Here are our F1 team rankings after the thirteenth race of the season.
The rankings are based on the currently expected levels of the cars. Performance could vary from track to track – and in different conditions – but these are the overall rankings as I see them at the moment.
1. Mercedes
Some media guys claimed that Ferrari and McLaren had caught up with Mercedes. Monza was the best evidence against that. With a fresh engine, Antonelli blasted through the field, easily passing every other car on the main straight. The silver arrows are already dominant, and they have resources available for further development. If Verstappen had signed for Mercedes this year, he would have won every single race in this car.
2. McLaren
Monza was an off-weekend for McLaren. But they had performed extremely well in the previous rounds, with Norris taking two wins already. They’ll definitely be competing for more, possibly already next weekend in Madrid.
3. Ferrari
For the first half of the season, Ferrari were the second best team. Now they’ve been overtaken by McLaren, but they are still close enough to compete for podiums and the occasional win. They no longer have a huge advantage in starts, but battery deployment is decent, and they are able to defend well in wheel-to-wheel racing. The car has great aero features and excellent mechanical grip. That means they’ll perform well on some tracks. Leclerc might have been able to win at Monza if it wasn’t for his early crash.
4. Red Bull
The new Red Bull car is very track dependent – and ever since Miami, it seems like they are able to compete near the front. The engine is quite powerful, and while it seems like the chassis is lacking, they have shown surprisingly strong performances. Verstappen has already achieved multiple podiums and might snatch a win at some point. This year’s car is much more drivable – Hadjar has performed well, and Lawson was instantly up to speed after filling in. Eventually, car development will go Verstappen’s way, especially now that he has signed a new contract.
5. Racing Bulls
Like last year, they have a really solid package and massively underrated car. The engine provides them with a lot of performance, and the chassis is decent as well. Lawson has delivered on multiple occasions, and considering how bad he was last year, it’s a sign that the car must be really competitive. Rookie Lindblad has also scored plenty of points recently. It should definitely be possible for both drivers to continue doing well in the VCARB-03.
6. Alpine
Excellent qualifying setup in the Italian GP which secured Gasly a surprising pole position. Colapinto was doing well in the race up until the restart. Time will tell whether this was a one-off top performance by the team. They’ve generally been behind Racing Bulls in terms of performance, but if Alpine have another great weekend, I might move them up.
7. Audi
Their engine looks decent and with plenty of room for improvement. The Audi drivers have struggled with race starts, so that needs to be sorted out. There are some reliability issues as well, but they are sorting that out, and the pace is better than expected. Audi should continue to improve as the season progresses and ultimately they’ll probably be more competitive than Alpine. Much depends on the engine development race, too.
8. Aston Martin
With the most recent upgrades, Aston Martin are back in the lower end of the midfield. Alonso and Stroll both finished ahead of the Haas and Williams drivers in the final race before the summer bream, and Alonso followed up with a points finish at Zandvoort. Monza was terrible due to the weak Honda engine, but that was predictable.
With that said: There are some fundamental issues with the leadership of this team: Lawrence Stroll’s strategy is to overpay for old, established names, and it’s not working out. Aston Martin are somewhat equal to the Toyota team of the 2000s – investing a fortune into the team with nothing to show for it. Nepotism is also an issue as F1’s worst driver is permanently occupying one of the seats.
9. Haas
Haas started the season well but they have dropped to the back of the midfield and seem to fight closely with Williams now. That’s not a surprise – Haas always struggle with car development, due to the fact that they outsource almost everything, so their upside is capped. They did bring an upgrade to Monza, but it didn’t do much. Bearman needs to move to a better team to continue his development. Ocon is probably on his way out of F1, so Haas will need to find a replacement. Rafael Câmara would be the best choice.
10. Williams
For about a decade, they’ve been completely incapable of building a fast car. Last season, they finally got some solid results, but mainly due to having two great drivers pushing the team forward. They were quickly out-developed by Racing Bulls, Haas and Sauber. Not a good sign. And despite using the Mercedes engine, Williams are at the back of the midfield this year. The chassis is overweight and the aero packages are underwhelming, so things are not looking good. At least they were able to extend with both drivers, though it’s hard to understand why Sainz would stay there (aside from a €30M/year paycheck!).
11. Cadillac
The new American team seems to lack upside in all departments. At least by running Ferrari engines, they won’t break down every race, but I would be very surprised if their drivers score any points by merit. They are just too far behind. Now there are rumors that Bottas could be replaced, and frankly, it would be a good decision.
