Formula 1: Ranking the strength of each team’s car at 2019 summer break
By Asher Fair
8. Rich Energy Haas
Despite Rich Energy CEO William Storey‘s preseason claim that they would beat Red Bull Racing, Rich Energy Haas are just fortunate not to have the worst car aside of the disastrous Williams. They do sit in ninth place in the constructor standings ahead of only Williams, but their pace as a whole has been stronger than this.
The team’s qualifying average of 11.04 is the fifth best in Formula 1, but their car simply hasn’t given drivers Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean the consistency that they need to capitalize on that pace. In many cases, their race pace is nothing compared to their qualifying pace.
Their average finish of 14.21 is the second worst in the sport, and their average drop-off from qualifying to the race itself of 3.17 is the worst. In fact, no individual non-Haas driver has an average that is this bad in this category. Their qualifying average saves them from being lower on this list, as does the fact that when their cars actually perform well in races, their results show it.
7. Renault
The reigning “best of the rest” champion’s inconsistency has been their throughout the 2019 season. When they have the pace, the results show it, but when they don’t, they miss it by a ton.
They have scored points in consecutive races just once this season when they did so in three straight events. Aside of these three races, they have scored points in just three other races this year, and not once have both Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg scored points in consecutive races.
That said, they have recorded eight top 10 finishes over six races, and five of these eight top 10 finishes are top seven finishes. In two of the six races in which they have scored points, Ricciardo finished as the “best of the rest”. He was one position away from doing so on a separate occasion, and Hulkenberg was one position away from doing so once as well.