Power Ranking the Formula 1 Teams After 2015 Bahrain Grand Prix

The Formula One teams had little opportunity to make changes to their cars for the 2015 Bahrain Grand Prix. Held just a week after the Chinese round, the first Middle Eastern race of the year was also the first night race.

Ferrari again proved Mercedes' closest competitors, with Kimi Raikkonen passing Nico Rosberg just two laps from the end to finish second. The brake problems suffered by both Silver Arrows are a real cause for concern—but they fade to insignificance when viewed alongside the issues encountered by the Renault-powered teams.

Both Red Bull and Toro Rosso experienced major failures in Bahrain. The latter in particular were hit hard, with both drivers running into trouble for the second race in a row.

Sauber, Manor and McLaren also had poor races, but things are looking good over at Williams.

The teams have three weeks to prepare for the next race, the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya. Major upgrades are expected, but significant changes to the running order are highly unlikely.

Based on what we saw in Bahrain, here's how the teams rank.

Note on Power Rankings

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

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

No Change

Manor again got two cars to the end of the race—but were again a long way behind.

With Jenson Button out of qualifying, Will Stevens avoided the back row by qualifying 18th, but his best was three seconds slower than the 17th-placed car. Roberto Merhi was 19th.

Both were rapidly dropped by the rest of the field as soon as the race started. Stevens was lapped twice and Merhi three times as they came home in 16th and 17th, respectively.

Manor remain 10th.

No Change

For the second time this season, a McLaren driver failed to start a race.

Jenson Button was the unlucky man on this occasion. His car had been persistently hit by electrical troubles in practice, and he was forced to miss qualifying. Though given dispensation by the stewards to start, the team revealed on Twitter that they were unable to get it working in time for the race.

Fernando Alonso in part made up for it, qualifying 14th—McLaren's best grid slot of the season.

The Spaniard didn't look out of place when the race got started on Sunday, running at a similar pace to the other midfield cars around him. He went for a soft-medium-soft tyre strategy and, having dropped back a little in the middle stint, was well-placed to take advantage of the quicker rubber toward the end of the race.

Alonso held off Nico Hulkenberg in the closing laps and finished 11th, just four seconds away from the points.

McLaren's slow and steady progress continues, but they remain ninth for now.

Down One

On raw race pace alone, the Toro Rosso looks like the fifth or sixth-quickest car. But there are no prizes for non-finishers.

Carlos Sainz Jr. was able to extract good pace from the car in qualifying and started an admirable ninth. Team-mate Max Verstappen never really got hooked up over a single lap and was down in 15th.

Despite this gulf, their races had the same final outcome.

Verstappen made a long, early stop after picking up damage to his front wing. It dropped him to last, and though he passed both Manors, the gap to the rest of the pack never really closed. He was forced out on Lap 34 with an electrical problem.

Sainz was given a five-second penalty for driving too slowly on his shakedown lap to the grid; he served it at his first stop, tumbling down the order to 16th.

The Spaniard quickly caught countryman Fernando Alonso but was unable to pass the McLaren and made his second stop on Lap 29. A few corners later his race was over, a loose wheel forcing him to park the Toro Rosso by the side of the track.

Per Autosport, he had earlier complained of a lack of power on the straights.

Toro Rosso drop to eighth after another weekend to forget.

Up One

Force India put more points on the board after a fine drive from Sergio Perez.

Nico Hulkenberg had looked the more likely to succeed after qualifying. The German secured eighth on the grid with a lap of one minute, 34.450 seconds. Perez failed to get out of Q2 and started 11th.

Both held their positions at the start. Hulkenberg was one of the first drivers to make a pit stop, coming in on Lap 10. Struggling with tyre management, he ended up stopping three times and finished a disappointing 13th, splitting the two Saubers.

Perez has always excelled at keeping his rear tyres alive and showed much better pace throughout the grand prix.

Stopping twice, he made steady progress up the order and passed Felipe Massa toward the end to seize eighth place and four championship points.

Though perhaps not as quick as Toro Rosso at an average circuit, Force India are far more reliable. They rise a spot to seventh.

No Change

Sauber had a difficult weekend, failing to score despite having the pace for points.

Felipe Nasr qualified 12th, missing out on a spot in Q3 by just one-tenth of a second. Marcus Ericsson was three-tenths slower but only one grid slot behind, lining up 13th.

The Swede had a great first lap, rising to ninth. He passed Nico Hulkenberg after his first stop to run eighth, but a slow second stop wiped out any chance of a points finish, and Ericsson came home a lap down in 14th.

Nasr held 12th at the start and ran the same three-stop strategy as Ericsson. Encountering more traffic than his team-mate, the Brazilian struggled in the opening half of the race before finally finding some relatively clean air.

Late overtakes on Ericsson and Hulkenberg promoted Nasr to 12th, but he was unable to pass Fernando Alonso's McLaren and ended a disappointing race exactly where he started it.

The C33 is a good, solid car, but it appears to struggle with tyre management. Finding a fix for this is likely to be one of Sauber's priorities as the European season begins.

They remain sixth.

No Change

Red Bull achieved a double points finish, but their reliability issues remain unresolved.

Daniel Ricciardo once again proved the Austrian team's star qualifier, but he could only manage seventh. Daniil Kvyat was eliminated in Q1, slowest of all bar the two Manors. He later told the press he had experienced "energy issues" during the session.

