How Are the Top Five Constructors Doing So Far? || F1 2023

00:00

Red Bull dominance, surprise contenders and regressing teams. This week I’m chatting about the top five teams in the F1 Constructors’ Championship so get ready because you’ve been summoned to The Steward’s Office.

00:19

Hello everyone and welcome back to The Steward’s Office. I’m Saira and today I’m having a chat about the top five teams in the constructors’ championship right now.

00:30

Last week I covered the bottom five teams so head over to that episode if you haven’t had a chance to listen to it yet. But just like last week, I’m gonna be looking at each team’s season so far, what the drivers and TPs are saying, and how the rest of the season might look for them with their planned upgrades. So let’s get into it!

00:50

We’re gonna start off with a team that… well definitely had some luck in Australia and that’s McLaren. Currently in P5 and honestly… look no offence but this has to be the most misleading team in the constructors’ standings right now. They were in dead last up until Australia and now they’ve managed to leapfrog all the way up to P5… You know what, let’s just get into their first three races to figure out what’s really gone on with them.

01:23

Starting off in Bahrain, this wasn't the season opener that the team were hoping for. Oscar was eliminated in Q1, Lando in Q2 with Lando saying that he felt that he got everything out of the car in that Q2 session. And the race was just an absolute nightmare for both of the drivers. For Oscar, I don’t really know how much worse it could have gotten for him after he DNF’d from his first F1 race. But an electronics issue with the car meant that he only managed to do 13 laps.

01:58

And Lando… I did wonder why they opted not to finish his race earlier. He was having pneumatic and PU issues throughout the race, I think he pitted about 5 or 6 times but somehow they managed to get through the issue and get him to finish the race. So, reliability was just not looking good for them from the outset. Andrea Stella thought that points were a possibility for the team though without all the issues that they had so maybe they had some data that was showing they had pace that we just didn’t see but Saudi didn’t really improve for them either.

02:39

Oscar had contact with Gasly during the very first lap and that meant that he had to pit straight away for a new nose. Lando then got hit by debris from that very incident and also had to pit for a new nose. So both of them were running a compromised race from the get-go. The end of the race did give them a chance to get some racing in, even though some of that was against each other but this ended up being another point-less race for McLaren. And Andrea Stella came out with the usual statement, they thought they could get points but it just didn’t happen.

03:17

So yeah, I do get that from those first two races we didn’t really see anything from them. Both of their races for both drivers ended up being compromised which probably didn’t give us the best picture of the McLaren race pace.

03:32

And then came along the Australian Grand Prix and what was the team’s best race so far. After Alex’s DNF on lap 10, both of the driver were running in the top ten. Lando seemed to be able to keep that place in the points-paying positions a lot easier than Oscar did but after 8 DNFs and a 5 second-time penalty from Carlos Sainz, both of the cars ended up in the points.

03:58

And look, I do think a points finish was probably on the cards for Lando but just not as high as P6. And for Oscar… I don’t know, I think he would have been close to the points but maybe not in the top 10. Basically guys, without all of the chaos, I don’t think McLaren would be sitting in P5 right now. Probably not at the bottom of the table without any points but not where they are right now.

04:27

It’s definitely been difficult to get a read on their car and right now the best thing that I can go by for them is their Quali pace and that hasn’t been spectacular either. Oscar had a pretty good run in Saudi to get into Q3 but overall, I think the team are still trying to find a good set up that can really extract some good pace over one lap.

04:47

Looking at their results though, it’s just been a disappointing start to the season. McLaren for the past couple of years have been fighting to get back to the front and it feels like they’re stagnant in their growth right now. The past two seasons they’ve been fighting for P4 in the constructors' and this year they just seem to be in no man’s land. They’re making structural changes to the team in the hopes that might change something but those changes might take a little time to come through. I don’t think it’s going to have a massive impact on this current season.

05:21

McLaren are bringing the first set of updates to Baku, which is the next race, and Andrea Stella is not expecting it to be an absolute game-changer for them but he thinks it is going to be a step in the right direction for the team. Hopefully helping them to fight for points without there being so much chaos at the front in order to get there.

