Every internal teammate battle offers an intriguing subplot to every season — even in seasons as one-sided as 2023.
The first person a Formula 1 driver must beat is their teammate. The only other driver on the grid with access to equal machinery and resources, how they fare against their opposite number can make or break their career.
With several contracts due to expire next season and with some big fish potentially ready to find bigger ponds, three drivers in particular find themselves under the pump based on their performances relative to their teammates.
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After 23 rounds, including six extra sprint races and qualifying sessions, Fox Sports has compiled the data points that reveal who will enter the off-season under the most pressure ahead of a crucial 2024.
A note on the data: qualifying times are based only on segments in which both drivers set a time — for example, if one driver is knocked out in Q1 but the other makes it through to Q2, only Q1 times are compared.
Similarly, only races in which both drivers finish are compared.
RED BULL RACING (860 POINTS)
Max Verstappen (1st, 575 points) and Sergio Pérez (2nd, 285 points)
Qualifying
Head to head: Verstappen ahead 25-3 (grands prix: 20-2)
Pace: Verstappen ahead by 0.504 seconds
Grid position: Verstappen ahead by 5.46 places
Races
Head to head: Verstappen ahead 21-3 (grands prix: 18-2)
Points ratio: Verstappen ahead 66.86 per cent to 33.14 per cent
Finishing position: Verstappen ahead by 2.88 places
These numbers do not make for good reading for Sergio Pérez.
No driver started further behind their teammate this season, with a whopping 5.46 places — a quarter of the grid — on average between Verstappen and Pérez.
In fact there’s no qualifying metric on which Pérez isn’t at best in the bottom two. Only rookie Logan Sargeant is slower relative to his teammate in qualifying and weaker in the head-to-head comparison — not exactly a ringing endorsement for the man occupying the most coveted seat on the grid.
Pérez improves relatively for points scored, but he’s still at best middle of the road compared to other teammates, as illustrated by his tardiness securing second in the drivers standings.
With results like this, it would take only a slight tightening of the field to make Pérez a liability in the constructors championship and potentially the drivers title next year.
He simply cannot afford another 2023 if he wants to stave off Daniel Ricciardo and renew his Red Bull Racing deal into 2024. He’s the driver most under pressure.
MERCEDES (409 POINTS)
Lewis Hamilton (3rd, 234 points) and George Russell (8th, 175 points)
Qualifying
Head to head: Russell ahead 15-13 (12-10)
Pace: Hamilton ahead by 0.170 seconds
Grid position: Russell ahead by 0.39 places
Races
Head to head: Hamilton ahead 13-9 (11-5)
Points ratio: Hamilton ahead 57.21 per cent to 42.79 per cent
Finishing position: Hamilton ahead by 0.77 places
Lewis Hamilton re-emerged as Mercedes’s leading man through the year, answering critics who declared him over the hill after last season.
There was an interesting subtle power shift at Mercedes in 2023. Though no-one doubts Russell’s ultimate ability, he didn’t hit the same highs he achieved last year. Some have connected his mini regression with Hamilton’s decision to stay at the team for at least another two seasons, effectively committing Russell to the role of number two to the seven-time champion for the foreseeable future.
At least some of his unpredictable form was down to the unpredictable car — even Hamilton said as much, suggesting there was never any rhyme or reason behind the relative performance swings between them each weekend.
But over the season Hamilton was decisively better in race conditions, something Russell will need to ensure isn’t repeated next year lest his number-two status sticks.
FERRARI (406 POINTS)
Charles Leclerc (5th, 206 points) and Carlos Sainz (7th, 200 points)
Qualifying
Head to head: Leclerc ahead 18-10 (15-7)
Pace: Leclerc ahead by 0.071 seconds
Grid position: Leclerc ahead by 0.96 places
Races
Head to head: Leclerc ahead 13-8 (10-5)
Points ratio: Leclerc ahead 50.74 per cent to 49.26 per cent
Finishing position: Leclerc ahead by 0.67 places
Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz have been largely complementary of one another this season. Leclerc emerged fastest early before changes to the car threw him off his game and opened the door to Sainz to steal a march, on which he won in Singapore.
A late upgrade package targeting 2024 then swung things back in Leclerc’s favour in the final months, putting him back at the head of all the key metrics, particularly in qualifying.
It was a season-long glimpse at what makes these two drivers tick, with each having a distinct driving style.
Leclerc prefers a somewhat wilder car that he can ride to pole position, whereas Sainz prefers a machine with more docile characteristics from which he can massage a strong race. Ferrari’s challenge will be to come up with a 2024 concept that can serve both — contrary to the situation at Red Bull Racing, where Pérez is having to live with a car tailored to Verstappen’s abilities.
If it can do so, it’ll have undoubtedly the most potent line-up in the sport.
McLAREN (302 POINTS)
Lando Norris (6th, 205 points) and Oscar Piastri (9th, 97 points)
Qualifying
Head to head: Norris ahead 20-8 (16-6)
Pace: Norris ahead by 0.047 seconds
Grid position: Norris ahead by 2.18 places
Races
Head to head: Norris ahead 17-7 (14-4)
Points ratio: Norris ahead 67.88 per cent to 32.12 per cent
Finishing position: Norris ahead by 1.92 places
It’s no slight on Oscar Piastri and his standout rookie campaign to say he was well covered by teammate Lando Norris, who made good on all his promise with a competitive car finally in his hands.
