And, just to get us all through the last few days, here is a quick report card for the teams.
Mercedes
1ST | PTS: 438 | WINS: 10 | PODIUMS: 19 | POLES: 8 | FL: 4 | RET: 1
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 have entered the summer break with a commanding 150-point lead.
There was one calamitous race in Germany which unfortunately coincided with their celebrations for their 200th GP and 125 years of motorsport. But, nonetheless, they look like they’re heading for a sixth consecutive championship double which will suprass the record they currently share with Ferrari’s Michael Schumacher era.
Grade: A
Ferrari
2ND | PTS: 288 | WINS: 0 (BEST: 2ND) | PODIUMS: 11 | POLES: 3 | FL: 3 | RET: 2
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 are still yet to manage a victory, despite coming excruciatingly close in Bahrain, Canada and Austria.
They have shown flashes of speed, particularly at high-speed tracks thanks to the car’s straight-line speed, but their previous strength in slow corners has entirely disappeared. Operational issues and strategic errors also continue to blight the Scuderia and they are now under threat from Red Bull for second in the Constructors’ Championship.
Grade: C
Red Bull Racing Honda
3RD | PTS: 244 | WINS: 2 | PODIUMS: 5 | POLES: 1 | FL: 5 | RET: 2
Red Bull and Honda have 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.
But Honda have 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 are now keeping Mercedes very much on their toes at all types of circuit. The future looks very promising.
Grade: A-
Renault
6TH | PTS: 39 | WINS: 0 (BEST: 6TH) | PODIUMS: 0 | POLES: 0 | FL: 0 | RET: 7
It has been something of a disastrous season for Renault so far. They have totally failed in their goal of closing the gap to the ‘big three’ teams and have, in fact, fallen further into the clutches of a very competitive midfield. They are even behind a McLaren team who are using their Renault engine.
Things will need to dramatically pick up in the second half of the season or heads will likely roll at the end of the year.
Grade: D
Haas Ferrari
9TH | PTS: 26 | WINS: 0 (BEST: 6TH) | PODIUMS: 0 | POLES: 0 | FL: 0 | RET: 7
It has been a strange year for the Haas team on a few fronts. On the racing side, they have been very inconsistent; they usually qualify well but, largely due to issues with tyre temperatures, then disappear come race day and now find themselves ninth of 10 teams in the standings. It also hasn’t helped that their drivers keep crashing into each other…
And away from the actual racing, there have been 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. It was all very strange and their position even now isn’t clear. Haas have a lot of work to do across the board.
Grade: D
McLaren Renault
4TH | PTS: 82 | WINS: 0 (BEST: 5TH) | PODIUMS: 0 | POLES: 0 | FL: 0 | RET: 6
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. Onwards and upwards for the popular, papaya team.
Grade: B+
Racing Point BWT Mercedes
8TH | PTS: 31 | WINS: 0 (BEST: 4TH) | PODIUMS: 0 | POLES: 0 | FL: 0 | RET: 2
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 still be 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 they have remained respectable. And they even nearly managed their habitual unlikely podium in Germany with Lance Stroll’s fourth place. They will now aim to build on these foundations into next year and push back up the order.
Grade: C
Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari
7TH | PTS: 32 | WINS: 0 (BEST: 7TH) | PODIUMS: 0 | POLES: 0 | FL: 0 | RET: 1
The 2019 season has been consistent if underwhelming for Alfa Romeo. They 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.
But it has generally been a story of a Kimi Räikkönen revival picking them up a few solid points at most races, whilst former Ferrari academy driver Antonio Giovinazzi has only picked up the one. Nothing much more to report but still a significant improvement on where the team was as Sauber just a couple of years ago.
Grade: C
Scuderia Toro Rosso Honda
5TH | PTS: 43 | WINS: 0 (BEST: 3RD) | PODIUMS: 1 | POLES: 0 | FL: 0 | RET: 3
The competitiveness of the 2019 midfield has made it hard for teams to stand out but Toro Rosso have definitely improved since last season and an unlikely driver line-up seems to have worked out very well; arguably too well as Alexander Albon now departs to the senior Red Bull team.
A first podium in over a decade is the obvious highlight and, whilst that accounts for a large percentage of their points haul, their position of fifth in the standings does not flatter to deceive.
Grade: B-
Williams Mercedes
10TH | PTS: 1 | WINS: 0 (BEST: 10TH) | PODIUMS: 0 | POLES: 0 | FL: 0 | RET: 0
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 point. It’s amazing to think that they were, arguably, the main competitor to Mercedes at the beginning of the hybrid era.
They started this season seconds off the pace – after having missed a fair portion of pre-season testing – and have been at the back ever since. Being the only team with no retirements is commendable, and an update in Hungary seemed to have made something of a difference, but there is still a long way to go.
