The Top Five Teams in Formula One: (Part 1 of team reports)

Ferrari

After an era ends when your top driver has left the team (Michael Schumacher), your principal leaves (Jean Todt) and your star technical director leaves (Ross Brawn) amongst other important members of staff (the likes of Rory Bryne), people wouldn’t think worse of you if you sunk down the grid. All the great teams have their eras and then sink into oblivion.

Sometimes, they return to the front, and sometimes they never come back. Ferrari, on the other hand, despite all their changes, have shown so far this season that they are still capable of building a frighteningly fast car.

The Ferrari this season is almost as good as some of the 2000-2004 cars they produced. Ferrari have prepared really well for this period and ensured they trained the right people lower down the Ferrari ranks to take on the top roles, and this is paying dividends at the moment.

Over last season, Ferrari have improved the car in key areas where they were struggling last season. Ferrari was poor relative to McLaren on the slow tracks. This is now no longer an issue. Ferrari are now just as competitive on slower tracks as McLaren. Ferrari proved this by getting a front-row lockout in Monaco, a circuit where in theory the Ferrari is the least suited.

Overall, they have been the most consistent team on the grid with three 1-2 finishes and a 24-point lead over Mclaren in the constructors championship. Their stats are better than everyone else in every area: five wins, five poles, six fastest laps and 10 podiums in nine races.

However, despite how well Ferrari have done this season, they may be bitterly disappointed that they are not a lot further ahead and completely in control.

New team boss Stefano Domenicali is right to be a bit peeved at some of the opportunities the team has missed. If they had taken them, this could be looking like a 2002-2004 walkover, but it isn’t.

Two of the opportunities I am talking about are both wet races this season, which were for the taking for Ferrari, but a lack of tactical finesse, in comparison to the Brawn years have let Ferrari down.

In Monaco, the team left Massa on inters expecting more rain, but this never happened, so he had to change back to dries; this definitely cost him second place and maybe the chance of challenging Lewis for victory.

In Silverstone, Raikkonen was hunting Hamilton down until the disastrous call to leave Raikkonen on the same inters when more rain was forecasted. This cost Raikkonen a good chance to win the race, and instead he struggled to fourth  position.

Also, in comparison to the Schumacher golden years, reliability isn’t quite 100 percent. Raikkonen had a reliability problem in qualifying in Australia along with an exhaust issue in France.

Raikkonen and Massa are both fast drivers but in terms of reliability, and getting the results they should, they are no Michael Schumacher. Massa was running in a comfortable second place until he completely lost it under no pressure. That was eight very silly points lost for the team.

In the opening race of the season, the pair were all over the place. Raikkonen went off the track attempting to overtake twice, whilst Massa had a mysterious spin at the start and then crashed into Coulthard. These aren’t the only instances when the drivers have made errors.

So whilst Ferrari are coming through this transitional period really well so far and, in terms of building a very fast car, have not suffered, it is clear that members of the so-called “Dream Team” are being missed in other areas. Schumacher would definitely have bagged more points than either Massa or Raikkonen so far this season.

Hamilton is level with both Ferrari drivers in the Drivers’ championship and McLaren are close enough to catch up in the Constructors’.

It could be a tight pressured battle in the second half of the season. Can the new-look Ferrari team get all the big decisions right and keep a nose ahead of McLaren in terms of car development?

Let's remember McLaren were heavily distracted in the second half of last season and McLaren lost both championships rather than Ferrari winning them both.

This season’s battle will be very different. McLaren are closing on Ferrari very quickly at this moment in time. The gap between the two cars has closed significantly over the last couple of months.

If Ferrari could pull it off though, it would be a great achievement but McLaren have shown them that they won’t be gifted both championships like in 2007.

Summary: Ferrari have come through their transitional period in deeply impressive style but they are a lot rougher around the edges than they once were. Will this cost them the championships?

McLaren

Last season was horrible for McLaren. It all started so well until the entire politics and spy saga started. In the end, they were left with nothing when they should have landed a championship for the first time this decade.

