Team ratings | Ferrari has learned from its strategic mistakes

F1 News

11 July 2022 at 16:14
  • GPblog.com

While Ferrari regularly missed the mark on strategy in the 2022 Formula One season, the team did not make the same mistake in Austria. The team was not tempted by Red Bull Racing's undercuts and kept a cool head this time around. How do the teams rate their performance at the Austrian Grand Prix?

Ferrari: 9

Ferrari may have lost Carlos Sainz to an engine failure, but up until that point the Italian team had been doing everything right. Where the team had not been proactive enough in strategy before, this time they responded in time to Red Bull Racing's attempts at victory. Admittedly, F1-75 was clearly the fastest car in Austria, but that was due to tyre degradation. In that area too, Ferrari won out over its rivals this weekend.

Red Bull Racing: 8

Red Bull Racing also has little to reproach itself with. Sergio Perez's incident with George Russell left Max Verstappen alone against the Ferrari drivers, and his team did all they could to strategically outwit their Italian rivals. Two undercuts were made, and both had the desired effect: after the pitstops of Leclerc and Sainz, the Dutchman found himself in front of the Ferrari drivers. However, Ferrari had the better of the plan, for no matter what Red Bull tried, it was unable to beat the Scuderia this time.

Mercedes: 7

In the final results, it doesn't look all bad for Mercedes, who again scored a podium finish and a fourth place. However, the team had to take advantage of the misfortune of others, because with Sainz and Perez still in contention, this result would not have been possible. Lewis Hamilton and George Russell drove in no-man's land, finishing 41 and 58 seconds behind race winner Charles Leclerc respectively. Little seemed to remain of the competitive form seen at Silverstone, but the German side once again proved how valuable a reliable car can be.

McLaren: 7.5

With seventh and ninth place, McLaren managed a reasonably solid result. A double points finish is certainly not always in the cards for the Woking-based team, who will be relieved to see Daniel Ricciardo in the points again.

Alpine: 8

Alpine also put in a strong performance, with both drivers finishing in the points. Fernando Alonso did a great job catching up from the last row and managed to grab the last point. Esteban Ocon had been on a good run all weekend by staying around fifth place. The Frenchman was even the last driver to finish on the same lap as race winner Leclerc.

Alfa Romeo: 6.5

A points finish was out of the question for Alfa Romeo in Austria, but that was partly due to Valtteri Bottas' last starting position. The Finn just couldn't manage to fight his way back into the top ten and ended up in 11th place. Guanyu Zhou finished fourteenth and the team didn't seem to have the speed they sometimes have.

Haas: 9

After Silverstone, Haas again performed very strongly in Austria. The American team saw both its drivers finish in the top ten, with Mick Schumacher scoring his best result to date in sixth. The German also finished ahead of his teammate Kevin Magnussen for the second time in a row and seems to be thriving lately, having managed to keep his cool in direct duels with Verstappen and Hamilton two weekends in a row.

AlphaTauri: 4

A tough fail for AlphaTauri, who saw Pierre Gasly have a messy weekend in which he was involved in multiple incidents. Yuki Tsunoda managed to stay out of trouble this time, even when track limit warnings and penalties were handed out by the stewards, but he still finished behind his teammate.

Aston Martin: 6

Aston Martin mainly had a colourless race, with Lance Stroll outperforming his teammate for once. Sebastian Vettel was unable to perform any miracles after a collision with Pierre Gasly and was the last driver to finish. Stroll, on the other hand, did well to lose few places and stay out of trouble, but there were no points for the Canadian either.

Williams: 6.5

After a very solid weekend at Silverstone, Nicholas Latifi came back down to earth at Spielberg. The Canadian once again lost out to teammate Alexander Albon, who maximised his chances with 12th place.