The first person a Formula 1 driver must beat is their teammate.
It’s the golden rule of motorsport, and particularly in categories like Formula 1, where only one other driver has access to identical machinery and therefore identical potential results.
And in a season like this, when one team has a clean victory record and when points are difficult to come by for the bottom five squads, each driver’s teammate becomes an even more crucial comparator for success.
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Fox Sports has compiled the crucial data points to analyse which teammates are most closely matched and which drivers need to lift in the second half of the campaign.
The data comprises all 12 rounds, including all three sprint days. There have been 15 qualifying sessions and races, including sprint shootouts and sprint races.
To fairly compare drivers on pure pace, only qualifying segments in which both drivers appear are used — that is, if one driver is knocked out in Q1 but the other makes it through to Q2, both drivers’ Q1 times are compared.
Race head-to-head figures are tallied only when both drivers are classified. Races in which one or both drivers fail to finish are not included.
PIT TALK: Michael and Mat rank the top 10 (plus one) drivers of the season so far, including an obvious favourite, some disputed midfield bolters and an Aussie in the top 10.
1. RED BULL RACING (503 POINTS)
Max Verstappen (1st, 314 points) and Sergio Pérez (2nd, 189 points)
Qualifying
Head to head: Verstappen ahead 12-3
Pace: Verstappen ahead by 0.544 seconds
Grid position: Verstappen ahead by 5.6 places
Races
Head to head: Verstappen ahead 11-3
Points ratio: Verstappen ahead 62 per cent to 38 per cent
Finishing position: Verstappen ahead by 2.6 places
While you won’t be surprised to see Max Verstappen is dominating Sergio Pérez at Red Bull Racing, the scale of his superiority lays bare the Mexican’s struggles in the fastest car in Formula 1.
Verstappen’s 0.544-second qualifying advantage is the largest of any driver over their teammate. Only one other set of teammates is separated by more than half a second — Alex Albon over rookie Logan Sargeant.
No other teammates are separated by more than 5.6 places on the grid, thanks largely to Pérez’s string of Q1 and Q2 knockouts while the Dutchman stormed to pole.
Pérez’s Sunday improvements translate to him finishing on average 2.6 places behind Verstappen, which is the third largest gap in the sport.
Pérez’s title dream is over this year, but there’s still plenty of work for him to do to complete a respectable season, even if he’ll likely secure second in the drivers championship.
2. MERCEDES (247 POINTS)
Lewis Hamilton (4th, 148 points) and George Russell (6th, 99 points)
Qualifying
Head to head: Hamilton ahead 8-7
Pace: Hamilton ahead by 0.427 seconds*
Grid position: Hamilton ahead by 1.3 places
Races
Head to head: Hamilton ahead 8-5
Points ratio: Hamilton ahead 60-40 per cent
Finishing position: Hamilton ahead 0.3 places
Lewis Hamilton’s sizeable qualifying pace advantage is thanks almost entirely to Belgium’s wet sprint shootout, in which he was almost six seconds faster than George Russell. Delete that result and just 0.04 seconds would separate him from his teammate in what would be the closest qualifying battle on the grid.
While Hamilton has more frequently had a handle on Russell compared to last season, the points difference between them is largely down to George’s two DNFs, the team’s only failures to finish this season. The 0.3 places separating them at the flag is the second smallest gap of any set of teammates and a better indicator of their closely matched performances.
3. ASTON MARTIN (196 POINTS)
Fernando Alonso (3rd, 149 points) and Lance Stroll (9th, 47 points)
Qualifying
Head to head: Alonso ahead 12-3
Pace: Alonso ahead by 0.481 seconds
Grid position: Alonso ahead by 3.7 places
Races
Head to head: Alonso ahead 10-2
Points ratio: Alonso ahead 76-24 per cent
Finishing position: Alonso ahead by 3.3 places
Fernando Alonso has put teammate Lance Stroll, who’s of course racing for his dad’s team, to the sword. Despite the Canadian getting off to a creditable start — don’t forget he was racing with broken wrists early in the year — Alonso has powered to commanding advantages in every important metric.
The Spaniard has the third-best qualifying record of any driver in terms of head-to-head results, pure pace and grid position. Only Albon’s obliteration of rookie Sargeant and Verstappen’s domination over Pérez have produced bigger numbers.
