I was looking at an old clip on YouTube of Schumacher qualifying in Monaco in 1996. He was doing laps around one minute 20 seconds, and looked to be absolutely flying. But this year he qualified around one minute 14 seconds. Was the track layout different back then? Was there a chicane or two in place somewhere that would cause lap times to be so far down compared to now? I can't believe that car technology alone has knocked 6 seconds off lap times in just 10 years, especially at such a confined and dangerous track.

The swimming pool and chicane have changed allowing the drivers to go faster. Its mainly the tyres whcih have meant the cars are much faster, the cars are regulated to much slower speeds but the money has meant they've basically stayed teh same or faster.

With a full load of fuel, he was turning mid 1:18's, so it's not that much faster if the 1996 clip was also at a full load of fuel. The fact that he turned a 1:15.1 on one of the final laps shows how much the added weight of fuel also makes, so the cars could just be lighter than 10 years ago.

With a full load of fuel, he was turning mid 1:18's, so it's not that much faster if the 1996 clip was also at a full load of fuel. The fact that he turned a 1:15.1 on one of the final laps shows how much the added weight of fuel also makes, so the cars could just be lighter than 10 years ago.

but they were allowed qualifying slicks and qualifying engines in 96; so that has got to be taken into account.

i'd say the gain is from tyres and aero.