F1 Bytes

Well what a year 2020 has been – including Formula 1! With the opening round in Melbourne cancelled at the last minute and the whole season in doubt, the powers that be still managed to put on a show…and what a show it was!! We witnessed 17 (mostly) memorable races and crowned a record equaling seven time World Champion.

Other than Lewis Hamilton’s Championship feat what other drivers impressed in 2020? There were a number of stand out performances but as always the only way to really gauge the relative performance of each driver is to compare them to their teammate – the only other driver who has exactly the same opportunity to perform. 

For a number of years after each race we have updated six head to head factors to monitor who is outperforming their teammate. At the end of a hard fought 2020 season (especially in the midfield) we analyse the results,  look at the casualties and also look ahead to 2021.

For a full description of the six H2H factors check out our H2H Explanatory Notes.

MERCEDES

WINNER: Lewis Hamilton, 6:0

FERRARI

WINNER: Charles Leclerc, 6:0

RED BULL RACING

WINNER: Max Verstappen, 6:0

RENAULT

WINNER: Daniel Ricciardo, 5:1

HAAS

WINNER Draw 3:3

RACING POINT

WINNER: Sergio Pérez, 5:0

MCLAREN

WINNER: Carlos Sainz, 5:1

Alpha Tauri

WINNER: Pierre Gasly, 6:0

Alpha Romeo

WINNER: Kimi Räikkönen, 4:1

Alfa Romeo was another Ferrari powered team who had a very disappointing year in 2020 compared to 2019. In 2019 Raikkonen and Giovinazzi scored a total of 57 Championship points but this year that total plummeted to just eight. Certainly the drivers cannot be held responsible for the team’s performance but it was still somewhat surprising to hear both the Italian and Finn had retained their seats for 2021.

A positive for Alfa must have been the progress Antonio made in 2020. After losing 6 nil to the Ice Man in 2019 Giovinazzi had a solid showing in 2020 even beating Kimi in their qualifying matchup. A big question for 2021 is will it be Kimi’s last year in F1 or will he follow in the steps of Valentino Rossi and continue at the highest level of motorsport despite being a quadragenarian? 

WILLIAMS

WINNER: George Russell, 3:1

What a year for Williams and for George Russell in particular. During the year the iconic Williams family sold all their shares in the team to a private investment firm. While a sad day for the purists hopefully fresh capital will assist the team to move up the grid in the coming years. Though there were glimpses of an increase in pace compared to recent years the team still failed to score a solitary Championship point in 2020.

What a year of mixed emotions for George Russel! The head to head win of 3:1 and a draw over Nicholas Latifi doesn’t really do justice to the dominance the Brit had over his Canadian teammate. With a 16 nil qualifying result over his Williams teammate (Russell drove one race for Mercedes) George shone in one lap pace. Russell also looked certain to score his first Championship point when behind the safety car at Imola only to make an uncharacteristic mistake and crash out. Nevertheless the Brit had showed enough to get a one race callup to Mercedes to replace the Covid stricken Lewis Hamilton. After missing his first pole position in F1 by less than a tenth of a second and in a strong position to win the race George had a string of bad luck finally finishing ninth though also taking fastest lap on the way for his first (three) Championship points.

With both drivers staying with the team in 2021 and with George Russell eyeing a future full time Mercedes seat Nicholas Latifi is going to have his hands full trying to match the young Brit.

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At the (roughly) halfway point of the 2019 season there have been mixed fortunes for many of the drivers.  Following his fifth World Championship win last year Lewis Hamilton is arguably now in the best form of his career. But how much is due to the dominant Mercedes and how much is the driver? The only way to really evaluate the relative performance of a driver is to compare them to their teammates – the only two drivers working with near identical machinery.

At the mid-season break we analyse which drivers are ahead of their teammates – a review of six head to head factors (which we update after each race) for each team. For a full description of the factors check out our H2H Explanatory Notes.

MERCEDES

WINNER: Lewis Hamilton, 5:0

At the mid-season break last year Lewis Hamilton was leading Valtteri Bottas 6:0 so at least the Finn has managed one drawn factor in 2019. Even so losing 5:0 and with Esteban Ocon waiting in the wings Bottas is definitely going to have to improve his performance to maintain his seat in 2020.

