2019 Formula 1 Season Review: The Big Three Teams

Looking back on the 2019 Formula 1 World Championship, we take a look at the Big Three teams and how they fared in a year in which Mercedes' invincible run in the hybrid-turbo era continued unabated for a sixth year in a row - twelve world title trophies in half a dozen years!

Mercedes: Point Perfect

Of the top three, the story of Mercedes’ sixth dominant season of the modern turbo era is the easiest to tell. The team made the championship its own in mesmeric style — dominating the first five races with 1-2 finishes and eight race wins on the trot, despite not always having the fastest car at the races and winning a few races Ferrari ought to have instead. 

In fact the biggest entertainment in the first third of the season was which of the Mercedes men would win as Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton shared the early wins out.

Monaco was a winning machine case in point — the team convinced Hamilton to stay out on rotten rubber, knowing that his rivals were unlikely to pass in spite of Lewis’ complaints about his clear lack of pace. He won a team classic to honour its recently departed team boss, the late, great Niki Lauda in incredible style.  

More significantly, Mercedes won fifteen races in 2019, with Lewis taking eleven of those and Valitteri four; the team was on pole position ten times — five  each per driver and a Mercedes set scored nine fastest laps, of which world champion by round 19 of 21 in the US, Lewis Hamilton turned six in, often on scrap rubber while after rivals pitted for best tyres in search of those bonus points.

Hamilton was also the only man to finished all 21 races in 2019 — every one of them in the points, none the less. To finish first, one must win first finish — the essence of wining titles.

Tactically on point, ever harmonious and always working as the incredible team it is, Mercedes was never going to be beaten in 2019. But it certainly was hurried along to its success by the infighting, politics and chaos among its closest rivals too. As long as that continues, this team will continue on its incredible, indomitable course.

Ferrari: Gran Casino

After great winter testing promise, slow Ferrari disappointed in Australia. The team’s complicated season however soon hit its first peak in Bahrain as it topped every practice session and locked out the front row with Charles Leclerc on his maiden pole position. Sadly Charles was robbed of following that up with a maiden win when his car lost power to gift Mercedes another 1-2 in Maranello's first missed opportunity.

Vettel was on the podium three times after that and benefited a Verstappen penalty to end second in Monaco, and both Canada, where Vettel actually won only to lose it to a bleating Hamilton and an odd stewards’ call and Austria, where the stewards defended Verstappen barging Leclerc out to the way, could well have broken the ice. 

At least it had found pace, but truth be told, it was already too late — Ferrari had not won in spite several golden opportunities and the Scuderia was never going to catch dominant Mercedes.

That was exasperated when that second surge proved just another spike as the team headed into its summer brake without a win off three further lacklustre races, leaving critical tongues wagging about Ferrari's worst year since lord knows when?

But the red cars came back against all odds — a dominant Leclerc made Belgium and a delighted Italy his own to shift the spotlight to his scrappy teammate, Then Vettel took his turn to defy the critics to delver a Red hat trick in Singapore — a track that apparently did not suit Ferrari. They then shared out the poles in Mexico and Japan, where Vettel was second both times, while Leclerc found trouble.

But the Ferrari lights seemed to dim again as the team struggled through the last three races, showcased by that ludicrous Brazilian incident the principal issue among Ferrari’s several major 2019 shortfalls. 

Driver infighting was not its only problem — a lack of clear management, sketchy strategy, little race day focus and the most inconsistent package among a yo-yoing top three teams also blunted Ferrari's 2019 effort, so second in the maker's title race was the best result F1’s top driver line-up could possibly have expected in 2019.

In 21 races, a Ferrari was on pole position nine times — just one less than Mercedes, of which Leclerc took six — the most of anyone through the season — and the team took six of them on the trot. The Scuderia also set six fastest laps, three apiece between Vettel and Leclerc but only won three races. Leclerc ended up fourth and Vettel fifth in the title chase.  

Proof enough that if anything, Maranello’s season was a shambles.

Red Bull: The Honda Renaissance

It would however be remiss for Red Bull to believe that it had a much better season than Ferrari. It started well enough as Max Verstappen chased Lewis Hamilton down to end up a close third place to clinch Honda’s first F1 podium in a decade. 

Max’s positive run continued with a string of thirds, fourths and a fifth up to Austria, where he controversially nerfed Leclerc out of the way to take Honda’s maiden victory of the modern turbo era. Controversial mainly due to the inconsistent stewards failing to sanction him a race after Vettel lost a win to a perhaps less boisterous move.  

Verstappen then delivered another great win in Germany and closed his first half of the season with his maiden pole position at last in Hungary, where he also turned the fastest lap, but could not stop Hamilton from winning again. 

Things were however not good in the other Red Bull garage, where despite two fastest laps and consistent points finishes, Pierre Gasly was swapped out with Red Bull B team, Toro Rosso driver Alex Albon for the second half.  

Albon took a little time to warm up while Verstappen continued to deliver positive results in spite of two retirements through Ferrari’s resurgence. 

But Max closed his season brilliantly with a third, a win from pole position in mad Brazil as the rest fell over each other, and then Verstappen took second in the finale to clinch the best of the rest third in the driver’s title chase.

Red Bull matched Ferrari’s three wins off just two pole positions, but it enjoyed five fastest laps — just one less than Ferrari. It seems Red Bull was better prepared for race Sundays than Ferrari ever was and that effort clearly paid dividends. 

To be fair, albeit vocal and boisterous at times as a race winner should be, Verstappen carried Red Bull’s effort on his back to beat the Ferrari duo to third in the title chase.  

But while many may point a finger at Ferrari’s chaotic season, it is just as easy to criticise Red Bull for its politics — who knows what could have been had they held on to Ricciardo to have two cars in there all the way? Truth be told, Red Bull is equally as complicite as Ferrari in allowing Mercedes to escape as easily as it did... (Report by Michele Lupini; Photos by Red Bull)