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

What changes are the regulations – usually the extent to which it happens is small, but every so often there is a big change. When Mercedes fell from 1st to 4th, that was in the year when the whole concept behind the racecars changed, and Mercedes still never figured out the current concept properly. On the other hand, Adrian Newey got his Phd. in ground effect, so he was able to leverage these new regulations in Red Bull’s favor.

But even small changes can have big effects. In 2021, there was a technically minor change to floor regulations, but it affected low-rake and high-rake cars disproportionally. Also, the development of the new car doesn’t happen just during the season break, but starts like a year ahead.

You will also have miscellaneous things like the talent pool of engineers, driver’s form, luck etc., but strictly on the car performance side exploiting the regulations to the largest legal extent is the name of the game.