ELI5- Why the same Formula 1 team can have such a different performance on its cars year-to-year?

Question

Using Mercedes as an example. Going from 1 to 4 or down the ladder. Shouldn’t its own car performance be AT LEAST as good as previous years?

What changes year to year that the data they have or previous winning cars cant be used?

Thanks 🙂

In: Engineering

Answer 1

You’re completely ignoring what the other teams are doing. Your question is essentially “if Mercedes is first last year why aren’t they first this year?”

If Mercedes was really good last year, but didn’t upgrade their car well while 4 other teams did, the Mercedes car didn’t get “worse” in a vacuum but every one of their competitors got better and passed them.