The competitiveness of each Formula 1 team can be significantly different making it relatively impossible to compare the relative performances of each driver. The only way to really judge a driver’s performance is to compare them to their teammate. Both have the same machinery and, all things being equal, have an equal opportunity to perform.
At the 2018 mid-season break we take a look at who’s hot and who’s not – a review of six head to head factors (which we update after each race) for each teammate pairing. For a full description of the factors check out our H2H Explanatory Notes.
MERCEDES
| Bottas | Hamilton | Winner | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Points | 132 | 213 | Hamilton |
| Race Result | 3 | 7 | Hamilton |
| Qualifying | 5 | 7 | Hamilton |
| Fastest Lap | 4 | 8 | Hamilton |
| Laps in Top 10 | 646 | 730 | Hamilton |
| Best Result | 2nd (x5) | 1st (x5) | Hamilton |
WINNER: Lewis Hamilton, 6:0
Lewis Hamilton’s clean sweep of Valteri Bottas perhaps doesn’t tell the whole story of the season so far. Valteri has often been hot on the heals of his four time World Champion teammate and the radar perhaps provides a better indication of the closeness of the drivers at Mercedes.
Bottas has arguably had his fair share of bad luck over the first 12 races. Without a win so far this season the Finn was robbed of a near certain victory when he retired in the lead of the Azerbaijan GP. On the plus side for Valteri he has gotten closer to Lewis in qualifying this year compared to 2017 which is an impressive result against the record holder for the most pole positions ever.
Bad luck or not World Champions tend to make their own luck and Lewis has clearly had the better of his teammate so far this season. Traditionally Mercedes drivers have been free to race each other but with Toto Woolf suggesting in Turkey that Valteri was a good wing man the Finn’s opportunities to better Lewis in future head to head race battles may be limited in 2018.
FERRARI
| Räikkönen | Vettel | Winner | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Points | 146 | 189 | Vettel |
| Race Result | 4 | 5 | Vettel |
| Qualifying | 2 | 10 | Vettel |
| Fastest Lap | 6 | 6 | draw |
| Laps in Top 10 | 676 | 721 | Vettel |
| Best Result | 2nd (x2) | 1st (x4) | Vettel |
WINNER: Sebastian Vettel, 5:0
The H2H results so far this season are a bit like “Groundhog Day” for the Scuderia teammates. In 2017 Vettel beat Raikkonen 5:1 with the Finn’s only factor win being for Fastest Lap. Fast forward to 2018 and although the Kimster doesn’t have a factor win he has managed to draw Seb in fastest lap count between the two drivers.
Few would argue that Kimi has had a far stronger year to date in 2018 compared to 2017. Of particular note is Kimi’s improvement in overall race performance. He has lost out to Seb by only 5:4 on Race Result in races where both drivers have finished. What hasn’t improved for Raikkonen is his qualifying performance, currently down 10:2 to Vettel. The good news for the Scuderia is that Kimi’s average Q3 quali lap time is only 0.275 seconds behind Seb’s meaning both Ferrari’s have consistently qualified toward the front of the grid.
RED BULL RACING
| Ricciardo | Verstappen | Winner | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Points | 118 | 105 | Ricciardo |
| Race Result | 3 | 3 | draw |
| Qualifying | 3 | 9 | Verstappen |
| Fastest Lap | 6 | 5 | Ricciardo |
| Laps in Top 10 | 593 | 577 | Ricciardo |
| Best Result | 1st (x2) | 1st | Ricciardo |
WINNER: Daniel Ricciardo, 4:1
Arguably the strongest driver lineup on the grid the Red Bull team mates have again had a close fought first half of the season in 2018. What has changed compared to the final 2017 H2H result is the winner – Max beat Daniel 4:2 last year but the Australian has turned the tables so far in 2018 with a 4:1 lead.
What hasn’t gone so well for Ricciardo in 2018 is qualifying. In 2017 Dan only bettered Max 35% of the time in quali but this year that disappointing result has dropped even further to 25%. The Honey Badger clearly needs to work on his one lap pace – it will be very interesting to compare his performance in qualifying against Nico Hulkenburg in 2019.
Daniel Ricciardo is renowned for his overtaking and race craft and his exploits in this area have been a big contributor to his H2H lead so far this season. In addition, while both drivers have had their share of bad luck this year Ricciardo has managed his convincing lead despite three mechanical failures against Verstappen’s two.
With Dan moving to Renault in 2019 he will be doing everything he can to finish the season leading the H2H battle to at least secure final bragging rights before leaving the team.
