[Team] Your top 11 teams of 2013

[Born Racer]

You can go for the championship order if you wish, or vary it if you think a team did well with what they had and outperformed a (for instance) far richer team.

The criteria are yours. What are yours?

1. Red Bull

Superior in most aspects. Managed to win ones they nearly screwed up (like Brazil with the pitstop problem). Politically astute (yuck) as Horner seems to know who to cosy up to. Not interested in that last aspect, though, but they were amazing and had the best-performing driver. Webber was disappointing, but look at their points haul.

2. Lotus

Despite a penchant for non-payment, Permane's comments to Kimi and choosing the stunningly mediocre Heikki Kovalainen as a sub, they delivered some top results and probably made more out of their situation than the mightily financed Mercedes and mightily financed and politically influential Ferrari. Will they have another 1996 in 2014?

3. Force India

Got some excellent results again and it only unravelled when the Pirellis went against them. Still, you can't sneeze too much at sixth.

4. Mercedes

Made a good fist of it at last (wonder how Schumy feels). 3 wins is alright. Probably a huge relief to just get that many. Expectations will be high though and being a manufacturer, you worry they won't be around forever if things don't get even better.

5. Ferrari

They seem to have a belief they should be at the top because they're Ferrari and frankly, with the financial favours they get, yes, they should be better. They made themselves look a bit silly with the di Montezemolo/ Alonso spat if that was even indeed anything more than media-stirred nonsense. And of course they got some wins. But they slipped back a bit badly. Not as slow as Fernando Alonso (another Nigel Mansell in the "I overcame adversity" department) would make out, they ought to have shown more. They say next year is crucial, but this is beginning to sound like the David Coulthard "It's my year" chuckle we had round these parts.

6. Sauber

I'll give sixth to Sauber for their improvement in the second half relative to others. I'm not exactly sure if it was because the likes of Force India slipped back or if they really found a sweet spot. Either way, Hulkenberg got some mighty results out of the thing. Pity about the 2014 driver line-up.

7. McLaren

Oh, McLaren. This was not a good year, as they admit, but their manner of admitting it suggests they drift through without considering that their entire philosophy on team structure just doesn't work. They were basically a decent midfield team, but their peaks we have seen over the years show they can be much more.

8. Marussia

Glad they took on Bianchi. A very low budget and remember they came in expecting a budget cap, so they got screwed on that account by the big guns. All a bit "meh", but better than Caterham who talk a lot more. I like the non-pretentiousness and crack-on-with-it spirit of John Booth.

9. STR

They should be so much better given they're owned by Red Bull. It seems Red Bull don't care about their performance, but only want to evaluate drivers. Weirdly inconsistent. Strange team. Somehow they manage to get such evenly matched drivers every year that we debate whether they are both really good or really average all the time.

10. Williams

A huge comedown from last year, but there doesn't seem to be a panic, as they do look very organised. Just slow. Maldonado came across as a bit of a ******. Claire Williams comes across as a balanced person to run the team.

11. Caterham

They've slipped back relative to the others if anything.

Happy Christmas everyone. o/