With the SakhirGP expected to produced the fastest F1 lap times (sub 60s), lets take a look at historic trends in average F1 lap/track speeds. Included are also markers for regulation changes. Trends are also supported by legacy tracks: Silverstone & Monza
Plotted data compares season averaged winner & fastest lap times for all races in any specific season. Being aware of technical regs bringing about changes in F1, this information can also be used to possibly reason contributions to the trend
In the data for '98 and '08, the spikes in single race lap times are artifacts due to rain effected GPs Another factor effecting data is the track itself. Silverstone got longer by ~760m in 2010, this will also be baked into the jump seen in '09-10
Now takings a look at circuit evolution, we see that Monza has not been reprofiled since 2000 and is mostly like-for-like in this comparison. The following images indicate the changes seen in this time frame which would also be corelated in individual lap times
While Monza saw small changes, Silverstone had some very significant changes to the profile as spotted instantly in the images below. Using @racefansdotnet video as a reference, we see the difference from 1994 to 2020
A neat series of videos on Silverstone and some other changing tracks can be found on
racefansdotnet Youtube if interested
A season mostly of short circuits would result in a lower average laptime compared to a season with long circuits. Regardless of this, picking the fastest lap from each race every season would be representative of F1's general track preferences or direction with regulations
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