FORUMula1.com - F1 Forum

[CodenameKangaroo]

Hey there,

Just found this forum through a little search as I have a question regarding the F1 cars in the current season.

How big are the actual differences in terms of technology and raw speed on the cars in the current season? Take the HRT and Virgin cars, which are mostly always at the bottom of the tables several seconds slower than the top. I assume those cars are just slower as a result of limited development funding etc. ? Or is just the drivers that doesn't drive properly enough? I guess they should be competent enough to follow the optimal drive line for the tracks though

Thanks in advance, and if there has been a similar topic already, please redirect me. I couldn't find it by the search function.

[thechainrule]

They are brand new teams, it will take them time to reach the competitive level of the guys that have been around forever. Red Bull and Force india used to be in the their position, now look where they are. The Virign car was designed exclusively using CAD/CFD its actually pretty remarkable how fast its becoming with such little development and little funding. Actually its even more remarkable how close all of the cars are considering, the rule book, for all intents and purposes, is a blank canvas ; there is no one way to skin a cat and certainly no one way to build a f1 car.

[scotty]

Hey there,

Just found this forum through a little search as I have a question regarding the F1 cars in the current season.

How big are the actual differences in terms of technology and raw speed on the cars in the current season?

Well, they are essentially months behind the established teams in terms of aero development, because they would have been designing cars from scratch rather than refining their '09 cars like the existing teams were. If you look at something like the double diffuser for example, there is no way that could be as optimised if you were designing your car from scratch... does that make sense?

Take the HRT and Virgin cars, which are mostly always at the bottom of the tables several seconds slower than the top. I assume those cars are just slower as a result of limited development funding etc. ?

Well, HRT have not had one single upgrade all season because they essentially purchased their chassis from Dallara, who then kind of left them in the lurch when they pulled out. For the other teams, resources is partly to do with it - but their original cars were just so slow they've been on the back foot since day 1, and also to put it bluntly, you can only polish a turd so much!

Or is just the drivers that doesn't drive properly enough? I guess they should be competent enough to follow the optimal drive line for the tracks though

Excluding Yamamoto you can see that they are all competent drivers from their track records... e.g. Glock is a GP2 champ and has made plenty of great showings in F1 and the Lotus guys have both won races in F1!