We know over the course of the Formula One season the cars become quicker due to innovation and development which ends up becoming upgrades on the cars. We have seen this happen every season and if you do not improve your car you end up going backwards.
This stat above is rather telling as Red Bull started out this season on March 2nd with the fastest car. 204 days later the Red Bull racing team have managed to lose 0.26s per lap. Actually only 4 teams out of 10 have improved their car and the other 6 are not sure what they are doing.
This weekend their was an FIA ruling which forced the Red Bull team to change their car. They have a device in the drivers cock pit that can change the ride height of the flooring which is illegal. This helps the downforce because the right height is so important and could easily add an extra few tenths of a second and would cover up any mistakes when setting up the car.
The 3 practice sessions before the race weekend are all about teams getting their car race height correct and once that has been completed the car goes into a state called parc ferme which means you cannot make any other changes. Red Bull being able to adjust the ride height once in parc ferme is cheating and people wont come out and say it, but there is no other explanation.
Where the real benefit takes place is during qualifying because the car could ride far lower creating more down force and then rising the ride height for the race. There is a plank of wood underneath the car and if there is to much wear then the car would be disqualified so raising the ride height back up after having the car very low is manipulating the rules and is illegal. Having the car at the same ride height that they qualified at would have resulted in disqualification due to excessive wear on the wood.
McLaren now leading the constructors championship is no surprise considering they have found an extra 0.32s per lap o over a 60 lap race that would equate to around 19 seconds quicker than ay other car. The swing between Red Bull and McLaren is a whopping 0.58s per lap and why the domination era they once had has completely vanished.
Red Bull having lost their lead constructor engineer in Adrian Newey back in March has highlighted they were a one man team because ever since he left they have gone backwards. The time line fits in perfectly with the teams demise and why this season has been one of going backwards. Red Bull stated that they wee not a one man team and that Newey leaving was irrelevant and that has since been proven that this was not the case.
Mercedes have added an extra 0.1s per lap over the course of the season and would say that this is what would be expected as a minimum target by all teams. Aston Martin as been the worst performer this season having lost 0.48s per lap, but they have Newey arriving for next season so there is no urgency on their part.
I find it amazing how teams once they reach the pinnacle and are dominating the sport somehow self destruct through their own arrogance and poor decisions. Red Bull should still be way out in front if they had offered Newey shares in the team and had admitted his importance to the team instead of down playing that he was just another member of the team. His new salary at Aston Martin reflects that he is the most influential individual in Formula One because he knows what it takes to design a winning car.