Power Ranking the Formula 1 Teams After 2016 Australian Grand Prix
Mercedes started their season in the best possible way with a one-two finish at the 2016 Formula One Australian Grand Prix. Nico Rosberg led home Lewis Hamilton for the fourth race in a row—but this was no walk in the Albert Park for the Silver Arrows.
Poor starts for both Rosberg and Hamilton had opened the door for Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari to claim a shock win. However, the mid-race red flag and a poor choice of strategy by the Scuderia tipped the balance back in Mercedes' favour, and the German team head to Bahrain with the same 28-point cushion they enjoyed at this stage last season.
But despite their perfect result, Mercedes were not the happiest team in the pit lane on Sunday night. That honour went to American newcomers Haas, whose star driver Romain Grosjean made the most of a zero-stop strategy to grab a stunning sixth place and eight potentially priceless points.
After the farce of Saturday's elimination qualifying experiment, F1 needed a feel-good story, and Grosjean's fantastic drive gave the whole sport a lift.
Some teams will have departed Melbourne disappointed, while others will feel they achieved their goals.
Looking at how each performed in three key areas—single-lap pace, long-run pace and reliability—here's how the 11 constructors rank after Australia.
Note on F1 Team Power Rankings
F1 team power rankings ignore the points table and previous results and instead present a snapshot of where each team stands in relation to their competitors based on the three key factors of reliability, single-lap and long-run pace.
The rankings are based on how they would perform if racing in dry conditions on an "average circuit" that places equal emphasis on each area of the car.
11. Manor
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Manor were closer to the main pack than ever before in their history, but they still brought up the rear in Melbourne.
Rio Haryanto kicked off his F1 career in style with a qualifying lap of one minute, 29.627 seconds. A back-row start isn't often something to be proud of, but the Indonesian did at least beat his team-mate—Pascal Wehrlein started 22nd and last.
However, when the lights went out, it was Wehrlein who made an immediate impact. The German was 16th as he entered the braking zone of Turn 1 and ended the opening lap in 14th. Unfortunately, his first stop was a slow one, and he slid down to a net 17th.
Manor put the 21-year-old on soft tyres at the restart, and he was initially able to keep in touch with the rear of the midfield. However, the rubber didn't last and, after a second stop to take a set of new mediums, Wehrlein fell away and finished last, 80 seconds down on the next-slowest runner.
Haryanto rose to 19th at the start and stuck quite close to the back of Romain Grosjean's car throughout the opening stint. He fell back to 18th by the time the red flag was shown but failed to make the restart due to a driveline problem.
Their new Mercedes engines are clearly having a big impact, but for now, Manor remain at the back.
10. Sauber
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Sauber had a very quiet opening race in Melbourne—the scene of their best result of 2015.
Marcus Ericsson drew first blood in the intra-team qualifying battle, lapping Albert Park in a time of 1:27.435 to qualify 16th on the grid. Felipe Nasr was half a second slower, having been caught out in the confusion over the new qualifying system, and lined up in 17th.
Nasr had a reasonable start and gained one place from Valtteri Bottas, but he lost it a few laps later and made a very early first stop. It left him down in 20th for a few laps, but he was back up to 16th when the racing resumed after the red flag.
Sauber made the right choice and put their driver on mediums, but the C35 lacked the pace to make the strategy work. Nasr gained a single place when Kimi Raikkonen retired and was up to 14th with a handful of laps to go, but Jenson Button crept by in the closing stages to relegate the Brazilian to 15th.
Ericsson held 15th off the line but found himself behind the fast-starting Manor of Pascal Wehrlein—and, incredibly, the young German pulled a few seconds clear before both made their first stops. Ericsson came out ahead thanks to good work by the team, and he was 14th when the red flag was thrown.
The Swede went onto the same strategy as Nasr, but an issue with a tyre warmer during the stoppage earned him a drive-through penalty, dropping him to last, and he retired on Lap 39 with a vibration.
