A TALE OF SEVEN TEAMS
ERE FORMULA 1’S UNOFFICIAL ‘CLASS B’ pack engaging in battle up front, the past three seasons would be celebrated as a time of dramatic performance swings, unpredictable races and ebbs and flows that made calling a winner on any given weekend almost impossible. It’s a difficult web to untangle. After all, how can you explain Ferrari-affiliated Haas slumping from fifth in the overall championship in 2018 (with the fourth fastest car) to ninth in 2019, while Toro Rosso – also a small team benefiting from an alliance with a large operation thanks to it being Red Bull’s junior team – had its best season in a decade and leapt from ninth to sixth with two podium finishes?
Understanding why some midfield teams succeeded and some underachieved reveals much about the art of making an F1 car, highlighting the differences between the three giants and the rest as we head towards a new season under a largely stable rules set.
The first factor is how closely matched the midfield is. In 2019, judged by qualifying pace and excluding the woefully-off-the-pace Williams, the six midfield teams were covered by