05:40

The drivers and team still seem pretty hopeful with their car for the season. They think there is some race pace there. And from what I've read, I think they’re bringing three upgrade packages over the next few months now, so it’ll be interesting to see if the car concept changes at all and if we'll see massive visible changes and just how much of an impact those upgrades will actually have.

06:02

Andrea Stella said that so far, what they’re seeing on track is correlating with their wind tunnel data so he’s expecting to see the same from the upgrades that they’re bringing. Positive change and no regression in their performance but it’s just a question of how much positive change that is that they can bring and if it’s able to keep up with the upgrades other teams will be bringing.

06:24

But yeah, McLaren are just a weird one for me. I don’t think the car is doing as great as last year but it’s just hard to get a proper read on them right now and figure out where they're really going to be ending up.

06:36

Coming in at fourth is Scuderia Ferrari… where do I start with this team? This time last year after three races they were first in the constructors’ championship with Charles leading the drivers’ championship and now the team are in fourth and Charles has 6 points, 2 DNFs and a penalty. It’s been a messy season start for them with things not exactly going to plan at the season opener.

07:04

To be fair, Charles did seem to have some good pace at the start Bahrain, he could hang on with Max for a little bit before he eventually dropped back but I thought we’d get ot see him on a podium but then I see him pulling up onto the side of the track with an electrical issue and having to DNF from the first race of the season.

07:23

On the other side of the garage, tyre degradation was then an issue for Carlos which meant that he also lost a podium place. To be fair, the tire degradation issue had come up in testing so hopefully, Ferrari are trying to figure out how to combat that. Saying that though, race pace wasn’t a surprise for the team, Carlos said that they’d expected it to be a difficult race after their preseason testing but that electronics reliability issue was definitely a bigger cause for concern right now.

07:51

Saudi seemed a little better since neither Ferrari had to DNF but Charles was taking a grid place penalty for exceeding the number of allowed control electronics. Two races into the season and to already have to take a grid place penalty for exceeding parts… I mean surely that has to be just a little bit concerning for the team, right? Especially when there are 23 races this season.

08:18

The team weren’t entirely impressed with the car on race day and realised that there was a gap between their qualifying and race pace that they are really going to have to close to try to get closer to the front. The pace for both of the drivers was consistent but that consistency meant that they stayed behind both of the Mercs and Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin.

08:37

So, coming away from that race, you could tell that there was some work that needed to be done to make sure that the car was fast enough to get past two teams that I’m sure Ferrari were expecting to do better than this season. It was interesting though because Fred and Carlos had mentioned that they were expecting a better pace from the car so I’m not sure what happened there that the car just wasn’t performing the way they expected it to.

09:04

And then there was Australia which was probably the most disappointing race for the entire team with both drivers unable to come away with any points. Charles didn’t even get a race down under after contact with Lance Stroll but Carlos looked like he was going to have a much more promising afternoon. The car seemed to be performing a little better and even with the safety car pit at the start of the race putting Carlos at a disadvantage, he still managed to make some really good overtakes to work his way up the field again but a 5 second time penalty took away P5 from the team and what would have been a welcome haul of points.

09:42

So there was definitely a huge amount of bad luck for the entire team that day. Saying that though, Ferrari have appealed the decision about Carlos’ 5-second time penalty, so there could be a chance that they will actually get some points from Australia but I’m not too sure how likely that’ll be. Hopefully, it won’t be too long until we get a decision from that. But overall, Australia was a race for them to forget.

10:06

Neither driver has managed to get on a podium so far this year, which when you compare it to their form last year seems crazy. But I don’t think there’s any better word for me to describe Ferrari right now other than disappointing. Their form was good last year.

