Mercedes
1st | Pts: 739 | Wins: 15 | Podiums: 32 | Poles: 10 | FL: 9 | Ret: 2
The Mercedes juggernaut steams on, crushing all in its path. Coming into this season, the dominance of the Silver Arrows looked under real threat…but then they set a record for consecutive one-two finishes from the start of the season and had both championships all but wrapped up by the summer break.
There was one calamitous race in Germany which, unfortunately, coincided with their celebrations for their 200th GP and 125 years of motorsport. But, aside from that, it was another pretty flawless year from Mercedes which ended with them taking a sixth consecutive championship double. That surpasses the record they previously shared with Ferrari from the Michael Schumacher era – a quite incredible achievement.
And you certainly wouldn’t bet against them making it seven next year. Ferrari and Red Bull closed up towards the end of the year, and we had some closer racers, but you get the impression Mercedes were coasting to the title and keeping their updates minimal to help them get a jump on the competition for 2020.
Grade: A
Ferrari
2ND | PTS: 504 | WINS: 3 | PODIUMS: 19 | POLES: 9 | FL: 6 | RET: 6
It was Ferrari who were supposed to be posing the aforementioned threat to Mercedes. But their apparent speed in pre-season testing was not realised come Melbourne and they only managed their first victory in the 13th race, albeit having come excruciatingly close in Bahrain, Canada and Austria.
The Scuderia went on a great run in qualifying after the summer break but were always on the back foot when it came to race pace and continued to find new and more inventive ways to shoot themselves in the foot – whether it was overcomplex team orders and strategies or drivers attempting to exert authority but instead crashing into each other.
And there is the debate as to whether clarifications over engine regulations have caught Ferrari out in some dodgy practices. Either way, they’ll need to find some speed and some stability next year to mount a sustained title challenge.
Grade: C+
Red Bull Racing Honda
3RD | PTS: 417 | WINS: 3 | PODIUMS: 9 | POLES: 2 | FL: 5 | RET: 4
Red Bull and Honda far exceeded their expectations from the first year of their partnership. Whilst they learnt a fair bit last year through Toro Rosso taking on the Honda engines, Red Bull management still expected something of a learning curve for both parties in 2019.
But Honda delivered a much-improved power unit and, after at first struggling to understand some of the aerodynamic intricacies of this year’s car, Red Bull kept Mercedes very much on their toes at a few types of circuit; high altitude still seems to do wonders for them, however.
They are aiming to build on this year and, for once, produce a car capable of taking victories from the very start of the season. If they do, they could well usurp Ferrari’s position as main challenger to Mercedes.
Grade: B+
McLaren Renault
4TH | PTS: 145 | WINS: 0 (BEST: 3rd) | PODIUMS: 1 | POLES: 0 | FL: 0 | RET: 9
2019 has been exactly the kind of year that McLaren would have been aiming for in their task of rebuilding a once great team. After a few years of calamity and collapse, they seem to finally be getting things back on track.
They have two excellent young drivers, a much-improved atmosphere within the team and, suddenly, they have found themselves comfortably at the front of the midfield. It has been the real feel-good story of the season and they even managed their first podium in over five years at Interlagos.
Onwards and upwards for the popular, papaya team.
Grade: A-
Renault
5TH | PTS: 91 | WINS: 0 (BEST: 4TH) | PODIUMS: 0 | POLES: 0 | FL: 0 | RET: 8
Renault totally failed in their goal of closing the gap to the ‘big three’ teams. They, in fact, fell further into the clutches of a very competitive midfield and even finished well behind a McLaren team who are using their Renault engine.
Things picked up a little in the second half of the season with some more consistent performances and the French team managed to cling on to fifth in the Constructors’ Championship. But that is still well below the lofty aims of Renault senior management.
Nico Hülkenberg’s head was the only notable one to roll so far – in favour of young Frenchman Esteban Ocon – but, if there is not significant progress made next year, you can be sure more will follow.
Grade: D
Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda
6TH | PTS: 85 | WINS: 0 (BEST: 2nD) | PODIUMS: 2 | POLES: 0 | FL: 0 | RET: 5
The competitiveness of the 2019 midfield has made it hard for teams to stand out but Toro Rosso took a noticeable step forward from 2018 and two unlikely driver pairings – namely, Daniil Kvyat and Alexander Albon/Pierre Gasly worked well.
Achieving not one but two podiums – having only experienced one before in the Faenza-based team’s long history – is another great story of 2019 and, whilst they narrowly lost out in their battle with Renault for fifth in the standings, this is a season Toro Rosso can look back on with pride.
Grade: B
Racing Point BWT Mercedes
7TH | PTS: 73 | WINS: 0 (BEST: 4TH) | PODIUMS: 0 | POLES: 0 | FL: 0 | RET: 5
This was always likely to be something of a transitional year for Racing Point, following Lawrence Stroll’s buy-out of the team midway through 2018, so they will probably be reasonably satisfied to have remained in the main fight for the midfield spots.
Whilst they have often been ‘best of the rest’ in past years, the lack of funding, and thus development, as Force India came to an end could have seen them well off the pace this year but, after a slow start to the season, they came on strong after the summer break. Sergio Pérez‘s impressive run of points-scoring finishes moving them clear of Alfa Romeo and into the battle with Renault and Toro Rosso.
They even nearly managed their habitual unlikely podium in Germany with Lance Stroll‘s fourth place. They will now look to build on these foundations into next year and push back up the order.
Grade: C+
Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari
8TH | PTS: 57 | WINS: 0 (BEST: 4TH) | PODIUMS: 0 | POLES: 0 | FL: 0 | RET: 4
Alfa Romeo came into the season with some impressive testing times and talk of them being dark horses with their radical design ideas; particularly around the front wing. Whilst not exactly making waves at the front, the first half of the year was pretty strong with the ageless Kimi Räikkönen picking up steady points.
Things somewhat tailed off, though and, although Antonio Giovinazzi upped his performances on the other side of the garage, the car spent most of the latter season in the lower half of the order. Still, they will probably be happy to finish ahead of Haas and this is a significant improvement on where the team was as Sauber just a couple of years ago.
Grade: C
Haas Ferrari
9TH | PTS: 28 | WINS: 0 (BEST: 6TH) | PODIUMS: 0 | POLES: 0 | FL: 1 | RET: 10
It was a strange year for the Haas team on a few fronts. On the racing side, they had some real issues – at the start of the year qualifying well but, largely due to issues with tyre temperatures, disappearing come race day and, after updates to the car actually made it worse, basically writing off the season and picking up just two points after the summer break. It also didn’t help that their drivers kept crashing into each other…
And away from the actual racing, there were the frankly bizarre dealings with their title sponsor. A company that had already raised many an eyebrow, Rich Energy then acted out a childish soap opera after just a few races, with twists and turns as to who had dumped whom in the partnership, or whether nobody had been dumped at all. Haas have a lot of work to do across the board.
Grade: D
Williams Mercedes
10TH | PTS: 1 | WINS: 0 (BEST: 10TH) | PODIUMS: 0 | POLES: 0 | FL: 0 | RET: 4
It is a real shame to see what has become of this once mighty team. The last 15 years have had many ups and downs for Williams but this is surely their lowest ebb. It’s amazing to think that they were, arguably, the main competitor to Mercedes at the beginning of the hybrid era.
They started the season seconds off the pace – having missed a fair portion of pre-season testing – and never got themselves much closer to the pack. Williams are a proud outfit and refuse to become anything resembling a B-team but, with the way things are going, is that a sustainable stance? Will their pride come before an even bigger fall?