RENAULT
| Hülkenberg | Sainz | Winner | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Points | 52 | 30 | Hülkenberg |
| Race Result | 6 | 2 | Hülkenberg |
| Qualifying | 7 | 5 | Hülkenberg |
| Fastest Lap | 7 | 4 | Hülkenberg |
| Laps in Top 10 | 495 | 513 | Sainz |
| Best Result | 5th | 5th | draw |
WINNER: Nico Hulkenberg, 4:1
The Renault team mates head to head battle was a mouth watering one at the start of the 2018 season. Hulkenberg had bettered Sainz 5:1 on the six H2H factors after the four races they had together at the end of the 2017 season. But Sainz’ reputation and performance in his short time at Renault indicated things could be tight in 2018.
And so it has proved, though again the Hulk has outpointed Chili. Hulkenberg is generally not considered a qualifying expert (except perhaps in the wet) but he has marginally been on top of Chili this year. He has extended that advantage over a race distance – beating his team mate 6:2 in the eight races the two have both finished.
Following the announcement that Ricciardo will join Hulkenberg at Renault next year (we can’t wait for that matchup!) Sainz will no doubt be pulling out all stops to get closer to The Hulk in their H2H to give him some confidence prior to his move to his new home at McLaren.
HAAS
| Grosjean | Magnussen | Winner | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Points | 21 | 45 | Magnussen |
| Race Result | 3 | 5 | Magnussen |
| Qualifying | 3 | 9 | Magnussen |
| Fastest Lap | 5 | 6 | Magnussen |
| Laps in Top 10 | 306 | 485 | Magnussen |
| Best Result | 4th | 5th (x2) | Grosjean |
WINNER Kevin Magnussen 5:1
In 2017 Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean couldn’t be separated after finishing the year 3:3 in their head to head battle. Times have changed…
KMag is arguably having the best season of his F1 career and has well and truly outperformed his teammate. Other than the Dane’s overall consistency perhaps the biggest change from 2017 is qualifying. At the end of last year Romain held the upper hand in quali beating Kevin 12:8 over the season. This year KMag has been the quali king turning the tables 9:3 against the Frenchmen.
Grosjean has had typical flashes of brilliance as well as some bad luck but he is going to need to significantly improve his consistency to get back on terms with Magnussen. The pressure will certainly be on to perform as there have even been rumors Romain’s seat at Haas could be in question for 2019.
FORCE INDIA
| Ocon | Pérez | Winner | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Points | 29 | 30 | Pérez |
| Race Result | 7 | 2 | Ocon |
| Qualifying | 9 | 3 | Ocon |
| Fastest Lap | 4 | 6 | Pérez |
| Laps in Top 10 | 323 | 232 | Ocon |
| Best Result | 6th (x2) | 3rd | Pérez |
WINNER: Draw
One of the biggest changes in results compared to 2017 has been at Force India. Last year Sergio Perez convincingly beat Esteban Ocon 6:0 but the young Frenchman has turned that around to be draw at the summer break in 2018.
Perhaps most impressive is that Ocon has dominated Perez in both Qualifying and Race Results so far in 2018. Checo had a great race in Azerbaijan to finish third on the podium but without that result Esteban would likely have led the Mexican in their H2H battle.
Ocon’s one lap and race supremacy over the highly rated Perez are further evidence that he is a star of the future. There are still a couple of seats potentially available for 2019 that Esteban could be in the running for, for example McLaren and Williams. As a Mercedes young driver one way or another there is likely to be an agreement from the German marque that Ocon will be granted a works drive in the near future.
MCLAREN
| Alonso | Vandoorne | Winner | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Points | 44 | 8 | Alonso |
| Race Result | 6 | 1 | Alonso |
| Qualifying | 12 | 0 | Alonso |
| Fastest Lap | 8 | 4 | Alonso |
| Laps in Top 10 | 364 | 121 | Alonso |
| Best Result | 5th | 8th | Alonso |
WINNER: Fernando Alonso, 6:0
After a tumultuous relationship with Honda the 2018 season was supposed to be a turning point for McLaren. Both the team and pundits believed that the 2017 chassis was one of the best on the grid and paired with a Renault powertrain in 2018 McLaren were targeting Red Bull. Unfortunately things haven’t gone to plan with the once mighty team more often toward the tail end of the field.
