McLaren – They’re so clearly ahead. I don’t care what anyone says. They’ve definitely built a slightly trickier car than they probably expected, but the actual pace advantage is still clearly there. I think we’ll see that shine through soon, probably in Bahrain, especially given the temperatures. That said, their strategy is still a bit of a mess and I think it’s gonna bite them as the season continues.

Mercedes/Red Bull – It’s hard to separate these two. I think I’d give the edge to Mercedes they’ve been more consistent over the first few races. But with Antonelli being a rookie and still learning it’s hard to tell exactly where that car stands (though he’s doing a great job). Red Bull is a different story when they nail the setup, they clearly have something competitive, but it’s an incredibly difficult car to get right. Plus there’s no reference from the second driver, and we all know Max is capable of pulling off miracles, so again it’s tough to judge.

Ferrari – It feels crazy putting Ferrari in fourth, considering they’ve got a win and Mercedes don’t. But aside from Hamilton’s sprint win, Mercedes I’d say have been more consistent. Ferrari’s has a bit of a shocking start yes, the Australia was a strategy error, and maybe they could’ve had a better result there. And if Charles’ wing hadn’t been damaged in China, maybe they’d have had more pace there (regardless of the disqualification). But they were nowhere this past weekend. Honestly, not sure what they’ve done with the car it seems like both drivers are struggling to get to grips with it.

Would love to hear anyone else’s opinions?

Oh, I was so happy! What a fantastically managed race from Max couldn’t have asked for much more. Honestly, I think more than anything, today showed just how pivotal pole position is. Oscar even said it himself he lost the race in qualifying. I think that’s going to be a recurring theme this season, qualifying will be absolutely vital. We saw the same thing with Hamilton in China, I don’t think Ferrari had the fastest car that day, but he had the benefit of clean air and that made all the difference. (every driver on pole so far this season has won)

I still don’t think the Red Bull is matching McLaren on pure pace or anything close, but they’ve definitely found something that’s helping them which is what I thought after China. Plus Red Bull have kind of become known for their Friday-to-Sunday turnaround if they could just start their weekends stronger, they’d might be more of a threat. That said if Max can keep pulling off qualifying performances like this, he’ll be in the fight for the win every time (although it certainly helped that Suzuka is notoriously difficult to overtake).

I’m not too surprised they didn’t swap Oscar and Lando. It’s only the third race of the season, and with no idea how the points are going to play out later on Oscar had to make that move on his own. It’s unlikely he would’ve caught Max anyway, so there was no point forcing Lando to give up points just yet.

That said, this race once again exposed McLaren’s lingering issues from last year. Their pit strategy was confusing as ever. Why they didn’t let one of the cars run in clean air for longer is beyond me. And yet another mistake from Norris coming out the pits… I’m just not seeing championship-winning execution from the team or either driver at the moment. Plus, we still haven’t seen a proper on-track fight between Oscar and Lando that’ll be the real test of McLaren’s team management when it comes.

I still think this season’s going to be a long road, but Max is going to be right there the whole time. It’s shaping up to be a good one