Team Ratings | Red Bull shines, AlphaTauri falls through again

Red Bull Racing: 9.5

Max Verstappen was also unbeatable in Austria. The reigning champion - fast on his way to his third consecutive title - could even afford to make an extra pit stop to take the point for the fastest lap on softs. At the other end of the garage, Sergio Perez had a much harder time initially, as he did not get beyond 15th place in qualifying. The team could not be blamed for the Mexican's failure to stay inside the lines time after time. On Saturday and Sunday - when Perez handled the track limits much better - the RB19 also proved to be by far the best car in the field in the Mexican's hands.

Ferrari: 8

Finally Ferrari could cheer (a little). In a season where the Italian pride had hoped (perhaps expected?) to compete for the absolute top prizes, the podium was usually a far cry from the podium. For once in Austria, Ferrari not only showed speed during qualifying, but also during the Grand Prix Ferrari managed to stay ahead of the competition (Mercedes, Aston Martin) thanks to Charles Leclerc. That Carlos Sainz - actually the fastest of the Ferrari men - saw his fourth place slip from his fingers later in the evening after a penalty was a small damper on the party.

Aston Martin: 7

The season started so strongly for Aston Martin, with consecutive podium finishes for Fernando Alonso. In Spain, the team was unable to compete at the front for the first time, something that was repeated in Austria. Not for a moment did the green cars give the impression that there was more to come than a place behind both Red Bulls and the Ferraris. The biggest victory was not achieved until well after the end of the race: it was thanks to Aston Martin's protest that the final result was shaken up considerably. The big winner? Aston Martin, which saw two drivers move up one place. So not only do they have good engineers at the team, there are also people who accurately track everything the competition is doing. On a day when things weren't actually running, Aston Martin maximised.

McLaren: 6.5

McLaren was a team with two faces at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg. On the one hand, there was Lando Norris, who proved that the updates brought along were a real improvement for the team that had slowly become entrenched in the anonymous middle order. Kudos for his fourth place, that bodes well for the rest of the season. But there was also Oscar Piastri, who could not yet dispose of the updates. His car was like the previous races of the season: mediocrity. When, in the final rankings, even Esteban Ocon finishes ahead of you - and the Frenchman had a cartload of time penalties - something has gone pretty wrong with the second car as McLaren.

Williams: 6

Chapeau to Alexander Albon. Once again, the Thai drove a hell of a race, unfortunately this time narrowly missing out on a point. Logan Sargeant's thirteenth place then proved that the Williams is getting better and better. The car of the team hoping to win its 800th Grand Prix in Hungary is getting stronger by the week, and is certainly on a par with, say, the Haas or the Alfa Romeo.

Haas: 6

Speaking of Haas: Nico Hulkenberg is starting to emerge more and more as a qualifying beast. His Haas is fast enough on Saturday (and in this case also Friday) to compete at the top of the midfield. During the Sprint, partly prompted by the weather conditions, that even resulted in three handsome points for Hulkenberg (although his starting position may have hinted at a podium finish). On Sunday, well, that's when the Haas eats tyres. Points are usually an illusion then, even with a top 10 start. Then, when a Ferrari engine also fails, it is soon a Grand Prix to quickly forget. The memories are mainly of the successful Sprint on Saturday.

Mercedes: 5

"We know the car is bad." Those are not our words, it is a statement from Toto Wolff. Austria is never a place where Mercedes thrives, and this season too was muddling along. With an eighth and ninth place result, a team like Mercedes can never be satisfied. And when it is then also stated that the car is poor, an inadequate result is in order.

Alpine: 4

Esteban Ocon has driven himself into the record books. Never before has there been a driver in Formula 1 who received four time penalties in one Grand Prix. Exceeding the track limits ten times - for which the Frenchman was penalised three times - were due to himself. Ocon also got a penalty for an unsafe release after a pit stop. There the blame lay with his crew. Team-mate Pierre Gasly did pick up a point, but there could have been more if he too had exceeded the track limits less often. All in all, a very mediocre performance from the French team.

Alfa Romeo: 4

Alfa Romeo reportedly competed in the Austrian Grand Prix. Nothing more can be said about it.

AlphaTauri: 2

That AlphaTauri has the worst car in the field is no secret. Neither is the fact that Nyck de Vries can't make a pot for the time being. Then when Yuki Tsunoda - the only stable factor in Red Bull Racing's sister team - screws up, there is no stopping him. Yuki had a damaged front wing after a touché just after the start, Yuki went through the gravel and Yuki struggled quite a bit to stay on the tarmac. In the end, the slow AlphaTauri's finished in spots 17 and 19. Dramatic just like that.