Sauber are quicker than Manor, but everyone else—including fellow Ferrari customer Haas—looks in better shape at this stage.
9. Haas
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Haas kicked off their F1 life in style with eight points on their debut.
Romain Grosjean would have been forgiven for thinking even a single point was out of reach after qualifying—he could only manage 19th with a disappointing lap of 1:28.322. Team-mate Esteban Gutierrez fared even worse and lined up 20th, less than half a tenth clear of the Manors.
Neither Haas driver made much progress at the start, but Grosjean's long opening stint on the soft-compound tyres saw him rise to ninth by the time the red flag was shown. The rules state teams can have a free tyre change under such circumstances, and the Frenchman was fitted with a new set of mediums for the run to the end.
Grosjean rose to eighth when Kimi Raikkonen retired and, perhaps surprisingly, proved more than capable of holding off Nico Hulkenberg's chasing Force India. He climbed to sixth when the Toro Rossos pitted and pulled clear of Hulkenberg as the race neared its conclusion.
From 19th on the grid, he finished sixth—undoubtedly the biggest shock result of the weekend.
Gutierrez also made headlines but for a very different reason. The Mexican was running the same strategy as his team-mate, and on Lap 17, he was defending from Fernando Alonso—the McLaren on fresh rubber having just stopped.
Alonso attacked into Turn 3 and the pair collided, putting both out of the race on the spot—and bringing out the red flag that made Grosjean's result possible.
If Haas can do something about their single-lap pace, they could be set for a very interesting rookie year.
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8. Renault
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Renault looked fairly competitive on their return as a works team, but there's plenty of room for improvement.
Qualifying didn't go well; Jolyon Palmer was 14th-fastest with a lap of 1:27.601, almost four-tenths down on his Q1 best. Kevin Magnussen also failed to match his best time from the first part of the session, ending up 15th.
Both gained a place on the grid due to Valtteri Bottas' grid penalty, and Palmer had a good opening lap on his debut. He held 13th throughout the first stint and gained a place in the pit-stop phase, rising to 12th.
Renault were smart during the red flag period, fitting medium-compound tyres to Palmer's car, allowing the Brit to run to the end. Unfortunately, his pace wasn't good enough to hold back the Toro Rossos, and he ended up one place outside the points.
Magnussen was balked by a slow-starting Jenson Button and suffered a puncture in the opening sequence of turns. Crawling back to the pits left him a lap down on the leaders, but the red flag handed him a lifeline.
The Dane was allowed to unlap himself and join the back of the snake and, armed with medium tyres, showed impressive pace in the second half of the race. He had no chance of points, but ending up just two seconds and one position behind his team-mate will have done his confidence no harm at all.
Maybe 2016 won't be quite as much of a struggle for Renault as many of us had feared.
7. McLaren
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McLaren could have scored points in Australia but instead left Melbourne with nothing but a hefty bill for repairs.
Fernando Alonso did the best job of the two drivers in qualifying, but he could only manage 12th with a lap of 1:26.125. Jenson Button was 13th, around two-tenths of a second behind.
Both McLarens had reasonable first laps. Button, who had started 12th after Valtteri Bottas took a grid penalty, held his position throughout the opening stint but fell back at the first round of stops.
The team opted to switch him to supersoft tyres during the red flag period—the wrong call, as many others also discovered—and an extra stop to take on a set of mediums left Button at the rear of the field. He quickly caught Felipe Nasr but couldn't overtake until a few laps from the end, and he ended up 14th.
Alonso had risen to 10th at the start and looked well-placed to challenge for points when he encountered Esteban Gutierrez on Lap 17. The Haas driver was yet to make his first stop and Alonso attacked into Turn 3—with spectacular consequences.
Gutierrez braked slightly earlier than Alonso, and the Spaniard smashed into the Mexican's rear end before sliding into the gravel trip, flipping and landing upside down against the tyre wall. Both were out on the spot—and more importantly, both were able to walk away.
