The methodology on use here is basically taking the single quickest lap (be it from FP, race, or quali) that a car completed across a race weekend and taking that as a car's limit, then comparing each to the fastest of each race weekend etc.
What some may find rather shocking is that in fact - the Ferrari was, on balance of the season, more competitive than the 2011 Ferrari. Couple that with more unreliability this year for Red Bull and McLaren compared to their 2011 reliability records - and you have the building blocks of Alonso's 2012 title campaign.
Team --- Average % deficit to fastest car (2012) --- Average % deficit to fastest car (2011) --- Change
McLaren --- 0.18 --- 0.5 --- -0.32
Red Bull --- 0.38 --- 0.01 --- +0.37
Lotus --- 0.68 --- 2.2 --- -1.52
Ferrari --- 0.75 --- 0.83 --- -0.08
Mercedes --- 0.87 --- 1.5 --- -0.63
Williams --- 0.96 --- 2.76 --- 1.8
Sauber --- 1.15 --- 2.75 --- -1.6
Force India --- 1.16 --- 2.51 --- -1.35
Toro Rosso --- 1.82 --- 3.06 --- -1.24
Caterham --- 3.49 --- 5.18 --- -1.69
Marussia --- 4.83 --- 6.85 --- -2.02
HRT --- 5.73 --- 7.86 --- -2.13
On season balance, the Red Bull was the only car that really became worse off, compared to last year. The rest of the field closed up.
Source: http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2012/12/03/2 ... rformance/
For obvious reasons - this data is more a reflection of quali than race pace.
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