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2017 will hopefully give Formula 1 the revival it needs. The year seems to be off to a good start as cars have gotten faster and regulations have gotten fewer thanks to the ousting of Bernie Ecclestone at the helm. Because of these changes, it seems like the series could return to the high-stakes action from the days of Schumacher or at least those of Lewis Hamilton’s early campaigns. It’s been said that this year’s cars will be able to enter a corner 25 MPH faster than those of last year, but that’s difficult to put into perspective. Let this video show you the big difference as it directly compares 2016 to today.
And it’s not as if the two drivers here vary greatly in skill. On the left hand side is Hamilton racing for Mercedes Petronas while the right side features Kimi Raikkonen in the 2017 Ferrari. You can see them racing around Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, the track that played host to F1 testing last week. Whereas Hamilton shows good pace, Raikkonen’s car is undoubtedly quicker — this is especially evident when you see the approach to a corner at the 00:28 second mark. Outright speed helped the Ferrari team to achieve big gains in lap times this year, allowing Raikkonen to set a lap record on the 10th of this month in Spain.
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It’s just the beginning for F1 in 2017, so this gets us plenty excited for upcoming races. As drivers get more accustomed to these faster machines, we expect to see quicker times and amped up action from years previous. Lewis Hamilton said back in February that this year’s car will be a “massive challenge”, reiterating just how much faster they are. It’ll be an interesting development to watch throughout the rest of the year.