Yes, they are not quite on Ferrari’s pace on the track at the moment and a bit behind in the constructors championship, but to come back after a terrible spell, and have a car that can win races whilst closing in on Ferrari shows great resilience and character by everyone in the McLaren team.

It is very feasible that other teams in McLaren’s position could easily have fallen back as the morale would have been so low. Whoever in the McLaren camp has been given the job of keeping everyone’s chin up has done an exceptional job.

In terms of the car, it was initially a bit slower than the Ferrari in comparison to last season. In Malaysia, Bahrain, and Spain, the car was particularly slower than the Ferrari.

However, since then, McLaren have improved the car dramatically. Since Turkey, the McLaren has been a lot closer to the Ferrari. There is now only a matter of tenths in it at most racetracks, including the ones where McLaren recently struggled relative to Ferrari.

These races are the fast tracks where McLaren have always been too hard on tyres over the course of a long stint. The fact that McLaren are showing they can challenge Ferrari on these tracks is a real breakthrough and could really aid their chances of winning this season’s championships.

There have been two main problems that have blighted McLaren so far this season and why they find themselves adrift of Ferrari. The first problem is the driver line-up.

Hamilton and Kovalainen are two brilliant young drivers but something a young driver isn’t good at is setting up the car perfectly at every event. At some races, in the first half of the season, this has definitely been a problem.

Last season, Alonso’s ability to setup the car to perfection really helped Hamilton’s season and helped the team. McLaren definitely miss Alonso in that sense.

At some races, it is very clear the McLaren hasn’t been that well-balanced. Malaysia and Bahrain come to mind when the McLaren was a long way behind the Ferrari.

The other issue with the drivers is they apparently both like very different setups. Hamilton likes an under-steering car and to hang it out. Kovalainen is pretty much the opposite. This is another issue the team has faced.

Going back to Hamilton again, I think McLaren asked a bit too much to have a driver, recently a rookie, as their leading driver. Being the underdog is very easy. There isn’t a great deal of expectation.

As a team leader, the expectation is to deliver week in week out, always getting the team out of trouble. Hamilton has at times struggled with this extra pressure, and this has contributed to errors such as getting the start wrong in Bahrain and the famous Canada pit lane incident.

Last season, he only had positive press. The negative press can be very hard to deal with and this has been reflected on the track at times.

Kovalainen, on the other hand, has integrated himself very well with the team and they all like him. However, his bad luck has cost the team a lot of points. Heikki could have won in Turkey, he could have got a great result in Monaco and there have been other instances like these.

The second main problem is the penalties they have inccurred. Is the FIA against them and trying to make their life difficult? Looking at the blocking penalties in Malaysia, that was definitely justified as they were going too slowly on the racing line.

Both penalties in France, however, were extremely dubious. Kovalainen’s block on Webber couldn’t have been avoided due to Nakajima’s presence, plus it had no effect on Webber’s session as he still got through to the next stage.

As for Hamilton’s pass on Vettel, this one is very 50/50 and as we didn’t get any good camera angles of the incident it is very hard to tell. To me, it looked like he was already passed Vettel, but it depends on how much extra speed he was carrying when he got to the chicane.

Historically, McLaren’s development is quicker than any other team on the grid so that bodes very well for the second half of the season.

McLaren are looking as if they are solving their problems. Hamilton and Kovalainen are working better together and the car is getting faster. There is only the odd tenth between Ferrari and them, earlier in the season the gap was closer to a full half second.

They look like they can put a run together, but they can’t afford many slip-ups otherwise they may regret their slow start to the season.

Summary: McLaren has recovered from last season brilliantly but haven’t performed to their full potential; however, they are improving and are still close enough to challenge for both championships.

BMW Sauber

BMW Sauber has shown they are a team that has grown up very quickly and can make fast progress. Team boss Mario Theissen is very clever and has done very well to get the team together and turn them into a front-runner in a very small space of time.

He is running an F1 team like it should be run. The team have put the budget in the right areas and the staff structure is excellent and the sky is now the limit for them.

This season, the car has definitely taken a step forward. In testing, when the car hit the track for the first time, there were some big concerns. It didn’t handle well at all.

