Power Ranking the Formula 1 Teams After 2015 British Grand Prix

Well, that was better, wasn't it?

The 2015 British Grand Prix proved that Formula One hasn't forgotten how to be exciting. From the moment Felipe Massa's Williams shot through into the lead at the start, the outcome was never certain.

Crashes, team orders, undercuts, gambles and a healthy dose of tension followed; that the podium ended up being the one many would have picked before qualifying should take nothing away from what was a genuinely interesting, exciting grand prix.

If only we could have a rocket-propelled Williams and sporadic rain showers at every race...

Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull will head to the next round feeling they got the maximum possible result from at least one of their packages.

Williams, Lotus and Toro Rosso, by contrast, are left to ponder what might have been.

Due to the cancellation of the German Grand Prix, fans now face a momentum-destroying three-week wait for the next race—the Hungarian Grand Prix on July 26.

With nine rounds down and 10 to go, here's how the teams currently rank.

Note on Team Power Rankings

F1 team power rankings ignore the points table and instead present a snapshot of where each team stands in relation to their competitors based on the three key factors of reliability, single-lap and long-run pace.

The rankings are based on how they would perform if racing on an "average" circuit that places equal emphasis on each area of the car.

All position changes are relative to those in the previous set of rankings, created after the Austrian Grand Prix. You can find them here.

No Change

Manor were closer than ever to the points but still fell short.

Will Stevens led the way in qualifying with a time of one minute, 37.364 seconds—but it was only good enough for 19th, more than two seconds off the pace of the next-slowest man.

Roberto Merhi was a further two seconds down after his best lap time was erased for exceeding the track limits.

After the first-lap melee and resulting safety car, both Manors were steadily dropped by the rest of the field. When the rain started to fall, the team made a very early gamble on intermediates; it didn't pay off, and they lost even more time.

Merhi finished ahead, securing the team's best result of the year in 12th. Stevens was 13th after breaking his front wing in a spin.

Manor remain 10th.

No Change

McLaren toiled in the wet and the dry—but scored points for the second time in 2015.

Fernando Alonso qualified 17th, one place ahead of Jenson Button. For a team that is supposed to be making progress, it was a very poor session—in terms of position, their worst since the Chinese Grand Prix earlier in the season.

Button's race lasted just two-and-a-half corners. Alonso was forced to take evasive action to avoid the colliding Lotuses, half-spinning his MP4-30; unfortunately, this sent him into the side of Button's car. The Brit's engine turned itself off, and he was out on the spot.

Alonso's car took a hefty whack, but he was able to rejoin after a front-wing change. Though the slowest car on the track, bar the two Manors, his McLaren did at least prove reliable.

The team made a "nothing to lose" gamble on an early switch to intermediates before the track was ready for them. Alonso fell away from the main midfield pack, but crucially the driver he was racing for 10th—Marcus Ericsson—made the same error.

Sauber called the Swede back in for dry tyres, and then a lap later, they put him back on inters. This allowed Alonso through into 10th, and despite the rubber being worn, he hung on to score points for the first time this year.

But it was far from a promising display from McLaren. They remain ninth.

No Change

Sauber have truly slipped back after a promising start to the year.

Marcus Ericsson qualified 15th with a time of 1:34.868. It was slower than the time he set in the first part of qualifying and almost a second shy of getting him into Q3. Felipe Nasr was eliminated in Q1 and lined up in 16th.

Or at least, he was due to line up in 16th. A gearbox problem meant he didn't even take his place on the grid.

Ericsson took advantage of the carnage at Turn 3 on the opening lap to move up to 11th, but as soon as the safety car returned to the pits, he was overtaken by a recovering Daniel Ricciardo.

The Swede settled into 12th, and when Ricciardo and Carlos Sainz retired, he looked set for a single point. But when the rain came down, Sauber made a hash of things.

Ericsson was put onto intermediates too early and lost a lot of time. He was then called in for dry tyres, only for the rain to return less than a lap later, resulting in a one-lap stint and another visit to the pits for more inters.

This sequence of events saw him fall out of the points, behind Fernando Alonso's McLaren.

He was quicker on the fresh tyres than the Spaniard on aged rubber, but he didn't have enough laps left to catch up and finished 11th.

Sauber remain eighth.