10:23

Strategy was a huge thing that let them down but the car itself wasn’t bad and there was something good for them to build on but I don’t know what happened over winter that they’ve fallen behind Aston Martin and by the looks of it right now, also Mercedes. And I know some of this has been down to being unlucky but there are also some reliability issues at play and I don’t know if Ferrari are entirely sure why their car has been behaving the way it has over the past three races.

10:53

Upgrades-wise, it looks like there are three main areas that Ferrari are going to be bringing changes to and that’s the floor, the suspension and also finding a way to make the car less sensitive to external variables. These aren’t just to try and bring more overall performance to the car but also to give it a bigger working window so the engineers to try and find the perfect set-up for each race.

11:17

So, with that being said, I don’t think these are going to be HUGE upgrade changes. Fred Vasseur has already ruled out a change in concepts, he’s sticking with the bathtub sidepods and doesn’t think there’s an issue with them and to be fair, yeah I’d say the same because the car did seem to work fairly well last year but reliability and strategy were their main issues.

11:39

And as for the drivers… well you’ve got Carlos trying to get the Tifosi to stick by the team. He knows it’s not been the best start for the Scuderia but just wants the fans to stick by them and Charles on the other hand is urging and hoping that the team will manage to do some work in the gap between Baku and Australia that will improve the car. But, look, even if they do manage to find something, I don’t think it’s going to make a whole load a difference, at least not in terms of getting to where they were last year. I don’t think P2 in the constructors’ is the most realistic thing for them right now, I’m gonna say that they’ll be fighting for P3/P4 which is a step back from last year but from what we’ve seen so far, I think it’s the best we’re going to get.

12:27

Coming into the top three now and Mercedes have claimed P3 so far this season. Bahrain saw both of the drivers finish in P6 and P7 but their race pace compared to the top three teams that day was not there and had Charles not DNF’d then they probably wouldn’t both been bumped down another place.

12:45

The team were heading back to Brackley to find a way bring some performance to the car quickly but that was also accompanied by a pretty lengthy letter from Mercedes apologising to the fans for their performance. And let’s be honest, it was overkill, but it did bring across the massive amount of disappointment that they were feeling.

13:05

Saudi was a little bit better for them taking home P4 and P5, even though for a minute it did look like there was going to be a podium for George after the issues with Alonso’s penalty. But they did manage to keep ahead of the Ferrari’s this time, still slower than Aston though and realistically, I think Red Bull are gonna be out of everyone’s reach this season.

13:31

Toto did say after the race that there were some massive steps in terms of development that were being made at the factory but it was going to take them a while to try and compete with the Red Bulls' pace. The feeling from Merc was a lot more positive compared to Bahrain, a lot more chins up and just more hope that was coming out the team and that might have been because of some of the results that they were seeing out of the wind tunnel but either way, it just seemed like a much more positive camp at Mercedes.

13:56

Australia was a bit of mixed luck for the team. There was a massive fire at the back of George’s car which meant that he had no other choice but to DNF. Reliability wasn’t really an issue for Mercedes last season but seeing your engine up in flames might be a bit concerning for the team back at the factory. Toto was saying that from the initial look, a cylinder has completely gone. So, George is more than likely to be taking another engine at Baku and is that a surprise really after seeing what happened on track?

14:26

Lewis had a much better race though and the team managed to secure P2 which was their first podium of the year. They aren’t getting ahead of themselves though, they seem to be happy that they were able to keep up with the pace of Aston Martin but I think for them, they’re gonna want to see the team pulling ahead of Ferrari and Aston not just being on par with them.

14:47

There’s also the fact that Australia didn’t have a mass amount of tyre deg for the teams and that could have helped Merc out, and we don’t know if this is something that is more track specific for the car. It might not be something we see a repeat performance of but regardless of that, I think it’s probably raised the morale for a lot of members of the team.

15:09

Look, Merc committed to the no-pods concept again this year. They thought the improvements last year were worth it and that there was performance to be found but they’ve just been struggling to find it in that car. I don’t think it’s been as easy to unlock as they thought it was going to be. And committing to it has meant that they have hampered their performance for the start of this season. I get that last year the team was saying that scrapping the concept would mean that they would have to go back to square one but it’s looks like that’s what they’re planning on doing anyway.

