Team Ratings after Miami GP | Will Ferrari or Red Bull come out on top?

The Miami Grand Prix is over, and that means we're back to our tradition of giving the teams a report grade. Red Bull Racing was the winner in terms of World Championship points this season, but still, the stable Ferrari gets a high score. Furthermore, Williams get a nice grade and Alpine also do well.

Red Bull Racing - 9.0

No doubt it won't have escaped your notice that Red Bull Racing had a difficult start. Max Verstappen had major problems on the Friday, only managing to complete about fifteen laps. It resulted in a difficult qualifying with P3 and P4 as a result. On Sunday Verstappen managed to drive to his third victory of the season, but Sergio Perez did not reach the podium due to sensor problems. So again reliability issues on the side of the Austrians, but they will score strongly with a nine. That car is perfectly tuned for a race track like Miami. 

Ferrari - 8.0

Ferrari actually did little wrong in Miami, but Verstappen was simply better and faster. In qualifying, the red cars were superior and on Sunday they scored a second and third place. The only thing you might blame the team from Maranello for is that they didn't have a set of mediums left, which prevented them from making an extra pit stop under the safety car. Overall, Ferrari get one point less than Red Bull. Perhaps they should've been more creative with their strategy. 

Mercedes - 7.0

Well, maybe Mercedes expected more, but a P5 and a P6 is the maximum they can achieve at the moment for Toto Wolff's men. The formation did benefit from a mistake by Valtteri Bottas, but the strategy with George Russell proved the right one. Mercedes does not know why they are sometimes so fast or slow and that is something to find out soon.

McLaren - 4.0

Things seemed to be going a lot better at McLaren in recent weeks, but the team from Woking were pretty poor all weekend in Miami. Lando Norris still managed to make it to Q3, but at least the car is not yet to Daniel Ricciardo's liking. He was more than half a second slower and didn't manage to make a fist in the race a day later either. He even received a five-second time penalty. Norris might have been able to score a few World Championship points, but crashed with Pierre Gasly.

AlphaTauri - 5.0

AlphaTauri had a great Saturday. Yuki Tsunoda and Pierre Gasly received compliments from Helmt Marko, but neither finished in the points. Gasly crashed out and Tsunoda came up short of a top-ten finish with a 12th place. It basically tells the story of AlphaTauri over the past twelve months. Excelling on Saturday only to throw it away a day later.

Alpine - 6.5

The Alpine team had nothing but happy faces after the finish in the United States, but two hours later there was little left of that. Fernando Alonso dropped out of the top-ten after a five-second time penalty. No double points finish for the French, but the fact that Esteban Ocon managed to drive from P20 to eighth place proves that Alpine had chosen a good strategy and had a fast car at its disposal. A few silly mistakes by Alonso cost them a point. 

Alfa Romeo Racing - 6.0

With Valtteri Bottas in seventh place, Alfa Romeo once again confirms that it is a team to be reckoned with in 2022. The team is aiming for fourth place in the constructors' championship and in that respect it did good business in Miami. It is unfortunate that Guanyu Zhou had to leave the battlefield early. Mechanical problems again for the team of Frederic Vasseur, which is not the first time this year. Therefore, a point deduction.

Haas F1 - 4.0

Haas F1 started the season strong, but it seems to have slowed down a bit. After some 'lesser' results in Saudi Arabia and Imola, the team didn't score any points at all in Miami. Mick Schumacher and Kevin Magnussen crossed the line in last place with the two of them, which means that they simply did not perform well enough.

Aston Martin - 6.0

Aston Martin nevertheless picked up another point. It took advantage of Fernando Alonso's reset, leaving Lance Stroll in tenth in the end. Sebastian Vettel was also driving around tenth position before his drop out and so Aston Martin does seem to have made some strides compared to the first GP this year, but still we expect more from Aston Martin.

Williams - 5.0

Yes, it is! Like a jack-in-the-box, there was Alexander Albon again. Starting from P18, he drove to a great ninth place. Meanwhile, the British driver has collected more points than, for example, Fernando Alonso. A year on the sidelines seems to have done Albon good, as Nicholas Latifi is nowhere to be seen. Despite an inferior car, Albon managed to do it well. Latifi on the other hand is nowhere to be seen and therefore their score is split down the middle.