F1 Power Rankings GP USA 2022: Mercedes on the move

Formula 1 has been waiting to beat Red Bull since the Austrian GP, ​​and now it is waiting in vain. Over the course of the race, a pulse flew between Red Bull’s legs. A botched pit stop dropped Max Verstappen behind Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. Nevertheless, the Dutchman celebrated his 13th victory. It shows how strong the driver and the car are. In a fight, Verstappen outstrips his opponents with the best pace of the RB18.

Ferrari overtook again a lap later. This time with two cars. The F1-75 has more downforce, making it less vulnerable to wind and weather. However, it cannot be operated with optimal parameters yet. However, Charles Leclerc’s first position offers hope. The world championship runner-up had the lowest tire wear at the start of the race. In the third segment, Leclerc overdid it. In an attempt to hold off Verstappen, he drove the tires too hard.

Mercedes are still waiting for their first win of the season, but Lewis Hamilton’s 2nd place, five seconds behind the winner, was hailed as an improvement by team management. Because Austin is not a Mercedes track. More bumps, more wind, a bigger difference in curve types. Nevertheless, you only lost a quarter of a lap to go up. Half a year ago it would have been a second. The upgrade was impactful. And W13 is slimmed down by approximately five kilograms.

Aston Martin catches on

Alpine and McLaren are no longer alone in the battle for fourth place. Aston Martin could no longer interfere when it came to points, but this time the green cars were on par with Alpine and McLaren in terms of pure speed. For a lap and longer distances. If the race had gone normally, Sebastian Vettel would have been ahead of Fernando Alonso and Lando Norris. Alonso overcame a crash, Vettel a bad pit stop.

In the battle for sixth place, Aston Martin continues to catch Alfa-Sauber. The Swiss racing team’s latest upgrade has hit. Both drivers would have qualified for Q3 had Guanyu Zhou not canceled the lap. Not so for a long time. However, in racing, the Swiss make many mistakes.

8 and 9 are also very close. The fight between Haas and Alpha Tauri went to Haas this time. Mick Schumacher and Kevin Magnussen did not make Q2 but had strong races. It was different with Alfa Douri. And with Alexander Alban in the cockpit, Williams can’t be ignored either. Alphonse is good all around for little World Cup points, so spit in the soup for those where every point counts.

Power rankings from Austin

Here are the power rankings for GP USA in a nutshell. As always, you can find a detailed form check of the ten teams in the gallery:

1. Red Bull (1)
2. Ferrari (2)
3. Mercedes (3)
4. Alpine (4)
5. Aston Martin (6)
6. McLaren (5)
7. Alfa Romeos (8)
8. Haas (9)
9. Alpha Tauri (7)
10. William (10)

* Japanese post-GP in parentheses.