It’s the summer-break. So I take a bit of time to make an overview of how I have seen the 2018 season unfolding. Some things are the same as in 2017 - title contenders (Hamilton, Vettel), Red Bull as third best team. In midfield there are some differences though.
Mercedes - Hamilton looks good for another championship, but looks like the challenge for Mercedes gets tougher each year. Arguably they have lost their engine advantage and are now lagging behind? Hamilton is leading by the virtue of consistency. It’s his strength and he has to keep it up. Bottas has been inconsistent, but unlucky too. Should have won a race already, if things went his way.
Ferrari - Compared to last year their qualifying seems to have gone a notch better, as Vettel has achieved quite a few pole positions. However, he has made some mistakes in races and thus is lagging behind in the title race. Can he bring the battle down to the wire? In 2017 the title fight collapsed after summer-break, so would be good if we had a proper one this year. Räikkönen seems to somehow end up on the podium a lot this year. Perhaps because usually someone tends to hit trouble in front of him, while he himself keeps it clean.
Red Bull - Three victories is quite a lot for them, but there have been a number of retirements as well. Which is why Ricciardo and Verstappen are losing touch with Räikkönen and Bottas in the points race. Overall not really massively different from last year. Verstappen had a bad string of form early on with crashes, but seems to have overcome that now.
Renault - Better than last year and crucially more reliable, but still doesn’t seem particularly impressive? Haas seems faster quite a lot and Renault is 4th in the championship due to consistency. Sainz has been getting outpaced by Hülkenberg too, which perhaps has put a serious dent to Sainz’ reputation.
Haas - Most impressive improvement of the season. They are very quick on most circuits and would be sitting 4th in the constructors if not for lost wheel nuts in Australia and Grosjean’s erratic driving. Magnussen has been quite consistent though. Didn’t think much of him before the season, but I wonder, how good is he?
Force India - Mounting money problems have finally taken its toll on the team and they have dropped backwards. However, as a driver pair Ocon and Pérez have kept doing a good job and salvaged whatever points possible for F.I. Pérez even scored his annual podium in Baku, he has a knack of capitalizing on attrition races!
McLaren - Renault engines instead of Honda, but still 7th in the championship? Dear god. Early in the season things looked slightly better with Alonso scored lots of decent points, but things have gone properly pear-shaped in mid-season. With the loss of Honda $$$ and also Alonso possibly pondering retirement it does look like this legendary team is firmly confined to midfield. Vandoorne looks unimpressive, certainly no star he was claimed to be based on GP2.
Toro Rosso - On the flipside a bit of a positive surprise. Honda was a laughing stock last year, but with Gasly achieving three head-line results and Red Bull also going for Honda works engines next year suddenly Honda’s image looks much better. Still, Toro Rosso’s performance looks massively inconsistent - is it due to chassis, PU or drivers? Maybe we would get a better answer next year with RBR running Honda PU’s. Hartley I think is on borrowed time in F1.
Sauber - Definite improvement on 2017, Leclerc in particular has featured in contention for points quite often. This Monegasque looks like a proper talent for the future, but we need to see him in a top team to judge his potential properly. Ericsson has been unimpressive, but he owns the team.
Williams - Two unimpressive paydrivers, a crap car, and title sponsor Martini leaving at the end of the season? A pretty bad combo. They need all the help in the world to save them from this hole. A new sponsor/investor definitely.
