Research is definitely ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

[Christian]

season 2026: after developing intensively the car, I ended winning the constructor championship and being the best car on the grid. In the second part of the season, I spent a lot of millions in research, with 2 or 3 projects by part.
season 2027: my car is a ruin. 21th or 22th in all the areas. Ok, I develop quickly 4 parts, I arrive to the first GP. Rank of the car: 19th. Oh yeah, I'm happy.

How can I go from 1st car to 20th car, having done significant research?

I give up this game. I lost confidence in the AI coherence.

[High Ground]

That's because you didn't have the best car in the previous season.
The AI is griefing hardcore because it's bugged and not making certain parts, resulting in running some races without said part.
It means that their midseason upgrades on some parts don't "register" because they don't build them and they run with a massive disadvantage when they don't have XX-1 models anymore.
Beginning of the season updates part stats and "forces" them to manufacture again, yielding them a massive stats boost.

Also, did you put ATR hours into your research ? How did you use research sliders ?

[Christian]

Thanks for your answer.
Yes I put ATR hours in most of research. Sliders: I tried to focus on the major impact of each part (front wing: DRS, speed max, etc...)

[AoD_lexandro]

There is something going on with season resets. Ferrari won the 24 champion ship and went backwards the next year. Mclaren won my 25 championship and when I checked they had almost zero expertise from a high of 700+ the previous season. They were "reset" to almost zero across the board, and Lando is at the back of the grid this year.

Its seems as if winning forces a full stat wipe with only your research adding any expertise.

[alexbox]

You already got some answers. Some more here:
- possibly you do NOT enough research for next years car but use the design new parts for the past year resulting in less next years car design.
- possibly you do NOT take into account rule changes and which parts and part stats exactly need extra research for next years competition/rule changes.
- possibly you research NOT all parts for next years car but focus on some that may NOT have the needed impact due rule changes.

Just as some idea to give some attention too sometimes these little things don't get the needed attention.

[JayKay1910]

6 best car at the end of the year. In the last two development cycles, each part with a third researched for the next season. At the start of the next season 19.

WTF it's a shame! Patch this - pronto!
Translated from German with DeepL