Formula 1: McLaren the clear ‘best of the rest’ through nine races in 2019

McLaren have established themselves as the clear top team in Formula 1 behind Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull Racing, also known as the “best of the rest”.

Prior to the eighth race on the 21-race 2019 Formula 1 schedule, the French Grand Prix, at Circuit Paul Ricard, the battle for the unofficial title of “best of the rest” behind Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Scuderia Ferrari and Aston Martin Red Bull Racing appeared poised to be a battle between the two Renault-powered teams, Renault and McLaren.

McLaren entered this race with 30 points in fourth place in the constructor standings while Renault, the reigning “best of the rest” team, entered with 28 in fifth.

McLaren teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. and rookie Lando Norris finished in sixth and 10th place to score eight points and one point, respectively, while Renault teammates Daniel Ricciardo finished in seventh and ninth to score six points and two points, respectively.

After McLaren took a 39-36 lead over the factory Renault team, however, Ricciardo was issued two five-second time penalties after the race. As a result, he dropped from seventh place to 11th and score no points as opposed to six.

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Meanwhile, Norris was promoted from 10th to ninth place and scored two points as opposed to one while Hulkenberg was promoted from ninth to eighth and scored four points as opposed to two.

As a result, McLaren took a 40-32 lead over Renault heading into the following race, the Austrian Grand Prix, at the Red Bull Ring.

While much of the focus of this race was on the orange-wearing, Max Verstappen-supporting crowd, the orange team flew somewhat under the radar and left this race with a commanding 52-32 lead in the “best of the rest” standings over the yellow team.

Norris started this race in fifth place and worked his way up to third in the first corner on the first lap before ultimately settling for a career-high sixth place finish and the eight points that came along with it. Meanwhile, after starting in 19th, Sainz Jr. rallied for an eighth place finish and scored four points.

Ricciardo and Hulkenberg both failed to score points by finishing in 12th and 13th place, respectively.

McLaren’s drivers have now recorded four sixth place finishes this season, including three that came even though all six of the Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull Racing drivers finished. Norris and Sainz Jr. have each been responsible for two of these sixth place finishes. In addition to these four sixth place finishes, they have also combined to record five other top nine finishes.

Renault’s weakness has been their lack of consistency. They have only scored points in five races so far this season, and they have only scored points in consecutive races once when they scored points in the Monaco Grand Prix, the Canadian Grand Prix and the French Grand Prix.

In fact, when you add up Renault’s total results through the season’s first nine races, you get 227. This is not only worse than that of McLaren (209) but than that of SportPesa Racing Point (215) Alfa Romeo Racing (223), the two teams that sit in seventh and sixth place in the constructor standings with 19 and 22 points, respectively. It is barely better than that of Scuderia Toro Rosso (229), which sit in eighth in the standings with 17 points.

It has become overwhelmingly clear over the last few races that McLaren have the advantage over Renault, and they have used these last two races to begin to pull away from them in the “best of the rest” standings, growing their lead from a two-point lead to a 20-point lead by outscoring them 22-4 over the course of these two races.

Do McLaren have what it takes to hold on to the unofficial “best of the rest” classification throughout the final 12 races of the 2019 Formula 1 season, or will Renault battle back and take it for the second consecutive season?