Gary Anderson's F1 2016 half-term report

Twelve races into the 2016 season and we have a decent picture of who's hot and who's not in Formula 1.

But it's always interesting to dig down into the underlying performances of different teams and the trends through the season so far.

To look at the performance of each team, I have taken each car's fastest individual laptime over the course of each race weekend and converted it into a percentage of the fastest single lap. The average of these gives you an overall performance figure.

This eliminates any discrepancy caused by varying lengths of track, which you would get if you only used a laptime average.

It will come as no surprise to learn that Mercedes leads the way. But that its advantage is greater than it was this time last year might be more eye-catching.

At the summer break last year, Mercedes had a 0.877% advantage over nearest challenger Ferrari - worth eight-tenths of a second around a 90-second lap. Now, the advantage is 0.926%, which is close to half-a-tenth better off.

If you consider that a reasonable development package might bring you a 0.1-0.2% performance gain, that tells you just how much work the rest have to do to catch up.

There's also the challenge of the major technical changes for 2017, which requires teams to split their engineering efforts.

MERCEDES - 100.019%
Best: 100.000% (11 races)
Worst: 100.230% (Monaco)
2015 season: 100.072%

What can you say about Mercedes? It has set the fastest lap of the weekend 11 times out of 12, and even when it did drop off on pace Lewis Hamilton still won the Monaco Grand Prix.

Mercedes really does have a car for all occasions and the data above suggests the team understands how to get the best out of it on any given race weekend.

Those behind the design and engineering work have done an exceptional job and most of the detail on the aerodynamic components is a cut above the rest.

The mechanics once again have given them the backup that is required to make sure that every time the car hits the track it is well prepared and the drivers can show its true performance.

There have been a few little reliability problems, but when you are running as close to the limit as Mercedes is, I suppose this is to be expected.

FERRARI - 100.945%
Best: 100.244% (Canada)
Worst: 101.645% (Britain)
2015 season: 100.775%

Ferrari went into the 2016 season with high hopes of a championship challenge. But everyone at Maranello soon had a reality check and Ferrari seems to be in complete disarray. The phrase in Italy would be a 'grande casino'.

To make matters worse, Ferrari has now lost technical director James Allison and there is talk of a flatter management structure with no head honcho. This proves how little those in charge at Ferrari know about what makes a competitive F1 car.

Look back through any era and the successful teams have always had a figurehead and a focal point. Of course, you still need a very good group of people working together, but someone needs to stand up and set the direction for that group.

In F1, as in other walks of life, committees are not reactive enough and basically do not work.

With 2017 just around the corner and Red Bull seemingly in the process of overhauling Ferrari as best of the rest, I'm pretty sure there will be more heads on the block before the season is out.

Maurizio Arrivabene could shortly be Maurizio Arrivederci.

RED BULL - 100.978%
Best: 100.000% (Monaco)
Worst: 102.090% (Australia)
2015 season: 101.521%

Red Bull is fighting back after a couple of poor seasons. Yes, Renault let the team down with its power unit, but Red Bull was living on past glories and the car was not as good as it should have been.

Overall, it has made the third biggest step from 2015 to 2016 in relative performance terms, and given only strugglers Manor and McLaren have improved more, the step of 0.543% is a very good one.

This year, Red Bull is the only team other than Mercedes to have won a grand prix. But at Barcelona, that race wasn't so much won by Max Verstappen as lost by Mercedes - although Daniel Ricciardo should have won at Monaco.

Bringing in Verstappen was a great move. We all know Ricciardo is one of the quickest guys out there, but a team-mate of Max's youth and enthusiasm is always going to keep you honest. It's a big help to ensure nobody gets too dispodent while recovering to the front.

The chassis is definitely in there with the best, but the team seems to lack the ability to get the best out of it consistently, especially at the start of the weekend.

As the weekend progresses, it seems to catch up but starting a little better might just give Red Bull that little bit more motivation and belief that is sometimes necessary.

WILLIAMS - 101.673%
Best: 100.937% (China)
Worst: 102.504 (Britain)
2015 season: 101.544%

You could say Williams is a little bit lost, as it has been on the slide since its revival in 2014.

Both drivers' contracts are up at the end of the year, and the team isn't exactly giving them extra motivation by talking of potential replacements.

Williams is also struggling with its development direction and new parts are not bringing the steps expected. When this happens, you have to ask if Williams understands what the car needs to improve.

When you have this type of problem you need to go back and research how you sign off developments. Something in this area is missing and until you understand this it is very easy to be making parts that just don't work in the real world.

FORCE INDIA - 101.867%
Best: 100.971% (Europe)
Worst: 102.832% (Britain)
2015 season: 101.967%

When you consider how strong Force India was at the end of 2015, it started this season poorly and took three or four races before getting up to speed. But now, Force India is a serious threat to Williams for fourth in the constructors' championship.

Force India is a small team, so the decision of when to stop development on this year's car and fully focus on 2017 will define whether fourth is achievable.