McLaren will feel more positive about the weekend than their results suggest, and they look set for a much better season than they had in 2015.
6. Force India
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Force India appear to have slipped back from where they ended the 2015 season.
Sergio Perez edged out his team-mate to qualify ninth on the grid, the last of all the drivers to be eliminated in Q2. Nico Hulkenberg was just over a tenth slower, and he started 10th.
The order was reversed as soon as the lights went out at the start, as Hulkenberg had as good a getaway as anyone and rose to eighth by the end of the first lap. The German lost a place soon after to Daniel Ricciardo, and a late first stop dropped him further down the order to 10th.
Hulkenberg kept his medium-compound tyres on during the red flag stoppage and was able to run non-stop to the end. He wasn't especially quick, but it didn't matter—no one could pass, and he finished a respectable seventh.
Perez had a poor getaway and found himself stuck in the pack for the opening stint. He emerged from the red flag period down in 13th, but any hope of points was ended when he was stuck behind two slower rivals—first Jenson Button, then Jolyon Palmer.
The Mexican was overtaken by Kevin Magnussen a few laps from the end and finished well down the order in 13th place.
Force India seem to be around where we expected them to be—in the midfield, close to fellow Mercedes customer Williams.
5. Williams
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Williams made a reasonable start to the season in Australia, but they looked closer to the midfield than the front.
Felipe Massa qualified sixth with a Q3 lap of 1:25.458, but team-mate Valtteri Bottas was knocked out in the second phase after errors on his quickest run. The Finn, who missed this race last season due to a back injury, could only manage 11th.
A poor start for Lewis Hamilton allowed Massa the opportunity to pass the Mercedes into Turn 3, but his early pace was not good—just a few laps later, Hamilton got back past at the exit of the same corner. Massa made his first stop on Lap 12, falling to a net eighth.
The red flag gave all the drivers a free tyre change, and Williams decided to go with mediums for the Brazilian. It turned out to be a fine choice—though unable to live with the pace of the leading four, Massa comfortably cruised to line to take 10 points for fifth.
Bottas started 16th after a grid penalty for a gearbox change and ran a longer first stint than most of his rivals. This allowed him to make a stop behind the safety car, and when the red flag was shown, he was up to 11th.
Williams switched him to mediums during the stoppage, and the rest of Bottas' race was spent in Nico Hulkenberg's wheel tracks. He had more speed than the Force India driver but Melbourne is a tough place to pass, and Bottas could only follow the German home to finish eighth.
The team would have been hoping for a better start—but at least they look a little quicker than Force India.
4. Red Bull
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Red Bull emerged from the Australian Grand Prix with one good result, but their reliability seems far from perfect.
Daniel Ricciardo was the team's top qualifier, setting a time of 1:25.589 to start eighth on the grid. Daniil Kvyat was the first high-profile victim of the knockout qualifying format—he lined up 18th.
When the lights went out, Ricciardo lost out to Nico Hulkenberg, but he repassed the Force India on Lap 5 and set about catching the cars ahead. A well-timed stop saw him rise to fourth, a position he held until the red flag was shown.
At the restart, Red Bull opted to put the Australian on the yellow-marked soft tyres, and he gradually pulled clear of the two Toro Rossos. Kimi Raikkonen's retirement put him into the podium places, but he was always going to need a second stop; once he'd made it, Ricciardo was fifth.
He quickly fought his way past Felipe Massa, but the two Mercedes and Sebastian Vettel were too far ahead, and he had to settle for fourth.
Kvyat had a less productive afternoon; for the second season in a row, the Russian's car broke down before the race had even begun.
It's close between Red Bull and Toro Rosso in terms of pure speed, but the junior squad look to have bulletproof reliability—something Red Bull clearly lack.
3. Toro Rosso
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Toro Rosso endured a frustrating race after promising so much over a single lap.
Max Verstappen qualified a career-best fifth on the grid with a time of 1:25.434, just four-tenths down on Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen. Behind him were a gaggle of cars within a couple of tenths—Carlos Sainz Jr. was one of them, and he started seventh.
