Given that we've just compared all the drivers, let's do the same with the teams.
Mercedes have clearly been the team to beat this season, so can we measure each team's pace deficit to Mercedes and work out whether anyone is catching them?
Data analysis notes
It's quite hard to compare relative team race pace because, during a race, each team will be running with:
- Different fuel loads.
- Different tyres.
- Traffic.
- Different drivers (of course).
To address some of that, for the qualifying analysis we take just one driver—the faster driver—from each team and use their time as our comparison for each weekend.
For the race-pace analysis, we:
- Try to find stints of green-flag running.
- Match stints by tyre compound and tyre life.
- Require a stint of at least five laps.
Unfortunately, this approach produced relatively few race-pace comparisons. It's enough to show the overall picture, but there are quite a few races where we can't make a direct comparison, so the trends are less robust.
We'll therefore focus mostly on qualifying pace for now, but let's first look at the overall pace.
Overall pace
What I like about this graph is how it shows the real gap between the top teams and the others. Whereas the top teams maintain a similar gap to Mercedes in races and qualifying, the other teams lose much more ground during races.
I suspect this is largely down to tyre management, which in turn comes from relative aerodynamic efficiency. The top teams can maintain a higher race pace while being kinder to their tyres than the lower teams.
Comparing the top four
Looking purely at qualifying, Ferrari have generally been the closest team to Mercedes. A single qualifying lap somewhat hides their less-efficient engine, allowing them to stay relatively close. Strong showings in Barcelona and Hungary highlight the car's cornering strengths.
McLaren have improved massively since their update in Hungary. Time will tell whether they can keep this up.
Red Bull are slightly all over the place. They've had well-documented issues with their rear wing recently, but at one point their development pace made it look as though they would be the team to challenge Mercedes. A reset is needed going into the second half of the season if they're to regain momentum.
What about the rest?
Whereas the top teams are catching Mercedes, the same certainly isn't true across the lower two-thirds of the field.
Aston Martin, Williams and Haas all seem to have lost about 0.5 percentage points of performance relative to the leaders so far.
Aston Martin in particular are a long way behind. Their upgrade in Hungary was a good start to getting back on track.
Audi have had a strong first season and have maintained their gap to the leaders. Alpine, on the other hand, might feel more aggrieved that they haven't been able to close up.
The standout team in this group has to be Racing Bulls, who have cemented their claim as the fifth-fastest team in recent races.
Conclusion
That was a very quick look at pace. I can't wait to dive deeper and develop more metrics for relative car performance. I'm thinking about:
- Straight-line performance.
- Low- and high-speed performance.
- Tyre-degradation scoring.
I hope these will be things I can write about in the coming weeks!