F1 News
Ratings: How well did each team do in Canada?
After the eventful outcome of the Canadian Grand Prix that saw Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes claim yet another win we've had a thought on how each team fared over the weekend of the Grand Prix.
Mercedes – 7.5/10
A fairly flawless race from Lewis Hamilton led to eventually take the win thanks to a penalty for Sebastian Vettel after his return from the grass at turn four. But the Valtteri Bottas we saw the first few races seem to have disappeared. After laps of tussling with Daniel Ricciardo he eventually recovered to fourth place, well behind the leaders.
The team took yet another win, but it wasn’t an outright deserved win as Hamilton didn’t manage to pass Vettel for first and Bottas sitting lacklustre on fourth.
Ferrari – 8.5/10
For once Ferrari had a weekend without any decision-making issues or problems that ultimately ruined their race. Vettel drove impressively from pole to remain in the lead for the whole race, despite the quick trip to the grass after pressure from Hamilton but was unfortunate to lose the win due to a five-second time penalty from that incident. Charles Leclerc had a solid race but was playing catch up towards the end.
Overall a very good performance from the team considering what has happened recently. Luckily for the team’s internal sake Leclerc didn’t catch up enough to steal second from his teammate. Imagine if that happened…
Red Bull – 6/10
A poor weekend Red bull would most likely consider but Max Verstappen redeemed it as much as he could. After an unfortunate situation in qualifying that led the Dutchman to go out in Q2 he started ninth and finished a best possible fifth. Pierre Gasly qualified fifth but dropped down the order throughout the racing after struggling for pace behind Lance Stroll and the Renault’s.
A weekend to move on from and look to bounce back into contention in France at the next race.
Renault – 8.5/10
A first double-points finish for Renault and their timing couldn’t have been better. Ricciardo qualified an impressive fourth, whilst Hulkenberg qualified in seventh. Despite losing a couple of places to Bottas and Verstappen, finishing best of the rest and splitting the Red Bulls was just the performance needed.
After a double DNF for both cars when they were high up in Bahrain and not the most impressive performances, the works team look to be finding their well needed ground for this season.
Racing Point – 6/10
An interesting weekend for Racing Point. Stroll struggled in qualifying but thrived at his home race moving up from 17thon the grid to finish in the points in ninth. Perez however, will look to quickly forget the weekend just gone by after struggling for pace throughout.
On opposite strategies to see which would work best, Perez fell victim after coming in so soon to attempt to stay out on the long run on hard tyres, while Stroll made the most of his
longer stint strategies.
Toro Rosso – 5.5/10
Toro Rosso had a mix of a positive and negative weekend. Alexander Albon picked up damage to his front wing at the start of the race, leading to an eventual retire near the end after there wasn’t much point running the car. But, since his return to F1, Daniil Kvyat has been performing solidly and showed his grit and determination to get past Carlos Sainz for the last point ups for grabs in tenth place.
Overall some positives to take from the weekend but will look ahead for both drivers to be battling midfield in France.
McLaren – 5/10
After an impressive qualifying session from both Lando Norris and Sainz it was a shame to not see them compete more for bigger points. Norris’ race was over far too quick after a suspension failure cause him to retire on lap eight after battling with Verstappen. While Sainz was unlucky to hold on to 10thdespite having had issues with debris in his car near the start.
McLaren will hopefully be back where they were next race, and with Renault showing performance could make for a very interesting midfield battle.
Alfa Romeo – 4.5/10
Antonio Giovinazzi put up a good fight in qualifying but lost himself a bit in the race, spinning at turn two, ruining his tyres and settling for 13th. Kimi Raikkonen however seems to be out of performance for the team after being outstanding, scoring points in the first four races, and couldn’t find any of that in Canada finishing 15th.
Haas – 3/10
A very disappointing weekend for Haas which saw constant wound being inflicted. Kevin Magnussens’ crash in Q2 meant Grosjean was unable to attempt a lap into Q3 and he lost ground thanks to the Albon incident and couldn’t recover from 14th. Magnussen on the other hand will want to forget about the weekend completely after starting from the pit lane and finishing behind the Williams of George Russell.
Roll on the next weekend.
Williams – 4/10
Another typical weekend for Williams at the back of the field once again. Russell showed his qualities of consistency once again but can’t do much more in his current car other than being ahead of Magnussen. Robert Kubica was yet again out-qualified by his teammate and struggled even more than before, finishing a lap behind Russell and three laps behind the leaders.
Really is a shame what has happened to this team. Hopefully at some point this season we’ll see them being slightly competitive.
