Austrian Grand Prix team ratings: McLaren making moves, Mercedes off-colour

奥地利的PlanetF1.com团队评级nd Prix are in, with McLaren making a big step forwards after their best race of the year.

For those of you familiar with our driver ratings, the format will largely be the same but with some key differences as to what ratings will be awarded for regarding the teams.

To start, these ratings are focusing on the team away from the drivers so as an example, a driver’s failure to line up properly on the grid was not caused by the team so their rating does not drop as a result. However, moving to start work on the car early during a penalty is definitely their fault so has a big impact on their score.

It is not just penalties we are focusing on but also on team strategy as well as their reliability.

Other than that, it should be exactly the same as you are already used to so let’s dive in:

Red Bull 9

Red Bull may have pulled the trigger a little later than they should have when it came to Max Verstappen’s pit stop, forcing him to lose the lead for the first time since Miami, but they did so safe in the knowledge that driver and car had the speed to pass Charles Leclerc with relative ease.

There was a slight concern late on when Verstappen was determined to pit for fresh softs in order to go for the fastest lap so credit must go to the mechanics who pulled off a quick stop under pressure.

On Sergio Perez’s side of the garage, race engineer Hugh Bird should be praised for his messages warning the driver about track limits with Perez escaping a penalty.

芝加哥商业交易所edes 6.5

It is rare you hear team boss Toto Wolff talk over the radio at all, let alone multiple times in a race but his assessment was perhaps the best one of Mercedes’ performance: “Lewis, the car is bad, we know, please drive it.”

Hamilton seemed more agitated than usual as he continually struggled to keep it within the white lines, eventually earning 15 seconds in track limits penalties.

George Russell meanwhile was one of just two drivers not to even receive a strike.

Aston Martin 6.5

A relatively poor race from Aston Martin with the car looking decidedly average around the Red Bull Ring.

With its high-speed corners, the track was not a natural complement to the AMR23’s style but even still, the pace was off for both drivers.

Alonso attempted to battle but found he had a foam sword in his sheath instead of the usual steel while Lance Stroll was undone by an ill-timed pit stop, with the Virtual Safety Car ending while he was in the pit lane.

Ferrari 7.5

Whether or not he would have been able to fight Verstappen remains to be seen but Ferrari missed out on their best opportunity to do so by refusing to allow Carlos Sainz to pass Charles Leclerc early on in the race.

That was not Ferrari’s only blunder either as they opted to pit both drivers at the same time which considering how close they were following each other on the track was always going to be bad news for Sainz.

To make matters worse, the mechanics produced a slow stop for Leclerc at around four seconds and then did the same for Sainz, sending him much further down the grid and scuppering any realistic chance of a podium.

Perhaps Sainz’s race engineer could also have done a better job in warning him regarding track limits.

Alpine 6

We will start with Pierre Gasly who was one of many to suffer a track limits penalty but at least performed well enough to still finish within the points but that is about where the good news stops for Alpine.

Esteban Ocon managed to rack up an incredible 35 seconds in time penalties and while 30 seconds of those were Ocon’s fault, it was the team’s fault that he received an additional five seconds for an unsafe release.

Alpine sent Ocon back out of their pit box at the very moment that Logan Sargeant was passing by, forcing the Williams driver to brake just to get into his own box and giving Ocon an obvious penalty.

McLaren 9

Credit must go to the men and women at the McLaren Technology Centre who delivered upgrades that were good enough to give Lando Norris the chance to fight much higher up the grid.

In Austria the MCL60 looked quick if just still a step off the Red Bulls and Ferraris.

Unfortunately for Oscar Piastri, he did not receive the upgrades in Austria but McLaren have promised further upgrades for his and Norris’ car to come at Silverstone.

PlanetF1.com建议

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Austrian Grand Prix conclusions: Red Bull’s Perez problem, dreaded track limits and more

Haas 5.5

A great sprint Saturday was pretty quickly soured with a disastrous Sunday. Even before his retirement, Nico Hulkenberg was dropping like a stone as the VF-23 continues to eat through tyres at an alarming rate.

It was a similar story for his team-mate Kevin Magnussen who was battling down the bottom of the grid for much of the race.

If Haas have any hope of adding more points to their tally, they must overcome this tyre problem.

Alfa Romeo 5.5

With the big Audi move on the horizon, Alfa’s continued poor form in 2023 seems to be flying under the radar.

Just as they have been for much of the season, they were slow in Austria with Valtteri Bottas finishing 17th and Zhou Guanyu promoted to 12th when the post-race penalties were applied.

Alfa are on just nine points this season and look unlikely to add to that tally anytime soon.

Williams 7

With its long straights, the Red Bull Ring was always likely to be a strong circuit for the Williams car which will make it all the more disappointing that they come away with zero points to show for it.

Alex Albon earned Yuki Tsunoda’s traditional P11 while Logan Sargeant had his best race since Bahrain in 13th.

On the team front, the strategy was as good as it could be and there were no reliability issues.

AlphaTauri 5.5

AlphaTauri were perhaps a little fortunate to be spared a penalty for beginning work on Yuki Tsunoda’s car before it was allowed with the stewards giving them the benefit of the doubt.

But Tsunoda did not escape entirely. He was given a total of 20 seconds in penalties for track limits.

His team-mate Nyck de Vries came off marginally better with just the 15 seconds for track limits but decided to top it up by forcing Magnussen off the road.

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