Much to Piastri’s credit, the qualifying pace difference between them was among the smallest among the teammates, even if he was outqualified more often than not.
As the Melburnian will say himself, his biggest weakness is race management. F1’s Pirelli tyres present a particular challenge, and it’s only with seat time and experience that drivers learn how to best regulate sensitive thermal degradation.
But the 1.92-place gap between him and Norris in races is a little exaggerated by some outlier results — the Austrian Grand Prix, where Piastri didn’t have the revolutionary McLaren upgrade, and the São Paulo Grand Prix, where a rules quirk put him one lap down at the end of the first lap, to name just two.
Really these numbers don’t do justice to his strong campaign, even if Norris deserved to have won the first year of this teammate battle.
This unfolding partnership will be one of 2024’s most interesting stories.
ASTON MARTIN (280 POINTS)
Fernando Alonso (4th, 206 points) and Lance Stroll (10th, 74 points)
Qualifying
Head to head: Alonso ahead 24-4 (19-3)
Pace: Alonso ahead by 0.494 seconds
Grid position: Alonso ahead by 4.71 places
Races
Head to head: Alonso ahead 17-3 (14-2)
Points ratio: Alonso ahead 73.57 per cent to 26.43 per cent
Finishing position: Alonso ahead by 3.45 places
Despite Aston Martin and Fernando Alonso’s attempts to pump up Lance Stroll’s world championship potential ahead of this season, the Canadian was put to the sword once racing got going, outmatched on every metric by one of F1’s greatest.
Alonso did almost all the heavy lifting. Only Nico Hülkenberg at Haas and Alex Albon at Williams shouldered more of the pointscoring burden relative to their teammate — but with fewer points available near the back of the grid, relatively small numbers resulted in big percentage swings at these backmarker teams. Aston Martin, on the other hand, had a car capable of scoring heavily at almost every weekend, but Stroll often wasn’t up to the task.
To be fair to the seventh-year driver, Stroll suffered more keenly as Aston Martin lost its way in the middle of the campaign. Having rediscovered its mojo in the final month, Stroll again looked like a regular top-10 finisher.
But that does nothing to hide the fact that Stroll never came close to reflecting his team’s ambitions to be a genuine frontrunner. If he can’t massively lift in 2024, someone at Silverstone will surely start asking hard questions of management and owner Lawrence Stroll.
In this way Stroll doesn’t simply make himself one of next year’s most under-pressure drivers, he also puts the spotlight on the entire team and its purpose so long as he’s perceived as a nepotistic choice.
ALPINE (120 POINTS)
Pierre Gasly (11th, 62 points) and Esteban Ocon (12th, 58 points)
Qualifying
Head to head: Gasly ahead 17-11 (14-8)
Pace: Gasly ahead by 0.005 seconds
Grid position: Gasly ahead by 0.07 places
Races
Head to head: Ocon ahead 11-10 (10-6)
Points ratio: Gasly ahead 51.67 per cent to 48.33 per cent
Finishing position: Ocon ahead by 0.19 places
The evenness of this line-up reflects marginally better on Pierre Gasly, an Alpine newcomer in 2023, particularly in the context of the team’s off-track dysfunction. That he was able to so quickly and seamlessly match the more established Esteban Ocon bodes well for him.
It perversely helped matters that the A523 was stuck far behind the leaders but well ahead of the backmarkers. It meant at most weekends both Gasly and Ocon could run their own races, helping them to extract the most from their cars and thereby ending up closely matched in race conditions.
Both drivers are out of contract next year, and though there’s no obvious need to replace either, the likes of Jack Doohan waiting in the wings and current drivers coming out of contract means the stakes would be high if either driver were to fall behind in this intrateam scrap — particularly given Alpine’s apparent fondness for snap decision-making under new management.
WILLIAMS (28 POINTS)
Alex Albon (13th, 27 points) and Logan Sargeant (21st, 1 point)
Qualifying
Head to head: Albon ahead 28-0 (22-0)
Pace: Albon ahead by 0.581 seconds
Grid position: Albon ahead by 4.96 places
Races
Head to head: Albon ahead 19-0 (15-0)
Points ratio: Albon ahead 96.43 per cent to 3.57 per cent
Finishing position: Albon ahead by 4.32 places
Alex Albon performed superbly all year, making few mistakes and regularly getting the most from his car. Given the chance to start tapping into the potential that got him his sudden F1 debut to begin with, it was no surprise he easily covered rookie teammate Logan Sargeant.
That said, the scale of Sargeant’s defeat was more painful than it should have been. The American rookie clearly has raw speed, but in both qualifying and the races he struggled for consistency, leaving him well down in every metric — and delaying confirmation of a second season with Williams until the weekend.
