Formula 1: The disparity between the best and worst teams in one statistic

The disparity between Formula 1’s best and worst teams, Mercedes and Williams, respectively, could not be any larger than it is right now.

For the last several Formula 1 seasons, it has been all but a foregone conclusion that the winning team in each race would either be Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Scuderia Ferrari or Aston Martin Red Bull Racing.

The last race that did not result in one of these teams winning was the 2013 season-opening Australian Grand Prix. Kimi Raikkonen won this race driving for Lotus, which no longer compete in Formula 1.

Since that time, 123 races have been contested, of which 82 have been won by Mercedes, 25 have been won by Red Bull Racing and have been 16 won by Ferrari.

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Mercedes have dominated to open up the 2019 season to the point where the “best of the rest” battle is pretty much between Ferrari and Red Bull Racing for second place in the constructor standings as opposed to between every other team in the sport for fourth in the standings behind these three teams.

Through the season’s first five races, Mercedes have earned victories, and they lead the constructor standings by a whopping 96 points (217 to 121) over Ferrari in second place already.

The first five races of the 2019 season have resulted in the best of the best and the worst of the worst. In addition to winning each of the season’s first five races, Mercedes made history by finishing in second place in each of them as well.

Lewis Hamilton has earned three victories and recorded two second place finishes so far this season while Valtteri Bottas has earned two victories and recorded three second place finishes so far this season.

Never before in Formula 1 history had a team opened up a season with more than three consecutive 1-2 finishes, and the streak of the Brackley-based team doing so is now at five races and counting.

On the other end of the spectrum, there is the complete and utter disaster of a situation that is the situation of ROKiT Williams Racing.

One statistic outlines this disparity perfectly.

While no Mercedes driver has finished behind a non-Mercedes driver at any point so far this season, no Williams driver has finished ahead of any non-Williams driver at any point so far this season.

The situation of Williams had also never been the case for a team through a season’s first five races in Formula 1 history entering this season.

Williams teammates George Russell, a rookie, and Robert Kubica have finished each of the season’s first five races and other drivers have been forced to retire from each of these races, so technically they have finished ahead of other drivers, but as far as actually beating other drivers on the track, it has not yet happened this season.

In each of the season’s first five races, Kubica has finished in last place among the drivers still running at the end of each race while Russell has finished one position ahead of him in second to last.

In only one race so far this season has Russell not finished at least one lap behind the next driver in front of him, as he finished one lap off the lead lap in the season’s second race, the Bahrain Grand Prix, along with three other drivers. Kubica finished this race two laps off the lead lap.

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While things could not possibly be going better for Mercedes at the top of Formula 1 right now, things could not possibly be going worse for Williams at the bottom of the sport. Never in the sport’s history has the disparity between the sport’s best and worst teams been this large through a season’s first five races.

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