Which F1 Constructor Is Fastest Online? Spoiler It’s Not Mercedes AMG Petronas!
This years Formula 1 championship has so far seen the Mercedes AMG Petronas team dominate with five back-to-back 1–2 finishes. Curious to learn if the culture of speed is embodied in every aspect of Formula 1 teams (fused with a desire to introduce some variability into the season), I ran each team site through the webpagetest tool. The test was launched from servers in Dulles, VA (USA) using a Moto G4 running a Chrome browser on a 4G network.
So how did the teams stack up?
Hit play on the embedded video below to start the race…
May 2019 constructor standing for the Formula 1 constructors web teams (based on time to fully load):
- Williams F1 (5.2 seconds)
- Alfa Romeo Racing (9 seconds)
- McLaren (9.9 seconds)
- Toro Rosso (12.2 seconds)
- Scuderia Ferrari (14.6 seconds)
- Mercedes AMG Petronas (15.6 seconds)
- Renault Sport F1 (16 seconds)
- Red Bull Racing (29.3 seconds)
- Haas (39.9 seconds)
- Racing Point (42.1 seconds)
A number of surprises here! Broadly speaking the factory teams were outperformed by the teams with lower budgets and those to whom they supply power units (engines), which is often the inverse on the track. Williams F1, for example who purchase their power units from Mercedes, have had a weak start to their season and currently running last in the constructors championship — the only team with zero points. However online the Williams team are in P1 with the fastest site at 5.2 seconds! The reigning constructors champion and leading constructor in the 2019 season, Mercedes AMG Petronas, are 6th behind the Scuderia Ferrari team who supply power units to second place Alfa Romeo Racing (formerly Sauber).
Announcing 2019 Formula 1 Constructors Web Team Championship
Formula 1 teams have been at cutting edge of motorsport and driven much of the innovation that we see in road cars today for example semi-automatic transmission, kinetic energy restoration and (debatable) hybrid engines. This is often called the trickle down effect. Given the teams impressive track record, and the on going season, I plan to re-run this same test on the weekend of the French GP June 23rd 2019 to determine if there has been any performance updates made by the Formula 1 constructors web teams. Let’s see how these teams compete online too and help make the web faster!
Obviously this is all good fun and aimed at introducing some variability into this years championship as mentioned. This past week Toto Wolff, Mercedes AMG Petronas Team Principle seemed to agree when he said, “As a fan and as a spectator, I can relate to the sport needing to have a certain variability.” He shared his personal excitement at watching the recent Champions League game where Liverpool FC launched a strong come back against Barcelona to win 4–0 (4–3 agg.)
But… there is a good business lesson here too… which is the importance to be consistent in everything you do. Formula 1 teams are about speed, so the expectation is everything they build is quick! If your company is selling software to improve sales, you best be good at Sales (with Salesforce being a lighthouse example), if you are a fitness instructor you should probably be fit yourself and if you are hair stylist it’s likely a good idea to be sporting a decent mop!
