2005 development, and development in general

[SetikX]

First, Ferrari ceased development of their 2004 car, about 6 races from the end of 2004 (if I am correct in recollection) - yet I hear that they are going to be running the revised 04 car early in the 05 season? Why then did they cease development on the 04 car so early, if they are now deciding to run it in 05?

The question is, ferrari is undoubtedly the best resourced formula one team on the grid at this present time, yet, 6 races from the end of 2004 season, they ceased evolution on that car, and started their 05 car? What reason do they have of not being ready? Not being able to produce a new car?

Now I respect the right of teams to produce a new car whenever they feel they are ready, but I would of thought that ferrari would of had heaps of time to have their car ready for March.

Also, an addon question here.

Every year - despite regulation changes, teams manage to shave 2 seconds off previous years lap times; infact, some teams even tweak two seconds out of revised old model cars. If this kind of tweaking is capable in the 14 week offseason, why is it not possible, or, why dont we see such developments in the 'on' season.

[Glen]

You do see a big advance during the racing season - typically t least two seconds. Part of the big difference in Brazil lap times between 2003 and 2004 was due to the race being moved to the end of the season, hence the difference was one full year, plus nearly a whole racing season of advancement.

I'm sure Ferrari know what they are doing. They stopped developing the F2004 for use in 2004, but that doesn't mean they stopped work on adapting that car to 2005 regulations. Also - this year Sauber will start the season with Ferrari's 2005 engine - they will be using the new engine before Ferrari themselves do, which should give a four race opportunity to assess the reliability before they actually risk racing with it. And then there's the "something very clever" angle that Frank Williams is so worried about - starting the season so late, despite the big changes in regulations, might be a signal that Ferrari are taking time to develop some fiendish secret weapon with which to take over the world. Or something.

[Red]

Their decission of running the old car has nothing, absolutely nothing to do with new car not being ready or not able to produce a new one!!! It's more like 'why bother!? our oldie still does the trick quite nicely thank you'!!

[Super Tourer]

Originally Posted by SetikX

First, Ferrari ceased development of their 2004 car, about 6 races from the end of 2004 (if I am correct in recollection) - yet I hear that they are going to be running the revised 04 car early in the 05 season? Why then did they cease development on the 04 car so early, if they are now deciding to run it in 05?

The question is, ferrari is undoubtedly the best resourced formula one team on the grid at this present time, yet, 6 races from the end of 2004 season, they ceased evolution on that car, and started their 05 car? What reason do they have of not being ready? Not being able to produce a new car?

Now I respect the right of teams to produce a new car whenever they feel they are ready, but I would of thought that ferrari would of had heaps of time to have their car ready for March.

Also, an addon question here.

Every year - despite regulation changes, teams manage to shave 2 seconds off previous years lap times; infact, some teams even tweak two seconds out of revised old model cars. If this kind of tweaking is capable in the 14 week offseason, why is it not possible, or, why dont we see such developments in the 'on' season.

The Ferrari 2004B will be run to different regulations than the original 2004 car, they ceased development at that time as they felt they had sufficent performance to carry them through to the end of the season. Over the winter break the 2004B has been developed and Schumacher will get a run in it at Barcelona next week.

Ferrari have often started the season with a development of their previous car. It's not a case of lack of readiness, it's about making the new car as good as it can be. By entering it later they have more testing time, more wind tunnel time and get to see exactly where the competition are with their car and any innovations they have.

Jean Todt on when the new car will run.(from www.autosport.com)

Ferrari sporting director Jean Todt said: “We are going to start the championship with the F2004B to a specification which takes into account the new regulations and today our programme expects us to do the first four grands prix with the 2004 car.

“Why four? Well, simply considering the new rules, one power unit for two grands prix and we want to do two sequences of two grands prix and then we will start from Spain with the new car.”

On your other point, the lead time on new cars is much longer than the off season. Mike Gascoyne, for example, runs a rolling programme whereby two design teams work - one on the current car and one on the next car - so the 2006 Toyota is already being designed.

Cars are developed on an on-going basis during the season, but the gains are more incremental. Much of the recent fall in lap times has been due to tyres, which is clearly shown by Minardi who slashed their lap times in 2004 with a barely developed car and certainly one with much more 'basic' aero than the leading teams.

This year however we should see speeds increase during the year. The 2005 regs have cut aero back, particularly the diffuser - this was initally expected to peg the cars back to 2002 lap times, but early signs are that it may not be as much as that, and improvements are bound to come as the cars are developed from the 2005 regs baseline.

[RWC]

it is an apparently odd decision to use a non develloped car-
I think it had a huge amount to do with the '05 regulations not being decided 'till so late.They pretty much had little choice?
...But then again other teams are starting with a new car from race one..


In the end i guess one has to admit that they must think the old car IS sufficiently develloped or they wouldn't be doing it.Of course they have made slight errors of judgement on this issue before-was it the first year they did this ? 2003 maybe?
they found they were abit too slow and really wanted that new car as soon as possible.They had one for shu in time for interlagos

[neil_davidson2]

If they can keep an uprated 2004 car competitive with as little effort as possible then it allows them to concentrate on getting the 2006 car ready with the far greater technical changes that are required for that season.

[Rich R]

the way i see it, ferrari may lose a bit in the early races, but they have a couple of months more development on the other teams, so when the new car does come out it should be miles faster than what everyone else has(tyres permitting). they can observe what works and doesn't work on the others cars, and although they won't have time to make huge changes to the car, they can modify to suit.