Through five races in the 2019 Formula 1 season, Mercedes are farther ahead of Ferrari than the top three are ahead of the “best of the rest”.
Since Kimi Raikkonen won the 2013 Formula 1 season-opening Australian Grand Prix driving for Lotus, 123 Formula 1 races have been contested. These 123 races have all been won by one of three teams: Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Scuderia Ferrari and Aston Martin Red Bull Racing.
Of these 123 races, 82 have been won by Mercedes while 25 have been won by Red Bull Racing and have been 16 won by Ferrari. Not since Jenson Button won the 2012 season finale, the Brazilian Grand Prix, driving for McLaren has an active team other than these three teams won a Formula 1 race.
As such, there are pretty much only six drivers on any given race weekend who stand any chance whatsoever of coming away with a victory.
In fact, the driver who finishes in seventh place in the driver standings behind these six drivers and the team that finishes in fourth in the constructor standings behind these three teams have been given the unofficial nickname of “best of the rest”.
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
However, at this point, the “best of the rest” team battle might as well be considered the battle between Ferrari and Red Bull Racing, and the “best of the rest” driver battle among drivers might as well be considered the battle between the Ferrari and Red Bull Racing drivers for the third and final step of the podium.
The Brackley-based team became the first team in Formula 1 history to open up a season with four consecutive 1-2 finishes when Valtteri Bottas won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton in second place, and they extended that streak to five consecutive 1-2 finishes with Hamilton’s victory and Bottas’s second place finish in the Spanish Grand Prix.
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel has finished in third place twice so far this season while his teammate, Charles Leclerc, has done so once. Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen has done so twice as well.
Mercedes currently lead the constructor standings by 96 points (217 to 121) over Ferrari in second place with Red Bull Racing sitting comfortably in third. But while the distance between Mercedes and Ferrari is a whopping 96 points, the distance between Red Bull Racing and the “best of the rest”, currently McLaren, is only 65 points (87 to 22).
Not since the 2016 season has the distance between the five-time reigning constructor champions and the second place team in the constructor standings been larger than the distance between the third place team and the “best of the rest” in fourth.
Mercedes won the 2016 constructor championship by an all-time record 297 points (765 to 468) over Red Bull Racing in second place. Ferrari finished in third in the constructor standings, and they finished 225 points ahead (398 to 173) of the “best of the rest”, Sahara Force India.
The 2016 season resulted in complete Mercedes dominance. They won 19 of the 21 races on the schedule and only failed to win the other two as a result of a first-lap wreck between teammates Hamilton and Nico Rosberg in the Spanish Grand Prix and a late engine failure for Hamilton in the Malaysian Grand Prix.
Don’t be surprised if the 2019 Formula 1 season ends up like the 2016 season, perhaps even with Mercedes winning all 21 races on the schedule, given how it has started out for the Silver Arrows.