F1 Fanatic

make that last 25 years, I really wanna include the dominant McLarens of the late 80′s

List of the cars I thought were the best. I didn’t necessarily support the team or their drivers, but these cars were definitely a force to be reckoned with in their respective years..
1. 1997 Williams
2. 2004 Ferrari
3. 2009 Brawn
4. RB7 Red Bull
5. R25 Renault
6. 1998 Mclaren
7. 1996 Williams
8. RB6 Red Bull
9. 1995 Benetton
10. 1993 Williams

Most dominant cars of the past 20 years:

1. 1992 Williams
2. 2004 Ferrari
3. 1996 Williams
4. 2011 Red Bull
5. 2002 Ferrari
6. 1993 Williams
7. 1998 Mclaren
8. 2009 Brawn GP
9. 2010 Red Bull
10. 1997 Williams

Williams has 4 out of the top 10, Ferrari and Red Bull have 2 each, Brawn and Mclaren have 1.

here’s the video:

Quite a few people have suggested Red Bull’s 2011 car (RB7). However I would argue that the RB6 from last year deserved a place on the list more than its successor.

For the first third (-ish) of the 2010 season, Red Bull blew everyone else totally out of the water. Sure it wasn’t the most reliable car on the grid, and neither did they keep up development towards the end of the season as much as they should have (similar to Brawn in ’09); but in terms of raw speed, I think it trumps the RB7.

The RB7 is clearly a very strong package, but also remember than Ferrari and McLaren have produced particularly weak cars for 2011. Of course that doesn’t detract from Red Bull’s success, however I am merely pointing out that in terms of raw speed and performance, the RB6 was the faster car.

Let’s see… in chronological order:
1987: Williams FW11B. 1-2 in the drivers championship, almost double the points of McLaren in the constructors standings.
1988: McLaren MP4/4. Won every race except Monza, and that was due to a stupid and unfortunate accident.
1991/1992/1993: Williams FW14, FW14B, FW15C. Okay, this is three different cars, but it’s basically the same model. If I have to choose one, it’s the ’92 FW14B: the fastest and most dominant car in the early 90s. Senna won the championship in ’91 due to numerous retirements by Mansell, but in ’92 Williams was unbeatable. in ’93 not so much, as other teams finally caught up with the technical expertise of Williams.
1995: Benetton B195. After San Marino, it looked like Hill would take the title. But Schumacher and Benetton turned it around, and duly took both the titles.
1999: McLaren MP4/14. I always considered this to be the fastest of the late 90′s McLarens. Sure, in 1998 The MP4/13 won the opening race in Melbourne by a lap, but in 1999, it was only by Häkkinen’s misfortunes that others could challenge him.
2002: Ferrari F2002. The car that caused some massive rule changes to be made. That’s what I call dominance.
2004: Ferrari F2004. Best car for most of the season, but slipped away in the end once the titles were wrapped up.
2005: McLaren MP4-20. Based purely on speed, this car usually destroyed the Renaults – before developing some mechanical gremlin (Kimi) or crashing out (JPM).
2009: Brawn BGP 001. The ultimate double diffuser car.
2011: Red Bull RB7. The quickest car for almost the entire season. Not by much, but a small margin is enough.

And a honourable mention goes to the 2007 McFerrari spygate car :P

December 1st Autosport mag had a feature charting 22 years of Interlagos fastest F1 times – the track hasn’t changed much so it allowed them to make a fair comparison of how cars evolve and gain back time from rule changes.

The lap record of Interlagos Grand prix weekend in each respective year

1992 lap record – 1m15.703s
2004 lap record – 1m10.646s
2006 lap record – 1m10.313s
2011 lap record – 1m11.918s