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To finish my three-part evaluation of the 2016 Formula One season, let’s take a look at the top three teams of the season, the front runners, those being Ferrari, Red Bull, and of course, Mercedes.
If you’ve read any of the other articles in my end of season review you know that I’ll be evaluating the teams based on the performance of their 2016 car, and their drivers.
» Part one: The battle of the backmarkers
» Part two: The match in the midfield
Ferrari
After the potential of the Italian team that was shown in 2015, I think everyone was looking for a lot more out of the 2016 season from the Scuderia. After all the build up into the 2016 season, where everyone expected Ferrari to be the main challenger to Mercedes, finishing 367 points behind them was significantly disappointing.
For starters, let’s talk about the car package. Engine power was as per usual down on the Mercedes, but not miles off, so that was at least a good start. However, the car package itself presented itself to be very strong in hotter temperatures and much weaker in others. The development throughout the season wasn’t on the same level as Red Bull or Mercedes either, and that didn’t help their situation either.
As for the drivers, Vettel and Raikkonen, there were mixed results from the teammates. After much criticism from fans of F1 around the world of Kimi’s contract renewal for another year, Kimi knew he had to up his game, and that’s what he did. Vettel, on the other hand, went back to a 2014 state of mind and was noticeably nowhere near as happy or quick as he was in 2015.
Overall, Ferrari can call this season a write-off. It was a complete failure and resulted in a total loss of momentum for the Scuderia from the 2015 season. We’ll just have to wait and see as to what the new rules for 2017 have in store for the team.
Red Bull
Let’s talk about the team from Milton Keynes, Red Bull. A very strong season for the team that was entirely unexpected as they had said prior to the season that it would just be a rebuilding year.
Everyone knew that Renault needed to do a better job after a disastrous season last year, and they came through for Red Bull, with a significant performance increase. The Red Bull downforce set up was strong and I don’t feel it was especially made for high or downforce tracks, but managed to remain competitive across the whole variety of courses.
The drivers for Red Bull consisted of the interesting pair of Australian Daniel Ricciardo and Dutchman Max Verstappen. Now, I know it’s a little-biased considering I’m Australian, but I honestly feel like Daniel Ricciardo was the best driver this season, and was the perfect full package driver for Red Bull. Max Verstappen adopted an unorthodox driving style this season that was especially controversial when he was defending or overtaking, but he was still very quick.
In summary, a great season from the Red Bull team, especially in what was supposed to be a tough, rebuilding year. Not only did they get very close to the Mercedes pace wise on numerous occasions, they also showed a lot of promise for upcoming seasons, something fans would be dying to see after Mercedes dominance of the current era.
Mercedes
What can I say about Mercedes? Once again, another domination of the season with a car that was miles ahead of others, but maybe not by as much as usual with the presence of Red Bull becoming ever closer towards the end of the year.
So, the car for 2016. As per usual, the car was what some would refer to as OP, meaning unbeatable or overpowered, and while this was true in most races this season, it had its flaws. For starters, the engine’s reliability was very low for Mercedes and saw Hamilton get cost a lot of points and positions as his engine failed on numerous occasions. Also, the car was weak in heavy traffic, something that hurt performance a lot when passing backmarkers.
The drivers remained the same from 2015, and both had very different performance in the season. Hamilton was strong on the track, and was probably the better racer at most points in the season, but was controversial off track especially after engine failures like Malaysia. As for Rosberg, he may not have been an all round as strong driver, but he still did exactly what he needed to do and was respectful on and off the track.
So, in total, a good season for Mercedes who yet again proved their dominance of the current era. If they can fix their reliability issues they had this year and have an aero package that’s the same strength of this years, expect more wins from the team.
With that, my wrap up of the Formula One 2016 teams concludes, and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it.
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