Driver's running a minute slower on 50% races

I've been in the same league for 3 seasons and in season 2 we moved to 50% race length, down from 75%. 
For some reason, my drivers are now running 45-60 seconds slower than they were in the same races last season.

Their health is 98%+
Talent is 18
I've trained Physical and Speed consistently for the past season
My cars are at 70%+ design level, which is higher than they were last season at the same time

I've got 80 races under my belt and have won 19 races, so I'm really at a loss as to why they're running so slow now.

All the other guys in my league can't understand it either as I've always been competitive, but now am running at the back of the pack for the past 5-6 races.

Any input would be appreciated, especially as my budget is dwindling from not getting any prize money for quite some time now.

I see this post is getting a decent amount of views, but no feedback yet.
Is this just something that I need to work through or is there something not performing properly?

car design level not the same ? or other drivers/teams simply that much better than you

I'm not sure I understand the problem. Going off the results, your total race time this season was 33-34 seconds faster than it was last season at Australia, and 10 seconds faster than last season at Malaysia.

So you're going faster than you were last season. Not slower?

compared to the other drivers i think he means

Then probably what you said. The other teams probably have 100% cars or something stupid, or better drivers. What suppliers are you using Josh? That could explain alot if you are using the wrong ones.

I just know some teams have higher design than you. Talent 18 vs 20 does make a little bit of difference, but shouldn't too much.

I think in these two races of the season, especially the last, you've been unlucky in qualifying, and in a 50% race it kinda ruins the end result. The first few laps you can be stuck in traffic and lose 5s a lap because of no KERS/DRS. In a league as close as iGP it's kinda killing.

Though I'm sure you'll be alright within a few races. Let's see tomorrow :)

Hey Jason, 
My math shows the following for my drivers: 
Richter/Race1: Season 2 = 41:51 Season 3 = 42:35 (+44 seconds)
Richter/Race 2: Season 2 = 44:48 Season 3 = 44:41 (-7 seconds)

Rodallega/Race1: Season 2 = 41:45 Season 3 = 42:35 (+50 seconds)
Rodallega/Race2: Season 2 = 44:49 Season 3 = 44:34 (-15 seconds)

So maybe the first race was off because my qualifying was horrible? But then, why have I qualified so low the past 5 races?

As for higher design, Sami is winning with 60% and I've been above 70% since the start, so that wouldn't seem to be a factor as to why he's beating me by 40+ seconds. 

Finally, I switched tires this week from Goodweek to Bridgerock and will change engines after the next race from Tifosi to Murk to see if those are the variables that are causing the slower numbers this season.

Thanks for all the feedback and hopefully this gets turned around tomorrow :)

Yeah sorry dunno what the hell I was looking at. But as Jaap said it's probably qualifying then. Even if you're 3 seconds a lap faster than someone in this game, they will hold you up severely. So some seasons your race times will be up to a whole minute slower if you start off the back off the pack opposed to starting off the front of the pack, even if you have a better car.

So poor qualifying pretty much sums it up.

Or it could be that the managers have higher levels than you. 
I Have noticed people with 60% design components  2 or so levels higher than my third team having a 30seconds+ lead over my third team with 85%

I'm still confused as to why my qualifying times are so slow all of the sudden.
Here are their qualifying times:
Richter/Race1: Season 2 = 1:24.028   Season 3 = 1:25.225 (+1.197 seconds)
Richter/Race 2: Seaons 2 = 1:32.855  Season 3 = 1:33.767 (+0.912 seconds)
Richter/Race 3: Season 2 = 1:32.087  Season 3 = 1:32.813 (+0.726 seconds)

Rodallega/Race1: Season 2 = 1:24.782  Season 3 = 1:24.903 (+0.121 seconds)
Rodallega/Race 2: Seaons 2 = 1:33.458 Season 3 = 1:33.197 (-0.261 seconds)
Rodallega/Race 3: Season 2 = 1:31.701 Season 3 = 1:33.022 (+1.321 seconds)

Here are the numbers of the top driver in the league:
Antsyforov/Race 1: Season 2 = 1:23.801 / 41:43 Season 3 = 1:23.526 / 41:35 (-0.275 / -8 seconds)
Antsyforov/Race 2: Season 2 = 1:32.537 / 44:08 Season 3 = 1:32.375 / 44:06 (-0.162 / -2 seconds)
Antsyforov/Race 3: Season 2 = 1:32.093 / 43:44 Season 3 = 1:31.975 / 43:52 (-0.118 / +8 seconds)

And the last race (#3) was just won by a driver 8 seconds slower than I won it last season, and their design level was 40-45% and is level 19 talent, while my drivers are level 18 talent and my cars are at 75%-80% design level. My driver ran 36 seconds slower than the same race last season.

As for ranking, I'm at level 8 and the top three teams in the league are all managed by 7s. Only one has a higher global ranking than me.

I really wish someone from IGP would comment on this since they're the only ones that would really understand what's going on.

this is truely baffling 

Update: I changed the engine supplier from Tifosi back to Murk and everything got back in line. I qualified 1st and took 1st and 7th in the race, performing at the level I was last season before changing suppliers to try to save some money.

Thanks for all the input and for putting up with my frustration on this post!

Yes you beat me quite well yesterday :P