Red Bull have already made the move to relieve Pierre Gasly of his driving duties after a poor first half of the year compared to his teammate. It’s perhaps unlikely Mercedes will do the same with Valtteri at least winning two of the first 12 races but the Finn must surely be feeling the pressure!

FERRARI

WINNER: Sebastian Vettel, 5:0

Coming into the season there were plenty of commentators suggesting Charles Leclerc would best his more experienced teammate in 2019.  The stats at mid-season shows this definitely hasn’t been the case! Coincidentally the German is leading his team mate by the same 5:0 that he was leading Kimi Raikonnen this time last year.

Leclerc has had his share of bad luck in 2019. No more so than failing to achieve what looked like a certain first victory at Bahrain after his Ferrari had problems nine laps from the end of the race.  Even so Leclerc has also made a number of critical errors on various weekends and will need to show more consistency if he is to challenge his teammate and the dominant Mercedes week in week out.

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Vettel currently leads Leclerc with exactly the same result Hamilton has over Bottas. The difference is there have been no rumours that the Monagasque is in danger of losing his seat as is Bottas. Perhaps the difference is that Ferrari doesn’t have any obvious replacement driver as Mercedes has with Ocon. More likely is that Leclerc has had a number of performances that still suggest he will be a world champion contender in the years to come.  It will be extremely interesting to see how Leclerc performs against his-team mate in the second half of the year.

RED BULL RACING

WINNER: Max Verstappen, 6:0

What a difference a year makes at RBR! At the mid-season break in 2018 Daniel Ricciardo was leading Max Verstappen 4:1 – fast forward 12 months and Max has dominated Pierre Gasly with a 6:0 clean sweep in their head to head.

Gasly has had flashes of pace but losing qualifying 11:1 to his team mate and with a best result of 4th it was perhaps not surprising that the historically ruthless team decided to drop him for Alexander Albon half way through the season. It may be beneficial for Gasly to regain his confidence at Torro Rosso but history suggests once your’e dropped there’s unlikely to be another chance at RBR – Daniil Kyvat is a case in point.

Gasly’s Lack of performance is in stark contrast to his Dutch team mate who seems to be able to consistently wring the utmost out of the RBR chassis and vastly improved Honda power train. With two wins already against Ferrari’s zero, Max Verstappen is undoubtedly one of the star performers from the first half of the season.

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RENAULT

WINNER: Daniel Ricciardo, 6:0

After many expecting Renault to have made a leap in performance this year their results have been disappointing. Not a lot the drivers can do about the car’s performance other than outperform their team mate – and that is exactly what Daniel Ricciardo has done.

At this time last year Nico led highly regarded team mate Carlos Sainz 4:1. As a result the Ricciardo v Hulkenberg matchup was much anticipated at the start of the year. But the Aussie has dominated Hulkenberg in a 6:0 factor white wash.

Even though the Honey Badger leads the Hulk in all factors the delta on some of the factors is not huge and the teammates have regularly run line astern in races.  What is telling is that Ricciardo leads Hulkenberg 8:4 in qualifying.  One lap pace has not always been the Australian’s strongest area and the Hulk has traditionally been strong in quali.

As some of the factor scores are relatively close it will be interesting to see if the German can improve his performance in the second half of the year.  If not Ricciardo’s dominance and class will surely make him an attractive option for other top teams – Ferrari perhaps?

HAAS

WINNER Kevin Magnussen 4:2

A disappointing first half of the season for both HAAS drivers. The head to head matchup is actually closer than the same time last year when Magnussen was leading Grosjean 5:1 and dominating qualifying 9:3.  Fast forward 12 months and the factors are closer but both drivers have less than half the championship points they had at mid season in 2018.

Other than the HAAS car’s inconsistent pace the biggest story of the first half of 2019 is their drivers penchant for running into each other. On multiple occasions this year KMag and RoGro have made contact. History has shown the two drivers are generally evenly matched and so likely to be often running in close quarters during races but the cardinal sin for teammates is to make contact with each other.

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It remains to be seen how much more patience Gene Haas and Gunther Steiner have with their enigmatic drivers but rumours abound that at least one of them may lose their seat for 2020.  Where there is smoke there is generally fire so both drivers will be doing their utmost to beat their teammate in the second half of the year – bring on the fireworks!

