The difference is the level of development. Last year, the teams ran their Lola-Zyteks for the 3rd time in Sepang. In the first year with the new Ferrari, they race similar lap times. Now I think it will be going a lot faster next year.
Take a look at the fastest times of each qualifying session so far:
2005/06 - Lola-Zytek
Q1 - Team SUI - 1:54.441
Q2 - Team SUI - 1:54.521
Q3 - Team LEB - 2:21.118 (wet!)
Q4 - Team INA - 2:17.682 (wet!)
2006/07 - Lola-Zytek
Q1 - Team SUI - 1:51.508
Q2 - Team NZL - 1:51.433
Q3 - Team GER - 1:52.017
Q4 - Team INA - 1:52.521
2-3 secs win in 1 year!
2007/08 - Lola-Zytek
Q1 - Team SUI - 1:49.003
Q2 - Team SUI - 1:48.630
Q3 - Team SUI - 1:48.425
Q4 - Team Sui - 1:47.648
another 4-5 secs win!
The slowest car in Q4 was Team LEB (1:51.161 - that's faster than pole position in 2006/07!)
2008/09 - Ferrari
Q1 - Team FRA - 1:49.173
Q2 - Team SUI - 1:47.154
Q3 - Team IRL - 1:48.555
Q4 - Team IRL - 1:47.124 (on powerboost)
Slightly faster than in the final Lola-Zytek year. Next year we can expect the teams to be at least 2 secs faster, because the teams know better how to set up the car by then.
http://a1.gpgrid.com