Prior to the 2017 season, the technical regulations were predicted to make cars faster, more spectacular and harder to drive. Needless to say, it has delivered on its promise of cutting lap times by around five seconds. Every track saw a marked improvement in pace this year. The Malaysian Grand Prix, in particular saw Lewis Hamilton’s pole position time was nine seconds faster than the 2015 edition. However, factors like weather, the time of year and track resurfacing must also be considered. For the upcoming season, speculation says that the 2018 F1 cars will shave off 2 more seconds per lap.

F1’s aero rules have aided in allowing the 2018 F1 cars to reach new limits over the years. But, the teams’ comprehension of the regulations is still relatively limited so there is scope for development. Official tire supplier Pirelli are confident about F1’s level of progress in the pace department.

Pirelli’s F1 racing manager Mario Isola said, “At the beginning of next year they should be quicker by one second per lap, and during a year the normal rate of development is 1 – 1.5 seconds. So by the end of next year they should be quicker by two seconds per lap. If we go softer with the tyres, the cars could be ever quicker. But we have to remember that there is an additional weight with the Halo, and that will cost about three to four tenths of a second, because of the weight plus aero implications.”

The FIA raised the minimum weight limit by 6kgs in 2018 taking into account that the Halo adds extra weight to the car. Teams discovered that the Halo mountings has added even more weight. The Force India team even quoted a figure of up to 14kgs. In F1 an extra 10kg of weight is equivalent to roughly 0.3 seconds of lap time, depending on the track layout. On the outside, 0.3 seconds is about as fast as a blink, but in F1 terms, 0.3 seconds is a huge margin.