No Change

Toro Rosso failed to score at what theory suggests should have been a good circuit for them.

Carlos Sainz was again the team's go-to man over a single lap. His lap of 1:33.649 was the eighth-quickest time, just one-tenth slower than Sebastian Vettel's best in the Ferrari. Max Verstappen struggled to find grip in the Saturday session and ended up a disappointing 13th.

When the lights went out, Sainz got bogged down a little and was down to 10th at the end of the first lap. Recovery will have been the first thing on his mind, but instead he found himself defending against fellow slow-starter Daniel Ricciardo.

The Red Bull man made an early stop and undercut Sainz, who stopped a lap later. Now on the hard tyres, the Spaniard had better pace and looked odds-on for a points finish before his ST10 turned itself off on Lap 32.

Verstappen also had a poor getaway and remained 13th until the safety car came in at the end of Lap 3. His race was over two corners later, the Dutchman losing control in Turn 2 and spinning into retirement.

Not the best of races for Toro Rosso. They remain seventh.

No Change

Force India gave their updated VJM08 its full racing debut at their home race and secured a second consecutive double-points finish.

Nico Hulkenberg qualified ninth with a lap of 1:33.673—his third Q3 appearance in a row. Team-mate Sergio Perez missed the cut for Q3, lining up in 11th.

At the start, most eyes were on Felipe Massa as he catapulted through from third to take the lead. However, Hulkenberg's start was no less impressive. He shot past Romain Grosjean and Daniil Kvyat as if they were stationary and then zipped down the inside of both Ferraris to take fifth into Turn 1.

Once the safety car came in, it was clear he didn't have enough pace to be there on merit; a queue of quicker cars reminiscent of the "Trulli trains" of the 2000s formed behind him. Hulkenberg held them off on the track, only to lose three places by pitting after all his rivals.

He fell back a little from the Ferraris and Red Bull now in front of him, but he gained a place back after Kimi Raikkonen's ill-advised tyre gamble and finished seventh.

Perez also made up places off the line, but he didn't quite have Hulkenberg's pace in the early laps. The gap between the pair grew through the rain showers late in the race, but the Mexican was still able to grab two points for a ninth-place finish.

Lotus had more raw pace at the last two races, but Force India may now be level. They remain sixth for now.

Down One

Lotus lost both cars on the opening lap for the second time in 2015.

A disappointing qualifying performance set the scene. Romain Grosjean could only manage 12th on the grid, four-tenths down on getting through to Q3. Even his absolute best lap, deleted after he exceeded the track limits, would not have been enough.

Pastor Maldonado was a tenth further back and started 14th.

Grosjean got a decent start but found himself on the inside into Turn 1 and had to back off. Maldonado carried more momentum through the turn, while slow-starting Daniel Ricciardo was also in the mix.

TV coverage of the incident was surprisingly poor, but on the Lotus website Grosjean described how he thought it played out, saying, "Daniel came in hard and hit me, and I collided with the Sauber on the outside, breaking the front wing, and it created a puncture. The car went left, and I hit Pastor, which was a shame.”

The stewards decided it was a racing incident, while Fernando Alonso blamed the two Lotus drivers. But whoever was at fault, the two E23s suffered too much damage and were unable to continue.

Lotus qualified badly and got no chance to rectify the situation in the race. They fall a spot to fifth.

Up One

Red Bull only had one car in the points standings for the third race in a row.

Daniil Kvyat again put his highly regarded team-mate in the shade, clocking a time of 1:33.636 to qualify seventh. Daniel Ricciardo could perhaps point to the fact his best time was a tenth quicker; unfortunately, he exceeded the track limits while setting it and had it deleted. He started 10th.

Kvyat made a decent getaway and held seventh around the opening lap. He then settled into formation in a train which formed behind Nico Hulkenberg's Force India, sandwiched between the two Ferraris.

The Russian passed Hulkenberg using the undercut at his first stop but was in turn overtaken by Sebastian Vettel—he remained seventh. Had the race remained dry, that's where he would have finished, but Kimi Raikkonen's unsuccessful early switch to intermediates gifted sixth to Kvyat.

The Red Bull man closed up on Vettel as the track finally became wet enough for inters, but he spun after delaying his stop too long. Though he had excellent pace in the final few laps, he was unable to improve his position and finished sixth.

