Why Head to Head?
The F1 championship scoring system rewards the best driver/car combinations. You may be a brilliant driver but in the wrong machinery you won’t win races (hmm…Alonso anyone?). It is a team sport after all so this is just as well. But sometimes it would be nice to know how drivers compare independent of the car they’re driving. Head to Head (H2H) stats provide a great way to assess the relative performance of two drivers using the same equipment under the same rules over the course of a season. F1 Bytes will update our H2H stats after each race weekend so you can keep a close eye on the internal battles within the teams.
Dials
The three dials displayed at the top of each H2H page summarize the results of the driver pairing for the season. The dials show the total number of H2H stats won by each driver and the total number of drawn stats.
An example of the dials is shown below.
Text Summary
The text summary shows the names of the competing drivers and the name of the team they represent for the season head to head. The number of races where they have both competed for the team during the season is also shown.
Finally the overall H2H winner is indicated. The score summary in brackets reflects the results displayed in the dials. The first figure is the number of stats won by the first driver in the Stats Table, followed by the score for the second driver, and finally by the number of stats that were drawn. These figures can be verified by summing the number of times each name appears in the right hand “Winner” column of the Stats Table. The overall H2H winner is simply the driver who wins the most H2H stats.
An example of the Text Summary is shown below.
| Drivers: | Bottas v Hamilton |
|---|---|
| Team: | Mercedes |
| Races: | 13 |
| H2H Winner: | Hamilton (0/6/0) |
Stats Table
The Stats Table shows the results for each driver across a range of stats and the winner for each stat. The stats are defined as follows:
Points
The number of championship points earned by each driver during the season for the subset of races where both drivers competed for the team.
Race Result
The number of times each driver has beaten the other driver over the course of a whole race distance for the subset of races where both drivers competed for the team. Only races where both drivers finished the race are included. This reduces the impact on the comparison of issues that were not due to driver error (eg DNF due to mechanical failure).
Qualifying
The number of times each driver has out-qualified the other during the season for the subset of races where both drivers competed for the team.
Fastest Lap
The number of times each driver has recorded the fastest lap of the two drivers during the season for the subset of races where both drivers competed for the team. Only races where both drivers have completed at least one lap are included.
Laps in Top 10
The number of laps each driver has completed inside the top 10 race positions for the subset of races where both drivers competed for the team.
Best Result
The best race result achieved by each driver for the subset of races where both drivers competed for the team. Where drivers have the same best result, the number of times the result has been achieved will be checked to determine the winner of the stat. If this is also equal the stat is a draw.
An example of the Stats Table is shown below.
| Bottas | Hamilton | Winner | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Points | 197 | 238 | Hamilton |
| Race Result | 5 | 7 | Hamilton |
| Qualifying | 5 | 8 | Hamilton |
| Fastest Lap | 2 | 10 | Hamilton |
| Laps in Top 10 | 721 | 761 | Hamilton |
| Best Result | 1st (x2) | 1st (x6) | Hamilton |