If it was me, I would be keeping going on this year's car and the extra money from finishing so high in the championship could help to build a b-version of next year's car, which is something that with the gigantic change in the technical changes most teams will be forced to do as they learn about the 2017 cars.

TORO ROSSO - 102.048%
Best: 101.458% (Hungary)
Worst: 102.484% (Bahrain)
2015 season: 101.918%

Toro Rosso is probably the most consistent team of 2016. Yes, the ultimate performance is not there, but achieving consistency for any team is that first step and once you have achieved that you can build on it.

The STR11 is a good car and developments have worked well on track. Carlos Sainz Jr is a driver who is maturing with every weekend.

At the start of the season, the 2015 Ferrari power unit was a good, reliable package, but as the season has progressed the other engines will have made progress while it stands still.

This means the second half of the season will be difficult, compounding the loss of Verstappen to Red Bull.

In the other car, Daniil Kvyat is a very good driver but has lost his way. He needs to rediscover his confidence.

McLAREN - 102.317%
Best: 101.558% (Hungary)
Worst: 102.798% (Britain)
2015 season: 103.026%

This is yet another season of rebuilding for the once dominant team. It hasn't been easy in the first 18 months of the Honda relationship, but if both can survive the short-term pain there might be some long-term gain. But there are no guarantees.

McLaren keeps on about the fact that it has the third-best chassis in F1 and that just might be so. But more than ever with the current regulations, it is the package that matters and McLaren seems to be pushing Honda into an area that restricts the learning curve.

Things have looked better lately and on a good day McLaren could now be classed as a back of the top 10 team.

That's not where McLaren-Honda wants to be but it's now better than it has been - an improvement of 0.709% from last year.

HAAS - 102.800%
Best: 102.038% (Austria)
Worst: 105.304 (Australia) or 103.169% (China)
2015 season: N/A

Haas is new team for 2016 and in the first few races it certainly grabbed everyone's attention with some good results.

The later part of the first half of the season has not been as productive, but still Haas is competitive enough to score points.

The car appears to be very critical in the braking area. We often see both of its drivers suffering from front-wheel locking or the rear stepping out.

When you have a situation like this, you are likely giving away more time than any other handling difficulty as a braking problem really knocks the drivers' confidence.

Above, I have listed two worst percentage weekends - one is the first race of the season and as a new team we could probably forgive Haas for that. Since then, Haas has been reasonably consistent.

RENAULT - 103.438%
Best: 102.464% (Hungary)
Worst: 104.121% (Bahrain)
2015 season: 101.953%

This has been a tough start to Renault's return as a full F1 constructor.

In the back of the Red Bull, the Renault power unit shows that it has improved for 2016, but the works team is running towards the back of the back and, at best, on the cusp of making it through Q1.

Renault's deal to take over the team was done late, so design and build of this year's car would have been delayed dramatically as it was all about survival.

With the chassis regulation changes for 2017, everyone will more or less start with a clean sheet of paper, so it will be next season before we actually see where Renault really stacks up.

SAUBER - 103.727%
Best: 102.955% (Europe)
Worst: 104.819% (Britain)
2015 season: 102.604%

This is another season of survival for Sauber, and we have heard this all too often from the Swiss team, which seems to struggle to get its head above water long enough to show its true potential.

Following the takeover of the team by Longbow Finance, Monisha Kaltenborn said there will be no excuses for 2017. That shows how little she knows about how long it will take to get a group of people working as one on the technical side.

To build a team, you need consistency in budget. It doesn't have to be the biggest budget, but it needs to be consistent and that is something Sauber hasn't had for many seasons.

MANOR - 104.089%
Best: 102.019% (Austria)
Worst: 106.213% (Australia)
2015 season: 106.459%

Manor is stuck in a difficult position. As a team, it has to keep up motivation while being realistic about where it stands in the pecking order.

Manor is the smallest team in F1 and has that very valuable one point scored in Austria. If it can keep its 10th position in the championship, it will be very valuable for 2017.

Manor's relationship with Mercedes is something it should really concentrate on developing. As Red Bull has shown, a junior team to bring on young drivers has now become de rigueur in F1 and Manor could just be that team working closely with Mercedes.

When the car was launched, it was a very basic package and because of this I expected it to come on a bit more during the season. But relative to the others, Manor has sort of stood still.

That said, given it's made such a giant stride compared to last year, worth 2.370%, that's still a big gain.

Manor is, for obvious reasons, the biggest winner in terms of relative performance from 2015 to 2016.

Having run a year-old Ferrari power unit last year and then switched to the latest-specification Mercedes, a lot of that performance will have been found there and Manor is regularly rapid in the speed traps.

But we've also seen it make some progress with its chassis so the team is coming together.

McLaren has made a big step as well, which is no surprise given it's 2015 struggles.

But outside of those two teams, the biggest gain is from Red Bull, which has made a big step towards Mercedes and seems to be on the brink of leaving Ferrari behind.

Of the losers, it's no surprise to see Renault struggling. Last year's uncertainty meant work on the '16 car was limited - but a bigger step back in the right direction is needed next year.

Sauber has also lost ground, while Ferrari and Williams have both slipped back by a small amount.