15:40

Apparently, over winter break they had seen that the car wasn’t giving the best numbers in the wind tunnel. Or at least not numbers that they were happy with and they’ve been working on changing the concept of the car since then. So, in terms of the upgrades that we know that Mercedes are bringing, Andrew Shovlin mentioned we should be seeing some upgrades over the next five races. In either Baku or Miami we might be seeing some changes to the mechanics and cooling of the car.

16:08

Imola is going to be the race Mercedes fans are going to want to keep an eye out for though because that should be the one where we see a change in car concept which will include but isn’t limited to the sidepod shape. Do I think it’s gonna end up looking more like the Red Bull? Potentially. Toto said he doesn’t really care what it looks like, if it’s similar to the Red Bull, he just wants the car to be fast. Which, I mean, fair because that’s what I’m hoping for as well. And then the Spanish GP should be bringing upgrades to build on the concept change in Imola.

16:46

So, it should be a couple of interesting races for the team and I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out to see if the changes make any difference. Especially the concept change. I wanna know what the car is gonna look like and whether it does give them some more race pace and is a nicer car for the drivers. Because if those upgrades don’t work out for them, then I don’t really know where Merc goes from this point. So, there’s a lot riding on them to work out and to try and get them closer to the front. I’m pretty excited to see what they’ve got in store for us though.

17:22

In P2 is the biggest surprise of the year for the majority of F1 fans and that is Aston Martin. I can’t lie, I think I’m still in a little bit of shock at just how well their car is doing this season. I really did not believe Christian Horner when he said that he’d heard some really good numbers coming out of Aston Marting and thought that they would be a top team but he was right.

17:49

Bahrain was an incredible race for both of their drivers. It’s pretty obvious why for Fernando who picked up his first podium with Aston on his first out with them, managing to stay ahead of Ferrari and Mercedes so absolutely phenomenal race for him.

18:02

And for Lance, to come in at P6 after not attending preseason testing and his wrist still not being 100% was incredible. Mike Krack was so happy with the progress the team had made between last year and the first race of the season and they just seemed to keep up the form that they had in testing which not all teams had been able to. Or I think in the case of Aston, people thought they were showing their cards too early and that they would actually be slower than what they had shown in preseason testing.

18:35

Saudi was probably equal parts joy and equal parts disappointment for everyone. Fernando managed to once again keep ahead of the Ferraris and Mercs to take another podium, even though it took a little while to confirm it. Lance on the other hand had to DNF after he had some power issues and the team asking him to stop on track. But I think overall, Fernando’s pace showed that the AMR23 isn’t a one-trick pony. It wasn’t just performing well in Bahrain, the street circuit of Saudi also wasn’t proving to be an issue.

19:08

And out in Australia, Fernando took three of three, his third P3 in 3 races. Which just proves how consistent the car was for them. Sure, Lewis did finish ahead of him this time but I don’t think that was because of a lack of pace from Aston and just more of Mercedes having caught up to their pace a little bit. After that contact with Carlos right at the end of the race though, I did think it was going to be game over for him but apparently, Aston didn’t just build a fast car but also a really strong one. Lance also managed to into P4 so it was a pretty strong race weekend for the entire team.

19:47

Both of the drivers seem really happy with the car and I haven’t really heard any complaints from either of them. They seem really comfortable, happy with the pace and just enjoying the racing they’re getting to do at the front of the pack. The same with Mike, he seems really happy with the team effort but he’s trying to make sure that no one gets ahead of themselves.

20:07

He’s trying to keep everyone grounded and just to take it race by race which is probably the best thing to do but I think most of the team at Aston Martin are gonna struggle with that when they’ve just had this absolutely phenomenal start. I mean, how are you meant to try and keep super grounded when you went from being a backmarker team to having three podiums in the first three races?