The points percentage split is comfortably the worst among the frontrunners. Only the backmarker AlphaTauri, Williams and Haas teams boast greater disparities — but with fewer points on offer to them, their percentage splits are less representative.
Meanwhile, only Sargeant is finishing further behind his teammate than Stroll is behind Alonso in the races.
Given the Williams line-up comprises a rookie driver and given Pérez has sometimes been a match for Verstappen, you could fairly argue Aston Martin has the most representatively one-sided line-up in Formula 1 this season.
4. FERRARI (191 POINTS)
Charles Leclerc (5th, 99 points) and Carlos Sainz (7th, 92 points)
Qualifying
Head to head: Leclerc ahead 9-6
Pace: Leclerc ahead by 0.109 seconds
Grid position: Sainz ahead by 0.3 places
Races
Head to head: Leclerc ahead 7-5
Points ratio: Leclerc ahead 52-48 per cent
Finishing position: Sainz ahead by 0.4 places
It’s said that if both a team’s drivers are returning similar results, they’re probably getting the most out of the car. It’s hard to sell that as a good thing for Ferrari, which has slumped to fourth in the constructors standings.
Leclerc and Sainz are the most closely matched teammates on the grid in terms of both qualifying pace and starting positions.
They’re also the most consistent points-scoring combination of any team, with Ferrari’s 191 points almost evenly split between them.
5. McLAREN (103 POINTS)
Lando Norris (8th, 69 points) and Oscar Piastri (11th, 34 points)
Qualifying
Head to head: Norris ahead 12-3
Pace: Norris ahead by 0.114 seconds
Grid position: Norris ahead by 2.5 places
Races
Head to head: Norris ahead 8-5
Points ratio: Norris ahead 67-33 per cent
Finishing position: Norris ahead by 0.5 places
Lando Norris’s experience advantage over Oscar Piastri shows most obviously in qualifying, when he’s more frequently able to get the most from the McLaren. In race trim, however, they’re much more closely matched, finishing on average only half a place apart.
The relatively hefty 67-33 points percentage split is largely down to the last four rounds. Norris was equipped with more upgrades at two of those rounds, and Piastri’s results were undone by damage and a crash with Sainz at the other two. The 0.5 places separating them on average is a better indicator of the competition between them.
6. ALPINE (57 POINTS)
Esteban Ocon (10th, 35 points) and Pierre Gasly (12th, 22 points)
Qualifying
Head to head: Ocon ahead 8-7
Pace: Ocon ahead by 0.135 seconds
Grid position: Ocon ahead by 1.8 places
Races
Head to head: Ocon and Gasly tied 6-6
Points ratio: Ocon ahead 61-39 per cent
Finishing position: Ocon ahead by 0.3 places
Despite the disparities in grid position and points breakdown, Alpine has one of the sport’s most closely matched pairings, with those gaps down largely to some off weekends for newcomer Pierre Gasly.
Their six-all finishing record makes them the only teammates paired on the race-day head-to-head result, with Esteban Ocon wielding his incumbency at the team to his advantage for a couple of big results on the weekends the Alpine has been a points-contending car.
7. WILLIAMS (11 POINTS)
Alex Albon (13th, 11 points) and Logan Sargeant (19th, 0 points)
Qualifying
Head to head: Albon ahead 15-0
Pace: Albon ahead by 0.523 seconds
Grid position: Albon ahead by 5.1 places
Races
Head to head: Albon ahead 11-0
Points ratio: Albon ahead 100-0 per cent
Finishing position: Albon ahead by 4.0 places
Only Logan Sargeant’s rookie status is shielding him from some serious questions about his intrateam record against a rampaging Alex Albon.
Albon has the grid’s only perfect qualifying and race head-to-head records, albeit with DNFs excluded.
The Thai driver’s average pace advantage over Sargeant is the second greatest of the field, behind only Verstappen’s control over Pérez.
The Williams drivers also have the biggest head-to-head race result split, with no driver coming close to Albon’s four-place finishing advantage.