Sainz held his position off the grid and made his way up to sixth due to Lewis Hamilton's late pit stop. He spent much of his first stint after the red flag close behind Verstappen, holding off Hamilton's attentions, but a curious decision by the team to bring the 21-year-old in first saw the Spaniard move ahead of his team-mate at their second stops.
He followed Jolyon Palmer briefly before sliding by into Turn 1 then caught up to the rear of Valtteri Bottas. Despite having far more pace than the Finn, no further progress was possible, and Sainz crossed the line in a disappointing ninth.
Verstappen's start was good; he was fourth at the end of Lap 1, but a late first stop saw him fall behind Daniel Ricciardo. Kimi Raikkonen's retirement after the red flag bumped the Dutchman back to fourth, but like Sainz, he had to make another stop.
The team pitted the Spaniard first and Verstappen emerged in 11th, behind his team-mate, but passed Palmer soon after to return to the points. Verstappen spent most of the remaining laps on the team radio, complaining about the strategy and asking in vain to be let past Sainz. After almost taking himself and his team-mate out with a late error, he came home in 10th.
Toro Rosso had far more pace than the result suggests, and they also have reliability—so they edge out Red Bull for now.
2. Ferrari
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Ferrari had the pace and fortune to win in Australia, but their strategy let them down.
Sebastian Vettel qualified third behind the two Mercedes, eight-tenths down on the pole-sitter's time. Kimi Raikkonen was a further three-tenths behind; he started fourth.
An excellent getaway saw Vettel surge past Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg to seize the lead going into Turn 1. He pulled out a small gap to Raikkonen before making his first stop, and after shaking off Rosberg's attention, he appeared to have enough pace to win.
However, when the red flag was shown, the team made a strategic error. The Mercedes drivers went for medium-compound tyres, aiming to run to the end, but Ferrari left Vettel on supersofts.
He was unable to pull out a gap before making his second stop and emerged in a net third. The quicker rubber let him catch Hamilton, but he couldn't overtake, and he had to settle for the final podium spot.
Raikkonen followed Vettel through at the start and held second for the opening stint, but Rosberg undercut him at the opening round of stops and he fell to third. The Finn's race ended soon after the red flag, with a loss of power forcing him out.
Ferrari were nowhere over a single lap, but their race pace may worry Mercedes. Bahrain should tell us more about how close they really are.
1. Mercedes
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Mercedes proved they remain the team to beat—but they had to work a little harder than expected.
Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg locked out the front row with relative ease, with the Brit's qualifying lap of 1:23.837 comfortably the fastest time of the weekend. The closest non-Mercedes was more than eight-tenths slower, and it looked like we were set for another straightforward "silverwash" to start the season.
However, both Mercedes drivers made poor starts. Rosberg fell to third by the end of the opening lap while Hamilton dropped to sixth. The German jumped Kimi Raikkonen at the first round of stops, and after the red flag, the team opted to switch him onto mediums.
That proved to be the race's defining moment; Rosberg took over the lead when supersoft-using Sebastian Vettel had to make a second stop, and the 30-year-old went on to cruise to his second season-opening win in the last three years.
Hamilton looked in trouble early on due to traffic, and he was a full pit stop behind the leaders when he made his own first—and only—visit to the pits. However, the red flag closed the gaps to the cars ahead, and the white-marked mediums turned out to be the perfect tyres.
The world champion made up places as the Toro Rossos, Vettel's Ferrari and Daniel Ricciardo's Red Bull were forced to make second stops, and he was second with 15 laps to go. Vettel closed in but couldn't get close enough to pass, leaving Hamilton to complete a Mercedes one-two.
It was the result we were all expecting, and Mercedes definitely have a pace advantage, but the rest of the field look far closer than they were at the end of 2015.
All session, timing and penalty data used throughout sourced from the FIA, the official F1 website and F1 Fanatic's lap charts.
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