Ricciardo made a poor start and escaped unscathed from the Turn 3 chaos on the opening lap. He was starting to make progress after his first stop, but his RB11 didn't want to play ball. An ERS fault put the Australian out on Lap 21—his first DNF of the year.

Red Bull looked significantly stronger here than at the power-reliant circuits we've just left behind. They rise a spot to fourth.

No Change

The rain—and perhaps some suboptimal strategy calls—robbed Williams of a season-best result.

Felipe Massa continued his fine run of qualifying form, beating team-mate Valtteri Bottas to third place on the grid. His lap of 1:33.085 was eight-tenths down on the pole time, but a tenth faster than Bottas, who started fourth.

One of the finest getaways you'll see in the modern era saw Massa blitz past both Mercedes' cars within a few hundred metres of the start line. Bottas also got away well, passing Nico Rosberg and challenging Lewis Hamilton down the inside of Turn 1.

Hamilton came out of their duel on top, but Bottas was back through following the safety car after the Mercedes man's botched attempt at overtaking Massa.

Williams at first refused to let their drivers fight; by the time they agreed to let the quicker Bottas attack, everyone had settled, and he was unable to get close again. The two FW37s dropped to second and third after Hamilton undercut them at the first round of pit stops, but worse was to come.

Rain began to fall, and the car's frailty in the wet was brutally exposed. Rosberg breezed past both, and a late call to bring the drivers in for intermediates saw Sebastian Vettel steal third.

Massa finished fourth and Bottas fifth—a disappointing end to a race that promised so much.

Williams were quicker than anyone, bar Mercedes, in the dry, but their wet-weather pace was poor. Overall, they remain in third.

No Change

Ferrari added another podium to their tally but may have been disappointed with their dry-weather performance.

Kimi Raikkonen out-qualified Sebastian Vettel in a straight fight for the first time all season, but his lap of 1:33.379 was only good enough for fifth. Vettel was two-tenths slower and started sixth.

For a team used to having the second-fastest car, it wasn't a good result—and it got worse within seconds of the race start. Both Ferraris were sluggish off the line, allowing Nico Hulkenberg to blast through into fifth.

Raikkonen undercut the Force India with an earlier first stop, but even when he was through, he couldn't close the gap to the cars ahead. But fifth still looked on—until a disastrous strategy call.

With light rain falling, Raikkonen made the call to switch to intermediates far too early. The track partially dried, the inters was destroyed and he had to make a further stop for more tyres four laps from the end. From a promising position, he finished a distant eighth.

Vettel also undercut Hulkenberg at the opening round of stops, but he too lacked the pace to challenge Williams and Mercedes in the dry. In the wet, however, things were very different.

The German was the fastest man on the track over the final 15 laps, easing past both Williams cars to claim an unlikely podium finish.

Ferrari's poor dry-weather pace was probably a blip—expect them to be back to second-best in Hungary.

They remain second.

No Change

Mercedes scored their sixth one-two finish of the season, but it could have been very different without the rain.

Lewis Hamilton qualified on pole for the eighth time in nine races, his lap of 1:32.248 more than eight-tenths clear of the quickest non-Mercedes car. Nico Rosberg joined him on the front row, a tenth slower.

From there it looked like another day at the office and another easy one-two—Williams had other ideas. Felipe Massa's blistering start, coupled with Valtteri Bottas' opportunistic pass on Hamilton at the end of the safety-car period, left Mercedes third and fourth.

After an opening stint which saw no change in the running order, Hamilton pitted first. He undercut both Williams cars to take the lead and pulled away throughout the second stint. Rosberg was less fortunate—stopping a lap later than Hamilton, he failed to rise from fourth.

When the rain began to fall toward the end of the race, Rosberg came to life. He scythed past first Bottas, then Massa and began to catch Hamilton. With a Mercedes one-two finish all but secure, it was now a duel between the team-mates.

But it was ended as a contest before it really began. Hamilton made a perfectly timed call to switch to intermediates; Rosberg had to do an extra lap on the wet track, and the gap between the two at the end was a comfortable 10 seconds in the Brit's favour.

Mercedes remain first.

Unless otherwise stated, all data and timing information used throughout sourced from the official F1 website, the FIA and Keith Collantine's lap charts at F1 Fanatic.