8. HAAS (11 POINTS)
Nico Hülkenberg (14th, 9 points) and Kevin Magnussen (18th, 2 points)
Qualifying
Head to head: Hülkenberg ahead 11-4
Pace: Hülkenberg ahead by 0.112 seconds
Grid position: Hülkenberg ahead by 3.6 places
Races
Head to head: Magnussen ahead 7-6
Points ratio: Hülkenberg ahead 82-18 per cent
Finishing position: Hülkenberg ahead by 0.4 places
The difference between Hülkenberg and Magnussen is less pronounced than it might have immediately seemed.
The fact that they’re the closest matched drivers on pure pace behind only the Ferrari teammates but are separated by a whopping 3.6 places on the grid is testament to how close the midfield is. Hülkenberg’s slender advantage has often been enough to slip into the next qualifying segment, where a few extra positions are usually on offer.
Nonetheless, few will have expected Hülkenberg to be such a good match for Magnussen after three years out of the cockpit, making even these gaps significant.
9. ALFA ROMEO (9 POINTS)
Valtteri Bottas (15th, 5 points) and Zhou Guanyu (16th, 4 points)
Qualifying
Head to head: Bottas ahead 9-6
Pace: Bottas ahead by 0.236 seconds
Grid position: Bottas ahead by 0.9 places
Races
Head to head: Bottas ahead 8-6
Points ratio: Bottas ahead 56-44 per cent
Finishing position: Bottas ahead by 0.3 places
Zhou Guanyu has taken a good step forward in his second F1 season, and while he’s regularly matching teammate Valtteri Bottas, he’s not yet consistently beating him.
Bottas has retained a good qualifying record with an almost quarter-second advantage, though in the slowest car in the sport, that’s worth barely a place on the grid.
There’s subsequently little to separate them on Sunday, when the Alfa Romeo has little forward momentum.
A driver of Bottas’s experience would expect to be further ahead of a sophomore driver, but considering the Finn has had a larger share of bad luck this season, things aren’t perhaps quite as bad as they might seem for him.
10. ALPHATAURI (3 POINTS)
Yuki Tsunoda (17th, 3 points), Nyck de Vries (20th, 0 points) and Daniel Ricciardo (21st, 0 points)
Qualifying
Head to head: Tsunoda ahead of De Vries 10-2 (Ricciardo ahead 2-1)
Pace: Tsunoda ahead of De Vries by 0.469 seconds (Tsunoda ahead by 0.012 seconds)
Grid position: Tsunoda ahead of De Vries by 2.67 places (Tsunoda and Ricciardo tied)
Races
Head to head: Tsunoda ahead of De Vries 8-2 (Ricciardo ahead 2-1)
Points ratio: Tsunoda ahead of De Vries 100-0 per cent (Tsunoda ahead 100-0 per cent)
Finishing position: Tsunoda ahead of De Vries by 2.1 places (Ricciardo ahead by 1.3 places)
The above data compares Yuki Tsunoda to Nyck de Vries over the first 10 rounds, comprising 12 qualifying and race sessions.
The data in brackets compares Tsunoda to Daniel Ricciardo, his teammate for the last two rounds, including three qualifying and race sessions.
The comparison to De Vries makes clear why the Red Bull program rapidly lost faith in the Dutchman as a Formula 1 prospect. What’s not shown here is that De Vries showed little discernible improvement over 10 rounds.
While it’s difficult to draw any meaningful conclusions from just two rounds of the Tsunoda-Ricciardo partnership, we can at least say it’s started reasonably smoothly for the returning Australian, who’s been closely matched in qualifying and the marginally better finisher, thanks largely to his great drive in Hungary.
TEAMMATE DOMINANCE RANKING
The following table ranks each team’s teammates from most closely matched to most disparate by averaging the six key data points used above.
1. Ferrari: Charles Leclerc ahead of Carlos Sainz
2. Alpine: Esteban Ocon ahead of Pierre Gasly
3. Alfa Romeo: Valtteri Bottas ahead of Zhou Guanyu
4. Mercedes: Lewis Hamilton ahead of George Russell
5. Haas: Nico Hülkenberg ahead of Kevin Magnussen
6. McLaren: Lando Norris ahead of Oscar Piastri
7. AlphaTauri: Yuki Tsunoda ahead of Nyck de Vries and Daniel Ricciardo
8. Aston Martin: Fernando Alonso ahead of Lance Stroll
9. Red Bull Racing: Max Verstappen ahead of Sergio Pérez
10. Williams: Alex Albon ahead of Logan Sargeant