Team Ratings | Red Bull and Ferrari excel, Mercedes limits damage

Expectations for the Turkish Grand Prix were high, especially because of the wet conditions under which the race would start. There were no real fireworks, however, despite some nice actions on track. It turned out to be a race for the strategists, who played a major role in the final result. Which teams did this best? GPblog gives marks to the performance of the teams.

Red Bull Racing - 9

On a weekend that was anything but favourable for Red Bull, the team managed to maximise its performance. The Austrian team was on a tear all weekend, with both Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez revealing that their balance problems were still present on Sunday. Nevertheless, the team scored a moral victory with a double podium. They did this by bringing both drivers in at the right time, while the drivers did their job on track in the best possible way.

Mercedes - 8

On the side of Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes was virtually flawless, but with Lewis Hamilton, the team dropped stitches. He didn't want to come in when his team gave the call, and by heeding it, they missed out on precious points. Bottas' win did minimise the damage though, as the team is ahead of Red Bull in the Constructors' standings and prevented Verstappen from scoring 25 points.

McLaren - 5

After a rock-solid performance in Russia that ended in tears for Lando Norris, McLaren visibly struggled to keep up in Turkey. Norris had to make do with a colourless seventh place, while Daniel Ricciardo finished outside the top ten. The Woking-based team failed to impress all weekend and failed to get going.

Ferrari - 8

Carlos Sainz was the Driver of the Day in Turkey, and for good reason. He moved through the field like a knife through butter, moving up from the last row of the grid to eighth place. Charles Leclerc even looked like he was on course for victory for a while, but that's where Ferrari dropped out as Mercedes did too: Leclerc had to stay out too long while losing a lot of time on his intermediates, so he missed out on the podium again in Turkey.

AlphaTauri - 6

AlphaTauri provided their drivers with a very competitive car in Turkey. Both drivers started in the top ten but made costly mistakes in the race, costing the team a potentially strong result. However, they did all they could to deliver a strong car, which was particularly evident in Yuki Tsunoda's fight with Hamilton and Pierre Gasly who, after his time penalty, still finished sixth just seconds behind the Mercedes.

Aston Martin - 4

Sebastian Vettel was the one who wanted to take the gamble on slicks, but his team would have been better off not taking it. If the track had dried quicker Aston Martin could have gained a lot from this, but the Istanbul Park circuit has proven to stay wet for a long time. The team should have had enough data available to come to the conclusion that slicks were not an option.

Alpine - 5

With Esteban Ocon, Alpine was the only team that dared to finish the race on the same set of tyres, a gamble that was rewarded with a tenth place for Ocon. There might have been more to it if he had made that stop, however, because Alpine's pace was good. That the car was competitive was proven by Fernando Alonso, who started from fifth place.

Alfa Romeo Racing - 5

We didn't see much of the Alfa Romeo cars during the race, but the car that the team put on the grid was not bad at all. Antonio Giovinazzi managed to move up from sixteenth to eleventh place, narrowly missing out on a World Championship point. He was closely followed by Kimi Raikkonen, who drove from P17 to P12.

Williams - 4

Where we have seen an ever stronger Williams in recent months, there was little evidence of that in Turkey. The team had a difficult weekend in which both drivers didn't seem to feel completely comfortable in the car, resulting in a thirteenth and fifteenth place finish.

Haas F1 - 4

Haas delivered a car good enough to make it to Q2 with Mick Schumacher but had a rather colourless Sunday. After Alonso touched him, Schumacher was unable to do much either.