When the lights went out on Sunday, Ricciardo rose to sixth due to Felipe Massa's pit-lane start. The Australian had an uneventful race after the opening lap, comfortably ahead of the cars behind but unable to match those ahead.

The only real drama came on the final lap. Ricciardo's engine expired as he exited the final corner, smoke billowing across the circuit as he rolled to the line to finish sixth. He's now onto his fourth engine of the year.

Kvyat's day had a little more excitement, but he had to wait until the second half of the race to push for points. Stopping one less time than most of the cars he was racing, the Russian overtook Felipe Massa's Williams a few laps from the end to take ninth.

Though Red Bull are quicker than Lotus, the RB11 has far more problems under its skin than the E23.

The Austrian team hold station in fifth.

No Change

Lotus followed up a good result in China with another promising display in Bahrain.

Romain Grosjean qualified 10th but could have done even better—his lap from the second part of qualifying was good enough for eighth. Pastor Maldonado was a surprise elimination from Q1 and started the race in 16th.

Or at least, that's where he was supposed to start. The Venezuelan parked in the wrong grid slot after the formation lap and received a five-second time penalty.

This, along with a number of mistakes, left Maldonado with a lot to do—but his pace was very good. Having used the medium tyres for his short opening stint, he did 47 of the 57 laps on the soft tyres and looked set for either seventh or eighth.

Unfortunately, his engine turned itself off as he came in for his final stop. Though Maldonado got going again eventually, he lost 80 seconds while stationary and finished down in 15th.

Grosjean rose to seventh at the start and, like Daniel Ricciardo in the Red Bull, had a somewhat boring afternoon. Too slow to catch the cars ahead and too quick for those behind, the Frenchman finished seventh.

The true test of the car will come in Spain, but Lotus retain fourth for now.

No Change

The two Williams drivers had very different races in Bahrain.

Both qualified well, with Valtteri Bottas one of the standout performers. His lap of 1:33.381 was only four-tenths shy of a front-row grid slot. Felipe Massa qualified alongside his team-mate on the third row.

Unfortunately, the Brazilian's engine didn't play ball. As everyone else set off on the formation lap, Massa was left rooted to the spot and needed to be wheeled into the pit lane. Williams got the engine going, but Massa had to start 19th and last.

He quickly set about moving through the field, but contact with Pastor Maldonado early in the race damaged his diffuser and ruined the car's balance. Struggling with tyre wear as a result, Massa's charge was compromised, and he did well to finish 10th.

Bottas had no such difficulties, holding fifth at the start. Without Massa to keep him company, he was in a race all by himself until Sebastian Vettel made a mistake 20 laps from the end.

The Ferrari man emerged seven seconds behind Bottas and was in DRS range six laps later. But Bottas drove too cleanly and the Williams' straight-line speed was too high—Vettel was unable to overtake, and Bottas finished an excellent fourth.

Williams are no match for the front two over a whole race but remain clear of Red Bull—the team they're likely to be fighting for third in the championship come the end of the season.

They stay third here.

No Change

Ferrari very nearly snatched another race win from Mercedes but may have a slight cause for concern.

Sebastian Vettel's fine lap clinched him P2 on the grid, four-tenths of a second behind pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton. Kimi Raikkonen started fourth, with Nico Rosberg the filling in a Ferrari sandwich.

Raikkonen went around the outside of Rosberg into Turn 1, but he was relegated back down to fourth a few laps later when the Mercedes blasted by on the pit straight. The Finn then lost a few seconds stuck behind Vettel before his team-mate made a pit stop, but all was not lost.

Opting for a longer first stint and a switch to the medium tyres at his first stop, Raikkonen switched to the quicker soft tyres at the end. He reeled in the two Mercedes' after his final stop but appeared to hit a brick wall when he arrived on Rosberg's tail.

Fortunately for him, the W06 developed a braking problem, and Raikkonen was able to steal second when the German ran wide at Turn 1 a few laps from the end.

Vettel successfully held off Rosberg's attack into Turn 1 and settled into second, but not for long—Rosberg passed with relative ease on Lap 8. The Ferrari man regained second with the undercut at his first pit stop but was overtaken again almost immediately by his countryman.

The same thing happened at Vettel's second stop, and as he tried to defend, he ran wide at the final turn, damaging his front wing. The extra pit visit to repair the damage dropped him behind Valtteri Bottas; though significantly quicker, he was unable to get past and finished fifth.

A good display from Ferrari, but they didn't look at all impressive against Mercedes power in a straight line. They remain second.

No Change

Mercedes chalked up their third win in four races, but like Ferrari, they have something to think about.

Lewis Hamilton qualified on pole, four-tenths of a second clear of second-placed man Sebastian Vettel. Nico Rosberg later blamed himself for only managing third.

The defending world champion made a good start and converted his pole into the race lead. From this point on, he was able to control the race and looked set for a comfortable victory.

Eventually, that's what he got—but a last-lap brake-by-wire problem could have cost him dear.

Rosberg fell to fourth at the start but quickly dispatched both Ferraris. He was twice undercut by Vettel but quickly found a way back past on each occasion.

Late in the race, the German came under pressure from the soft-tyred Kimi Raikkonen. Though the Finn rapidly closed up, Rosberg appeared to have the situation under control until a brake-by-wire failure—the same problem Hamilton had—on the penultimate lap sent him wide at Turn 1.

Raikkonen swept by, and though Rosberg tried to retake the place, he couldn't and had to settle for third.

Mercedes stay in the top spot, but the race could have been very different had those braking issues surfaced earlier in the evening.