However, there was no panic and slowly but surely, over the winter, the team discovered the car’s problems and sorted them out. By the time winter testing had ended, they were closing in on McLaren and Ferrari.

For a team as young as BMW Sauber are, to not panic when the car doesn’t work in the first test, is a real testament of how far they have come in such a short space of time (BMW only took over the old Sauber team in 2006).

Overall, looking at the championship table, some fans may be tricked into thinking they have taken a mighty step forward. Yes, they have taken a step forward, but Ferrari and McLaren are still clearly the fastest cars on the grid.

The reason BMW Sauber are where they are at the moment is due to something that Mclaren and Ferrari along with their drivers haven’t shown all season: consistency.

BMW Sauber and their drivers have hardly made any high profile errors and have got the most out of their slightly under-paced car at every single GP this season.

Last season, both McLaren and Ferrari were very consistent which meant that BMW couldn’t get onto the podium until Canada. McLaren and Ferrari had dominated the podium positions until that point.

This season, BMW Sauber have already had six podiums including that brilliant 1-2 in Canada. At this point last season, they had only scored one podium.

This isn’t really because the car is much faster than last season. It is mainly because of the sheer amount of uncharacteristic errors Mclaren and Ferrari and their drivers have made in the first half of the season that the doors have opened up for BMW Sauber.

In that race in Montreal all four McLaren and Ferrari drivers ran into trouble. Still, BMW Sauber did well to make the most of their opportunity. Another fact is that, this season, there have already been two wet races.

In 2007, we didn’t see a wet race until the second half of the season. BMW have made the most of opportunities Mother Nature has given them so far.

So, because BMW Sauber have been able to score big in most races consistently, it has allowed them to tag along with Mclaren and Ferrari in the constructors’ championship. This has given them a huge opportunity for the rest of the season.

Winning a championship was never on BMW’s agenda this season. However, since they have been able to challenge despite having a slower car, and due to the circumstances outlined earlier, if they could just add a few more tenths to their overall package, they could challenge Mclaren and Ferrari in a straight fight rather than rely on the opposition’s errors.

The main issue BMW Sauber now face is whether they try full-on to take this season’s championships or focus solely on the huge rule changes in 2009 whilst McLaren and Ferrari are forced to continue to out-develop each other.

If I were Mario Theissen, I would be delighted with how the season has gone so far, but, being realistic, I think this season, titles for BMW Sauber are out of reach. 

If next season’s rules were stable, I would be saying to my team “let's go for it.” However, there will never be such a big opportunity to get ahead of McLaren and Ferrari on pure pace as next’s years new rules and that opportunity shouldn’t be missed

What will BMW Sauber decide to do?

Summary: BMW Sauber aren’t on McLaren and Ferrari’s pace but have been brilliantly consistent and not made numerous errors; therefore they still deserve to be in the championship chase.

Toyota

Toyota are a peculiar team. They have the budget, the facilities, some good people but yet they fail to produce a decent Formula One car.

Last season was simply not good enough, as they scored a simply appalling 13 points. The car had a few bursts of pace, but it was far too inconsistent and hot to handle for their drivers.

Over the last 12 months, a few key names have been brought in to try to help the operation. The most high-profile of those names was Frank Dernie. He has been brought in from Williams who was a strong influence there.

His input has been a real help, and you can see that he has already helped steer them in the right direction. Mark Gillian, who is now in charge of aerodynamics, has also been a good appointment.

Toyota are now desperately trying to improve the poor reputation they have in F1. Rather than follow other teams by just adding upgrades to their current car, they started with a blank piece of paper.

To be fair on the team, this season has seen a very good improvement as opposed to their recent poor standards. They already have 25 points in the bag. 12 more points than the whole of last season.

The car is quicker and is fast enough to be a top 10 car most weekends. Also it is far more consistent over long race stints. This has particularly helped Trulli enjoy better races rather than continually sinking, as in most races in previous seasons.

In France, the team was particularly quick and Trulli was able to compete for the last podium spot on merit (albeit it probably would have been fourth had Hamilton not got his drive-through penalty). He was able to keep Kovalainen behind him in the closing stages and beat all the other midfield runners.

