Revealed: F1’s two battles more one-sided than Verstappen vs Perez

The average time between F1 teammates can make good or bad reading depending on which side of the fence you’re on.

If you ask any driver what is the one thing they don’t want to happen more than anything else, more often than not, their answer will be losing to their teammate.

As we head into the summer break, Formula Racers on X/Twitter have calculated the median distance between each driver, and look away now if your name starts with an L…

Yuki Tsunoda 0.04 seconds ahead of Daniel Ricciardo

With just two races to go, that gap was always going to come down to a slim margin and after Hungary and Belgium, neither Yuki Tsunoda nor Daniel Ricciardo have finished significantly ahead of their team-mate.

They are 1-1 in race finishes with Ricciardo bettering Tsunoda in Budapest and vice versa in Belgium, but Tsunoda’s best time at Spa gives him the slim lead.

Charles Leclerc 0.8 seconds ahead of Carlos Sainz

Perhaps unsurprising when you consider that these are also the two drivers separated by the fewest points of those who have scored at least 10.

The two Ferrari drivers have been bullish this year, which is not necessarily a good thing, but rather an indication of how slow the SF-23 can be.

In the races, Charles Leclerc leads Carlos Sainz with seven results out of five and this shows with his score marginally better than the Spaniard’s.

Etseabn Ocon 3.1 seconds ahead of Pierre Gasly

The gap starts to widen as we head into the Alpine boys and it’s Esteban Ocon who so far outshines his new teammate.

While neither driver had the first half of the year they would have liked, Pierre Gasly’s podium showed that on his day the Alpine car can cause plenty of points.

But as with Ferrari, Alpine’s problems this year are not down to the driver, but instead an insurmountable mess in the engine and senior management.

Lando Norris 4 seconds ahead of Oscar Piastri

This is certainly a gap to watch going into the second half of the season because while the MCL60 initially put a handbrake on both chances for both drivers to impress, that handbrake is now closed with the car one of the fastest on the grid. .

So far, Lando Norris has been the one to beat his team-mate, but Oscar Piastri’s performance at Spa suggests the battle is far from over.

Nico Hulkenberg 6 seconds ahead of Kevin Magnussen

If this were averaged out in a ranked position, Kevin Magnussen would look a lot worse than he does today. While Nico Hulkenberg held the lead on Saturday, Haas’ ability to eat through the tires was somewhat of an even match between the two drivers.

But even with that, it shouldn’t take away from Hulkenberg’s impressive return to Formula 1 when many believed he would struggle against Magnussen who was coming off a good 2022.

If Haas can just sort out their tire tread problem, then their grades might start to skyrocket.

Valtteri Bottas 6.5s Zhou Guanyu

A perhaps surprising difference considering how close the two drivers are in the points, but such is the nature of being at the bottom of the grid that a good result can make all the difference.

Neither driver has exactly excelled so far this year with Alfa’s car not proving to be one of their best, but it has been Valtteri Boittas’ advantage so far.

Lewis Hamilton 6.6 seconds ahead of George Russell

After being beaten by his team-mate for just the third time in his career last year, Lewis Hamilton will be delighted that the pendulum has swung back in his favor in 2023.

While George Russell seems to be struggling somewhat, Hamilton seems to have finally found more of a groove and has finished on the podium fourth more than any driver this season.

The gap is still just 6.6 seconds, somewhat closer than many of Hamilton’s former team-mates, but the seven-time World Champion will be hoping to extend that in the final 10 races of the year.

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Max Verstappen 11.5 seconds ahead of Sergio Perez

A void that Sergio Perez will not want to be reminded of anytime soon. To make matters worse, there’s also the caveat that Verstappen opted to stop for the fastest lap in Austria, meaning the gap could have been even wider.

While it might be fine for the other 18 drivers not to be criticized for finishing somewhat behind the Red Bull car this year, that’s not the case for Perez whose early performances disappeared rather quickly.

Given Verstappen’s form, that gap looks likely to only increase with the pair separated by 22.305 seconds going into the last race at Spa.

Alex Albon 17 seconds ahead of Logan Sargeant

One of the less surprising two-driver differences on the grid, as experienced Alex Albon has made light work of his rookie team-mate so far.

Even in 2022, Albon showed a knack for forcing the Williams car higher than it had any right to be, but now in 2023 and with a car that doesn’t seem out of its depth at every track, he’s stepped it up a notch. step.

However, for Logan Sargeant, he is yet to find his feet in the tough world of Formula 1 and with Nyck de Vries no longer on the grid, more focus may be placed on the young American in the second half of 2023.

Fernando Alonso 19.5 seconds ahead of Lance Stroll

Ouch. Even without looking at the numbers, you should have a good idea by now how much Fernando Alonso beats Lance Stroll – but that gap has really shown.

Considering that the 19.5 seconds between them is just shy of a whole extra pit stop, it clearly shows just how much the two-time World Champion is showing Stroll so far.

Of course, this comes with the caveat that Stroll shares the same last name as the owner and the exact details of his contract remain unknown, but if Aston Martin is serious about one day challenging for the World title, it might have to take a look at who takes the place of their number one car.

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