Feature
Head to head: How 2019's F1 team mates compare at the summer break
Twelve races down, and we have all the numbers to compare how 2019's team mates are faring against each other so far - in qualifying, races, points, DNFs and much more. Statisticians and number-crunchers, fill your boots...
Mercedes
As you can see above, there’s a clear gulf between Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton in the table, the 62-point gap showing Hamilton’s head-to-head domination this season. Bottas, however, has held his ground in qualifying, taking as many poles as Hamilton, and only narrowly losing the qualifying battle 7-5. Furthermore, both Mercedes drivers have two fastest laps each and Hamilton has just edged ahead on podiums with 10 to Bottas’s nine. But the points don’t lie, and Hamilton has out-raced Bottas 9-3 this season. Under pressure with Esteban Ocon watching on from the sidelines, Bottas will be eager to claw his way back after the summer break.
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READ MORE: Hamilton targets qualifying performance improvement
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Ferrari
There’s little to separate Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel at Ferrari, the young Monegasque leading the experienced German 2-1 in fastest laps and pole positions. Vettel, however, has six podiums to Leclerc’s five, scoring points in all but one race – the British Grand Prix – while Leclerc retired from Germany and his home race, Monaco. Expect this battle to continue in similarly close fashion over the next nine races.
READ MORE: Vettel urges calm to turn Ferrari’s season around
READ MORE: Ferrari hopeful of bounceback at high-speed Spa and Monza
Red Bull
Max Verstappen is having a superlative season, striving to make it five wins for Red Bull in 2019, having already taken two, plus his first career pole in Hungary. The step up to Red Bull hasn’t been easy for Pierre Gasly, however, and it coincides with Verstappen’s strongest season yet in terms of points; the pair have the biggest points gap out of any two drivers on the grid. Gasly has now been demoted to Toro Rosso, giving Alexander Albon nine races to find his feet at Red Bull.
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McLaren
It’s no wonder McLaren were so quick to retain Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris for 2020, the pair having contributed 82 points up until the summer break – more than McLaren scored for the whole of last season. But it’s Sainz who’s out-raced his rookie team mate with eight points finishes compared to Norris’s five, his haul of 58 points the Spaniard’s highest season total to date. Sainz has made himself a hot property at McLaren, and Norris has followed suit as he leads the qualifying battle 8-4.
READ MORE: Sainz praises 'good vibes' as McLaren head midfield at mid-season
WATCH: Lando Norris takes on Carlos Sainz in Grill The Grid
Toro Rosso
On his way to Red Bull to contest the next nine races, rookie Alexander Albon has been a match for seasoned team mate Daniil Kvyat in qualifying, but the points standings are leaning in Kvyat's favour 27-16 thanks to his podium in Germany. Kvyat's return to F1 after a turbulent couple of years at Toro Rosso in 2016 and '17 has produced much more assured performances. It's worth noting that while he hasn't been recalled to Red Bull just yet, Kvyat isn't out of the running. The team are merely evaluating how Albon performs in the second half of 2019.
READ MORE: Albon vs Gasly - The Road to Red Bull’s driver swap
OPINION: What next for Pierre Gasly?
Renault
While Daniel Ricciardo hasn’t had the spectacular move to Renault that he might have hoped for, he has quietly bested his ever-reliable new team mate Nico Hulkenberg. With nine races remaining, Ricciardo has almost sealed the qualifying battle as he leads it 8-4, the Australian also 11th in the standings while Hulkenberg is 14th, behind Lance Stroll and Kevin Magnussen. However, the team mate battle is far from settled here when it comes to the racing: Hulkenberg has every chance of making up the numbers in the next nine races.
READ MORE: Renault need to ask themselves questions after tough first-half - Hulkenberg
Alfa Romeo
It’s been a rude introduction to a full-time race seat for Antonio Giovinazzi, up against the Iceman in his first season. Former champion Kimi Raikkonen is dominating here against the Italian rookie, showing just how much experience counts in this sport. And then, of course, there’s the small matter of Raikkonen’s undeniable talent, as he’s out-qualified Giovinazzi 8-4, out-raced him 11-1 and claimed 31 of the team’s 32 points so far.
READ MORE: Alfa Romeo were faster than McLaren in Hungary says Raikkonen
Racing Point
A lack of Q3 appearances underlines just how far behind Sergio Perez team mate Lance Stroll is, the Canadian losing the qualifying battle 11-1. While Perez has out-raced him 8-4 so far, Stroll is ahead on points thanks to a bumper haul in Germany, his fourth-place finish adding 12 to his total and evening out the head-to-head numbers a bit. It may seem that Stroll is a less consistent points scorer, but he's done so in four races this season while Perez has scored points on just three occasions, the last in Azerbaijan.
READ MORE: How Racing Point’s radical upgrades provide a mid-season redesign
READ MORE: Hungary ‘a race to be proud of’, says Perez after narrowly missing points
Haas
A glaring six DNFs for Romain Grosjean, compared to his team mate’s single failure to finish, explains how the Frenchman is 10 points behind the Dane at this stage. He’s been narrowly out-qualified by Magnussen and out-raced by him, but Grosjean is making a significant contribution to the team, using the Melbourne-spec car for the past few races in an effort to find out where Haas are struggling in the upgrade department.
READ MORE: Haas still perplexed by ‘weird’ pace fluctuations
READ MORE: Haas drivers accept 'firm' rules from Steiner after scraps and close calls
Williams
Robert Kubica’s inspiring comeback to Formula 1 hasn’t lived up to the expectations of many, while rookie George Russell has made an immediate impact at the team, out-racing and out-qualifying the Polish driver 10-2 and 12-0 respectively. That means the qualifying head-to-head is Russell’s already. The only anomaly here is that Kubica has scored more than Russell, his P10 finish in Germany yielding the team’s only point. It’s clear that this season hasn’t reflected Kubica’s past form, nor is it a continuation of his blistering pace from 2006-10. Russell, on the other hand, couldn’t have made a better first impression in F1, given the machinery at his disposal.
READ MORE: Williams confident they’ve established the right design direction for 2019/20
READ MORE: Russell hails Hungary ‘best weekend of the year’ after ‘disaster’ of Germany
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