Probably the main mistake Toyota have made this season is signing Timo Glock. He has really struggled to adapt to F1 and has only had one decent race (Canada).

If he could have performed on Trulli’s level all season so far, Toyota may find themselves a lot more comfortable in their fourth place. At the moment, it’s too tight for comfort and they will have to continue their improvement over the course of the season to bag that fourth place.

If Toyota can finish the season in fourth, it will show that they are finally getting better as a F1 team. Really, fourth is the very least Toyota should be achieving. It’s always going to be hard to beat McLaren and Ferrari, as they have the budget and the facilities along with a great heritage in F1.

This season is an improvement, but in the big scheme of things, it is still not good enough. Toyota needs to gather momentum and continue forward unlike after 2005, where the first signs of big progress came and they let it slip very badly (mainly by sacking Mike Gascoyne).

Toyota: Have shown some good signs of improvement this season after two very poor campaigns (2006 and 2007); however, they are still not where they should be and a lot of work still to be done.

Red Bull

Red Bull are a team now that are now starting to show signs of delivering the kind of performance that fans expect of them. All the ingredients are there for this team to be near the front.

They have the financial backing. They have design genius Adrian Newey, technical genius Geoff Willis along with a very ambitious young boss in Christian Horner along with two good experienced drivers.

Despite all that, last season wasn’t as successful as it should have been. The Red Bull was fast at times but it was chronically unreliable. This cost the team an awful lot of points and instead of trying to make the car faster they spent the season fixing the car’s various issues.

This season, though, some may still be very disappointed that Red Bull haven’t joined the front-runners and are still competing in the midfield. Nevertheless, after last season, there are more positive signals coming out of the team that suggest that they are now on their way.

By this time last season, Red Bull had seven DNFs due to unreliability. So far in 2008, there hasn’t been one single problem with reliability.

The car is faster, too. Last season they were probably between 1.0-1.5 seconds off Ferrari’s pace in races. Now that has dropped to below a second.

Points wise, Red Bull have improved in this department too. They now have 24 points, which matches the number of points they got in the whole of last season. At the halfway mark last season, they only finished in the points twice, collecting a total of only six points. The difference between the first half of 2007 and 2008 is vast.

The team is now really starting to get their heads down and are bringing updates worth a tenth or two to each GP. They are now finishing races, getting points consistently and the signs are that there is even more to come starting with the second half of 2008.

The Red Bull worked extremely well at Silverstone. Mark Webber did a brilliant lap to get onto the front row of the grid. As good as that was, most people presumed that Mark was just on fumes and would pit very early.

Amazingly, we learnt in the race that wasn’t the case. Yes, Mark was lighter, but he had only one lap less than Kovalainen (who took pole) and was only two or three laps lighter than Raikkonen and Hamilton, who pitted together.

If Red Bull can continue to improve at this rate, then who knows what else they could achieve in the second half of the season? Maybe they can get a few more podiums before the season is out.

The one thing that has to be on Red Bull’s minds though is when do they start to put more effort on the 2009 car with the huge rule changes? Red Bull have to think about this very seriously.

Many technical experts in F1 say these new regulations will make the cars more like the ones we saw in the '90s era. Newey cars dominated this era, as he won championships with Williams and Mclaren. These regs could very suit him and this would be excellent for Red Bull next season. Obviously, they want to finish fourth as well, but putting more effort into 2009 may well pay them dividends.

The only weakness of Red Bull’s season is that it is said the Renault engine is a bit underpowered compared to other rival engines. There's not much that Red Bull can do about this whilst we are under the engine freeze regulation.

Also, David Coulthard’s bad luck and at times lack of pace in a couple of races means that it has mainly been Webber scoring the points. However, DC got a vital podium in Canada. The team will hope he can string a better second half of the season to help the team claim fourth place.

Summary: Red Bull maybe should be a bit further up by now but they are starting to get the job done and there are huge improvements over last season being made. The future looks bright at this stage as I think next season’s rules will suit Newey and Willis.