His flashes of speed have been enough to secure him a follow-up campaign, but there’ll be no excuses next year if he can’t string together complete sessions and then, in turn, complete weekends. Second chances don’t come around often, and with several promising young guns knocking on the door, there’s no prospect of a third chance if Sargeant can’t lift his game. It’s 2024 or bust.
ALPHATAURI (25 POINTS)
Yuki Tsunoda (14th, 17 points) and Daniel Ricciardo (17th, 6 points)
Qualifying
Head to head: Tsunoda ahead 5-5 (4-3)
Pace: Ricciardo ahead by 0.262 seconds
Grid position: Ricciardo ahead by 0.9 places
Races
Head to head: Tsunoda ahead 5-5 (4-3)
Points ratio: Tsunoda ahead 71.43 per cent to 28.57 per cent
Finishing position: Tsunoda ahead by 0.2 places
Only the seven rounds at which both Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo raced are compared for the above data.
Though the qualifying numbers are exaggerated by Tsunoda’s Las Vegas shocker, the fact Ricciardo was immediately on the pace despite his half-season out and subsequent broken hand reflect well on the Australian but will have been frustrating for the Japanese driver, who has spent all year trying to build himself a leadership role at the team.
That effort comes back to him in race conditions, particularly with his late-season flurry of points, though Ricciardo can equally point to bad luck costing him chances to finish higher up.
It’s too early to draw any definitive conclusions. We’ve seen enough to know the old Ricciardo is still in there waiting to be consistently accessed. We also know that Tsunoda is capable of great drives if he can keep himself in check.
This will be a fascinating combination to watch in 2024, with the careers of both drivers on the line and not much between them during their 2023 prologue.
ALFA ROMEO (16 POINTS)
Valtteri Bottas (15th, 10 points) and Zhou Guanyu (18th, 6 points)
Qualifying
Head to head: Bottas ahead 19-9 (16-6)
Pace: Bottas ahead by 0.238 seconds
Grid position: Bottas ahead by 1.64 places
Races
Head to head: Bottas ahead 13-10 (10-7)
Points ratio: Bottas ahead 62.50 per cent to 37.50 per cent
Finishing position: Bottas ahead by 0.35 places
Zhou Guanyu was admirable in a sometimes competitive Alfa Romeo in his rookie 2022 campaign, but a much worse 2023 car made it hard to assess his follow-up season.
What is clear is that in worse machinery Bottas has had his teammate comprehensively covered. The margins may be smaller than the race-winning, pole-getting Finn will have liked, but this year’s car has put a hard ceiling on achievement.
Zhou is in another contract year next season, while Bottas has at least another year to run. With Audi soon to take over the Sauber team, Zhou’s seat remains unsafe in 2025 without some big performances to stave off potential big-name suitors.
HAAS (12 POINTS)
Nico Hülkenberg (16th, 9 points) and Kevin Magnussen (19th, 3 points)
Qualifying
Head to head: Hülkenberg ahead 19-9 (15-7)
Pace: Hülkenberg ahead by 0.143 seconds
Grid position: Hülkenberg ahead by 3.00 places
Races
Head to head: Hülkenberg ahead 12-11 (10-8)
Points ratio: Hülkenberg ahead 75.00 per cent to 25.00 per cent
Finishing position: Hülkenberg ahead by 0.39 places
There was a feeling that Nico Hülkenberg blitzed Kevin Magnussen this season after sitting on the sidelines for three years. That’s really only true on Saturdays, and even then it comes with a caveat.
Hülkenberg has been squeezing every last tenth from his substandard Haas car over a single lap. The average margin to Magnussen isn’t that large — 0.143 seconds is the fourth-smallest gap between teammates — but in a tight midfield, that’s regularly made the difference between Q1 and Q2, leading to a big gap on the grid.
In race conditions, however, they’re much more closely matched. The Haas car is so severely hamstrung by its tyre wear problems that neither driver has much potential to prove anything significant, and the single upgrade brought in October did nothing to improve matters.
There is a perception that Magnussen needs to lift his game, but there’d be no point plugging any other driver into a car as compromised as this.
TEAMMATE DOMINANCE RANKING
By ranking every set of teammates on the six key data points above and averaging the results, we can generate a teammate dominance index.
The index ranges from 0 to 10. A lower number indicates the teammates are closely matched. A higher number suggests a greater disparity.
1. Alpine: Pierre Gasly ahead of Esteban Ocon (0.3)
2. AlphaTauri: Daniel Ricciardo ahead of Yuki Tsunoda (0.3)
3. Mercedes: Lewis Hamilton ahead of George Russell (2.8)
4. Ferrari: Charles Leclerc ahead of Carlos Sainz (3.7)
5. Alfa Romeo: Valtteri Bottas ahead of Zhou Guanyu (4.5)
6. Haas: Nico Hülkenberg ahead of Kevin Magnussen (4.8)
7. McLaren: Lando Norris ahead of Oscar Piastri (5.8)
8. Aston Martin: Fernando Alonso ahead of Lance Stroll (8.2)
9. Red Bull Racing: Max Verstappen ahead of Sergio Pérez (8.3)
10. Williams: Alex Albon ahead of Logan Sargeant. (9.8)
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