Even with a decidedly average race car at his disposal Fernando Alonso has still managed to achieve some impressive results and currently sits 9th in the World Drivers Championship. The mercurial Spaniard is only the third driver (with Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc) to have beaten his team mate 6:0 in their head to head matchups this year! Fernando is also the only driver to have achieved a clean sweep in qualifying beating Stoffel Vandorne at every race event.
Following Alonso’s recent announcement that he will not be competing in F1 in 2019 Carlos Sainz now has some big shoes to fill. Stoffel Vandoorne, having been comprehensively beaten in both 2017 and 2018 in his H2H matchup with Alonso must surely be nervous about losing his seat for 2019. Though perhaps of little comfort to the Belgian Fernando has VERY rarely been beaten by his teammate as we revealed in our review of Fernando’s career last year.
F1 will be poorer without Fernando Alonso on the grid in 2018. The final question for 2018 at McLaren is will he maintain his 6:0 lead over Vandoorne at season end?
TORO ROSSO
| Gasly | Hartley | Winner | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Points | 26 | 2 | Gasly |
| Race Result | 3 | 2 | Gasly |
| Qualifying | 9 | 3 | Gasly |
| Fastest Lap | 4 | 4 | draw |
| Laps in Top 10 | 246 | 60 | Gasly |
| Best Result | 4th | 10th (x2) | Gasly |
WINNER: Pierre Gasly, 5:0
Torro Rosso is certainly one of the teams with a clear winner in their driver H2H matchup. Pierre Gasly has had an extremely impressive first half of 2018 with his fourth place at Bahrain a particular highlight.
Though soundly beaten in the H2H results Brendon Hartley has definitely shown glimpses of speed in his first full rookie season. Trailing Gasly 3:2 in the Race Result is a solid indicator for the Kiwi but perhaps even more highlights the inconsistency of the Torro Rosso and its drivers in 2018. With both drivers only finishing a total of five races together the Italian team will be focussed on getting both cars to the chequered flag in the second part of the season.
Red Bull have traditionally been ruthless in axing drivers from their feeder team so Hartley will definitely need to improve to keep his seat in 2019. With the recent announcement that Gasly will join RBR for 2019 the Frenchman will be very keen to finish the season well on top of his teammate.
SAUBER
| Ericsson | Leclerc | Winner | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Points | 5 | 13 | Leclerc |
| Race Result | 3 | 5 | Leclerc |
| Qualifying | 3 | 9 | Leclerc |
| Fastest Lap | 5 | 6 | Leclerc |
| Laps in Top 10 | 93 | 217 | Leclerc |
| Best Result | 9th (x2) | 6th | Leclerc |
WINNER: Charles Leclerc, 6:0
What a turnaround in 2018 for Sauber and what a debut year for Charles Leclerc! After winning the GP3 title in 2016 and following that up with the F2 title last year Leclerc’s step up to F1 was much anticipated. He hasn’t disappointed!!
Charles has comprehensively beaten his far more experienced teammate in Marcus Ericsson including a 9:3 win in qualifying. In various conditions, one lap pace and mixing it with some of the best on race day Leclerc’s performance in the first half of the year has been super impressive. As a graduate of the Ferrari Driver Acadamy the Scuderia must be very satisfied with their investment in the young Monegasque!
With the final 2019 race seat still to be confirmed at Ferrari Leclerc may well have shown enough to get the call up. Alternatively if Ferrari stick with the seemingly harmonious paring of Kimi and Seb it will surely only be a matter of time before Leclerc finds himself in a scarlet race car.
WILLIAMS
| Sirotkin | Stroll | Winner | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Points | 0 | 4 | Stroll |
| Race Result | 3 | 4 | Stroll |
| Qualifying | 7 | 5 | Sirotkin |
| Fastest Lap | 3 | 7 | Stroll |
| Laps in Top 10 | 0 | 46 | Stroll |
| Best Result | 13th | 8th | Stroll |
WINNER: Lance Stroll, 5:1
Arguably Williams’ poor first half of the season hasn’t been helped by their relatively inexperienced driver pairing. In his second year Lance Stroll has some experience on the debutant Sergei Sirotkin which may have helped him get the better of the Russian in the race factors. Interestingly Sirotkin leads Stroll 7:5 in qualifying suggesting the Russian has good one lap pace but has struggled for consistency on race day.
It should be noted that Felipe Massa beat Lance Stroll 4:2 in their 2017 H2H. Few followers of the sport would enjoy seeing Williams at the back of the grid but having two relatively inexperienced drivers must surely compromise the level of feedback and development. Perhaps Williams to some extent have themselves to blame for their current predicament in not giving the experienced Robert Kubica the drive in 2018.