20:30

I think the main thing Mike wants from the team though is just not to lose focus because Aston Martin are testament to how quickly things can change in the sport so he doesn’t want to the team to kinda sit back and think, yeah we’ve got this in the bag, it's fine, no problem, because there are so many teams behind them that are fighting to catch up with a lot of developments in the pipeline.

20:56

According to Mike after the Australian Grand Prix, there are some planned upgrades or at least parts that they’re gonna be bringing to the next few races but they are planning on bigger improvements in the later part of the season. Baku, Imola and Montreal should see them with some new parts and they’re also planning a few new parts in Silverstone.

21:16

Essentially, they’re gonna be bringing small bits to each of these races, from what I've read and what I've seen, instead of having a big upgrade package like some teams have planned. They’re working on just bringing some more performance to the car which they’re gonna have to do to make sure that they can still keep ahead of the rest of the field. We saw in Aus that Merc managed to find some pace to get on par with them so I’m sure Aston are gonna be working hard to make sure they don’t give up that P2 in the constructors and to also get some race wins along the way.

21:47

Look as long as they have good reliability and the upgrades they’re bringing work and can keep them ahead then I really don’t see any reason why they couldn’t keep P2 in the constructors’ and I don’t see any reason why those upgrades wouldn’t work when you see how well they’re car is already working. The more they learn about their car, surely the only thing that can happen is that it’s gonna get better. And I think they have two drivers that really want to keep the team up there in the standings and are gonna do everything they can on a race weekend to make sure that happens.

22:20

Right now, the worst place I could see the team finishing in is P4 but I don’t know, my gut is saying the lowest would be P3 for them. But I'm gonna say P4 just in case. Regardless, this is definitely going to be their strongest season since becoming Aston Martin and I think it’s going be a pretty consistent season for them as well.

22:42

And finally, taking the top spot of the constructors’ championship is Red Bull. They’re pretty much had a dream start to this season, having won all three races and pulling ahead of everyone both on track and in the constructors’ standing. Really, what is there to say about the team and their races so far? They’ve had such comfortable leads for the rest of the teams that they can just breathe and cruise for most of the race. Especially for Max.

23:14

His race in Bahrain was incredible and he seemed so at ease with the car. Out in Saudi, a P15 start didn’t stop him from making his way up to P2, with Checo managing to get the win for Red Bull that time around. Two races in and the team had already secured a back-to-back 1-2 and I think that’s pretty much set the tone for the season for them.

23:37

Australia did put an end to their 1-2s though but that really wasn’t down to the car. Checo had such a horrible quali session, seeing him crash out and end up starting in P20 and ending in P5 which don’t get me wrong, isn’t a bad result at all. I think some of the chaos with all the restarts might have hindered him from making up a couple more spaces though. But the fact that P5 is a disappointing result for Red Bull says it all.

24:07

There just isn’t another team that’s even remotely close to them right now and I can’t see that changing over the course of the season. They’ve just managed to build on what was an extremely good car this year and just blow it out of the water. The advantage that they’re able to build up in just a few laps of the race doesn’t seem real. It doesn’t look like car with any kind of weaknesses, no areas where they’re really struggling and so far there have been no tracks where the car isn't happy.

24:37

Their DRS seems to be on another planet, they’re able to breeze past cars and build an even larger advantage. They’ve set the benchmark and it’s their times that everyone is going to be chasing but like I said, I just don’t see it happening this season and maybe even potentially next season. Because they’re not going to stop working on their car.

25:01

the first couple of races in: 2022

25:43

And that’s about sums up the top five teams in the championship. I think we’re gonna be in for some interesting battles from P2 to P4. So, Aston, Merc and Ferrari. I think we're gonna see some interesting battles there and probably some switches in the standings at that sort of area. I’m so excited to see what upgrades are coming to the car and what difference they might made to the races. It’s gonna be one interesting development race this season.

26:16

Thank you guys so much for watching, make sure to follow me on Instagram and Tiktok at stewards_office for the latest news and I’ll see you guys the next time you’re summoned to the steward’s office.