Formula 1: Are Red Bull Racing the best team aside of Mercedes?

Have Aston Martin Red Bull Racing overtaken Scuderia Ferrari as the best Formula 1 team aside of Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport?

Following preseason testing at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Montmeló, Barcelona, Spain, Scuderia Ferrari appeared to have made enough strides to challenge five-time reigning constructor champions Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport in the 2019 Formula 1 season.

Ferrari finished in second place behind Mercedes in the constructor standings in the 2017 and 2018 seasons, and they finished only 84 points behind them last year (655 to 571), marking the smallest winning margin in the standings for the Silver Arrows since the start of the V6 turbo hybrid era in the 2014 season.

But Mercedes ended up dominating the weekend of the season opener, the Australian Grand Prix. To open up the weekend, five-time and two-time reigning Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton topped the speed charts in all three of the race’s practice sessions.

The 34-year-old Briton went on to take the pole position for the race by recording a track record lap time of 80.486 seconds (147.424 miles per hour) around the 16-turn, 3.296-mile (5.304-kilometer) Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit road course in Albert Park, Melbourne, Australia.

More from Formula One

• Formula 1: Top Red Bull threat identified for 2024
• Formula 1: Why the Max Verstappen retirement obsession?
• Formula 1: Williams ‘mistake’ hints Logan Sargeant’s future
• Formula 1 awaiting key confirmation for 2024 season
• Formula 1: The ‘championship’ Max Verstappen only leads by 3 points

Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas ended up passing Hamilton at the start of the 58-lap race after starting in second place, and he went on to win it after leading all but two of its laps. Aston Martin Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen led these two laps as a result of the fact that Bottas made his pit stop two laps before Verstappen did. Bottas was not passed for the lead on the track at any point during the race.

Bottas went on to win the race by 20.886 seconds, which became the largest winning margin since Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg won the 2016 Russian Grand Prix by 25.022 seconds over Hamilton in second place. In addition, Bottas’s winning margin was the largest winning margin for a non-polesitter since Hamilton won the 2014 British Grand Prix by 30.135 seconds over him in second.

But Mercedes were not the only team that dominated Ferrari in this race. Red Bull Racing, in their first race using Honda-powered cars after ending their 12-year relationship with Renault this offseason, also did so.

Verstappen, who started the race in fourth place, went on to finish on the third and final step of the podium behind the Mercedes teammates, giving Honda their first podium finish since Rubens Barrichello drove for Honda and finished in third in the 2008 British Grand Prix.

Ferrari teammates Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc, who started the race in third and fifth place, respectively, finished in fourth and fifth, respectively. They finished 57.109 seconds and 58.230 seconds, respectively, behind Bottas, and they finished 34.589 seconds and 35.710 seconds, respectively, behind Verstappen.

Verstappen, who was passed by Leclerc for fourth place at the start of the race, ended up returning the favor on the 21-year-old Monegasque a little bit later on. He then worked his way up into a battle with Vettel for third, and once he passed him, he absolutely checked out. He ended up finishing just 1.634 seconds behind Hamilton.

Mercedes currently lead the constructor standings with 44 points while Ferrari sit in second place with 22 and Red Bull Racing sit in third with 15. But there is a case to be made for Red Bull Racing as not only the second best team in Formula 1 but the clear second best team in Formula 1 following the first race of the 21-race 2019 season.

Red Bull Racing’s other driver, Pierre Gasly, had a disappointing qualifying session that resulted in him starting the race back in 17th place ahead of only McLaren’s Carlos Sainz Jr. and ROKiT Williams Racing teammates George Russell and Robert Kubica.

While the 23-year-old Frenchman was within striking distance of the top six at the end, he was unable to make it into the top 10 because of how hard it was to pass. He ended up finishing in 11th, which is the furthest thing from an accurate illustration of the team’s true strength. He finished the race as the highest driver who failed to score any points in it.

It is tough to judge whether or not Red Bull Racing are truly better than Ferrari after only the season’s first race, especially considering the fact that Ferrari team principal Mattia Binotto believes that the team have not shown yet their true potential and the fact that they are, in fact, currently in second place in the constructor standings ahead of Red Bull Racing despite their struggles in the season opener.

But it is impossible to ignore a few particular trends about the Australian Grand Prix that pertain to these two teams and suggest that Red Bull Racing may truly be better than Ferrari at this point.

Verstappen’s third place finish in the season opener was his career-high finish in the race, and it was Red Bull Racing’s first podium finish in it since Vettel finished in third back in the 2013 season when he was still driving for the Milton Keynes-based team.

Other than Vettel, who also won the race in the 2011 season and finished in second place in the race in the 2012 season, a Red Bull Racing driver had never finished on the podium in an Australian Grand Prix entering this season. The team’s drivers had combined to make 28 entries in the race entering 2019.

Meanwhile, the 2019 Australian Grand Prix was the first Australian Grand Prix since the 2014 Australian Grand Prix that did not result in any Ferrari drivers finishing on the podium. In the four Australian Grands Prix that were held from the 2015 season through the 2018 season, Ferrari drivers combined to earn two victories and five podium finishes in eight entries.

Red Bull Racing’s switch from Renault engines to Honda engines may very well be paying off.

With one race down and 20 remaining on the 2019 Formula 1 schedule, are Red Bull Racing the top team aside of Mercedes? If so, will this continue to be the case? If not, will they improve to the point where they are? Do they have a chance to perhaps beat Mercedes and win this year’s constructor championship?

The next race on this year’s schedule, the Bahrain Grand Prix, is scheduled to take place on Sunday, March 31, and it is set to be broadcast live on ESPN2 from Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir, Bahrain beginning at 11:05 a.m. ET, so be sure not to miss it.