RACING POINT

WINNER: Draw

The three all draw in our head to head matchup at Racing Point will no doubt surprise many.  At the start of the year the team was widely criticised for dropping the highly rated Esteban Ocon for Lance Stroll – the son of the team’s new owner. Amid the criticism all the Canadian could do was perform against his highly experienced teammate and the stats suggest he has done a solid job.

Although a draw overall the standout factor is qualifying where Perez leads Stroll 12:0 – an achievement shared only by George Russel at Williams.  Quali is the standout factor but arguably the most important – championship points – has Stroll leading Checo. A concern for the team will be that the total points for the two drivers is 31 compared to nearly double that number of 59 for Perez and Ocon at the mid season break last year.

MCLAREN

WINNER: Carlos Sainz, 5:1

McLaren have had a solid first half of the season with a total of 30 more championship points compared to the same time last year (with two completely different drivers after Alonso and Vandoorne exited stage left).

Like all the 2019 rookies Lando Norris has impressed so far this year although he is ultimately still being solidly beaten 5:1 by the consistent Carlos Sainz. Norris is undoubtedly quick and leads Chili 8:4 in quali results but consistency is key and with more than double his teammate’s WDC points Sainz is having an impressive season.

With the team and both drivers having a solid first half of the season the question will be can McLaren finish the year in 4th position as “best of the rest’?

TORO ROSSO

WINNER: Daniil Kvyat, 4:2

An unexpected shake up occurred at Torro Rosso during the mid-season break with Alexander Albon replacing Pierre Gasly at Red Bull Racing for the second half of the year. Albon has had some very impressive drives in 2019 and as a rookie has perhaps exceeded expectations. Having said that he is currently being beaten 4:2 in the head to head matchup with Daniil Kyvat. One of Albon’s two factor wins is qualifying but that is marginal with the Brit leading the Russian 6:5.

Based on their relative performance to date Kyvat will no doubt feel hard done by for being overlooked by RBR. Daniil seems a more mature driver following his time out from the F1 grid and his fairytale podium at Hockenheim a day after the birth of his first child and 13 years after Torro Rosso’s last podium (with Seb Vettel’s win at Monza in 2008) was a season highlight.

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The second half of the season will be fascinating for the two Red Bull teams. How will Albon cope with the added pressure at RBR and facing off against Max Verstappen? Can Gasly outperform Kyvat and earn another call up to the premier team? Will Kyvat dominate Gasly and secure a seat at RBR – something no one could have expected 12 months ago? We can’t wait find out!

ALFA ROMEO RACING

WINNER: Kimi Räikkönen, 6:0

Another team with two new drivers Alfa Romeo Racing has had a solid start to 2019 with 32 championship points compared with 18 at the same time last year. What hasn’t changed compared to last year is the dominance of one driver over their teammate.

At the mid-season break in 2018 Charles Leclerc had seen off Marcus Ericsson 6:0 in our factor score.  Fast forward 12 months and the ageless Kimi Raikonnen has similarly dominated Antonio Gionvinazzi with a 6:0 clean sweep.

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Giovinazzi has shown some pace in qualifying but with both drivers having finished 11 races together the Ice Man has been The Man with 31 WDC points compared to the Italian’s one. If Kimi can maintain his performance he may well choose to remain a stalwart in F1 for some time to come. With many young drivers trying to crack F1 (including the Ferrari aligned Mick Schumacher) Antonio will need to lift his game to keep his seat for next year.

WILLIAMS

WINNER: George Russell, 4:2

The hapless Williams has gone from bad to worse from last year to 2019. Thankfully it appears as though some much needed upgrades have dramatically improved the car’s performance recently although the two drivers are still consistently in the bottom two.

Robert Kubica’s fortunate 10th place in Germany (and the only WDC points for the team) have saved the Pole from a 6:0 head to head defeat by his impressive rookie teammate. Although Robert’s pace has not matched George Russell’s the fact that he is on the grid in 2019 remains an incredible sporting story full of impressive statistics as we saw in our analysis here.

Unless Kubica can really turn his performance around in the second half of the year he will no doubt be in danger of losing his seat in 2020. On the other hand George Russell has shown glimpses of his class and what he may be able to do in a car that matches his ability.