from the article
+1
Micheal (@shakengandulf)
28th February 2017, 6:37
Found this more useful.. thanks.
Jerejj
28th February 2017, 6:01
1:21.791 is quite slow lap time considering the potential of these cars. I know they possibly didn’t use their full potential to achieve the best possible time yet, but regardless, I was expecting the fastest time to be a 1m19.something or 1m20.something on the first day already.