Followers and journalists like to assess drivers, uncover who’s starring, who’s underperforming and the way team-mates with the identical equipment evaluate. With Formulation 1 in its summer season break, now looks as if a great time to have a look at the crop of 2024.
There are, in fact, loads of methods to check drivers, however one of many key ones is uncooked velocity. With out it, no driver shall be profitable, and qualifying is, in principle, the least sophisticated indicator of tempo.
Beneath you’ll be able to see how the 2024 F1 team-mates stack up after 14 rounds, primarily based on their qualifying performances for grands prix (not sprints). We’ve excluded classes by which one driver in a workforce couldn’t file a consultant time for causes exterior their management, explaining why not all add as much as 14.
Qualifying head-to-head
1. Leclerc 8-5 Sainz2. Ocon 8-4 Gasly3. Alonso 9-5 Stroll4. Tsunoda 9-4 Ricciardo5. Russell 10-4 Hamilton6. Hulkenberg 10-2 Magnussen7. Norris 11-3 Piastri8. Bottas 13-1 Zhou9. Albon 13-0 Sargeant10. Verstappen 14-0 Perez
Though a wonderful gauge of assessing who’s getting the higher hand within the intra-team fights, this metric is quite crude. Clearly, if a driver is constantly just some thousandths of a second away from their team-mate, they’re nonetheless doing a great job and are very near maximising their automotive, whereas one other might frequently be half a second off however on the same head-to-head rating.
To get a clearer view of the drivers’ precise velocity, we’ve checked out supertimes. Supertimes are primarily based on the quickest single lap by every driver at every race weekend, expressed as a share of the quickest single lap general (100.000%) and averaged over the season.
Qualifying is one useful yardstick, however the supertimes can paint a a lot clearer image of team-mate comparisons
Photograph by: Purple Bull Content material Pool
This usually means qualifying and in addition has the advantage of largely (although not totally) eradicating a driver struck with an issue or misfortune in a given session as a result of it takes under consideration the entire weekend. It’s not good – it provides us no steer on how constant a driver is over a race stint, for instance – however for uncooked velocity, it may be enlightening.
Supertimes gaps for the ten team-mate pairings thus far in 2024
1. Gasly-Ocon 0.015s2. Russell-Hamilton 0.101s3. Leclerc-Sainz 0.134s4. Norris-Piastri 0.185s5. Tsunoda-Ricciardo 0.196s6. Alonso-Stroll 0.211s7. Hulkenberg-Magnussen 0.426s8. Bottas-Zhou 0.643s9. Albon-Sargeant 0.675s10. Verstappen-Perez 0.953s
The very first thing to notice is how remarkably shut Alpine drivers Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon are. It’s the equal of a 0.015-second hole round a 1m40s lap. It’s the same hole to that between Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso at McLaren in 2007 (0.019s in Hamilton’s favour) and between 2015 Toro Rosso rookies Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz (0.067s).
Oscar Piastri has barely narrowed his 2023 hole of 0.227% to 0.185% in opposition to Lando Norris, however there’s a sense that each can carry out even higher if they will lower out small errors
The Frenchmen are shut on nearly each metric you’ll be able to take a look at: Gasly has six factors to Ocon’s 5, Gasly has averaged 6.2 to Ocon’s 6.1 on our Driver Scores, and each have scored a mean of 5.7 in our reader scoring. The partnership has hardly been harmonious but it surely underlines the truth that driver efficiency shouldn’t be Alpine’s key drawback in 2024…
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The hole between George Russell and Hamilton at Mercedes can be small. Hamilton is 10-4 behind, which has led to some suggesting the seven-time champion has misplaced curiosity forward of his transfer to Ferrari. However being 0.101% behind a hungry driver 13 years his junior hardly suggests he’s fallen off a cliff.
Hamilton’s race tempo has additionally remained sturdy, significantly in the latest races, and he at the moment leads Russell within the championship – and would narrowly be forward even when the youthful Briton was handed again his Belgian GP victory.
Some have advised Hamilton’s performances have dipped this 12 months but it surely stays extremely shut between the 2 Mercedes drivers
Photograph by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Photographs
The Ferrari pairing might be considered in considered one of two methods. Both it’s a wonderful effort by Sainz to be so near established one-lap star Charles Leclerc, or it’s spectacular Leclerc remains to be forward given he has arguably had a extra tumultuous season thus far!
As one may count on, Oscar Piastri has barely narrowed his 2023 hole of 0.227% to 0.185% in opposition to Lando Norris, however there’s a sense that each can carry out even higher if they will lower out small errors as they get used to competing proper on the very entrance of F1. How that hole modifications over the remainder of the marketing campaign – and seasons to come back – shall be a captivating subplot.
Yuki Tsunoda’s hole over Daniel Ricciardo backs up the Japanese’s declare that he ought to have been within the (in the end futile) discussions about changing Sergio Perez, although it ought to be famous that the hole has been closing in latest GPs.
Alonso’s latest droop can be revealed by a modest 0.211% benefit over Lance Stroll. The hole between the Aston Martin pair throughout 2023 was 0.753%, one of many largest within the discipline, so we might count on the margin to extend once more over the ultimate 10 races.
The underside 4 pairings present important gaps and it’s certainly no coincidence that each one 4 include a driver who will both be out of F1 on the finish of 2024 or whose place is below menace.
Nico Hulkenberg has been a star of 2024 and has a Sauber/Audi contract in his pocket. His 0.426% hole over Kevin Magnussen is even greater than his 0.330% benefit in 2023 and he has 22 factors on the board in comparison with the Dane’s 5.
Zhou Guanyu’s deficit to Valtteri Bottas at Sauber is greater than double what it was final 12 months, 0.643% to 0.299%. Bottas has a great historical past on one-lap tempo – he was solely 0.116% behind Hamilton throughout their 5 seasons collectively at Mercedes – however the magnitude of the 2024 hole thus far places China’s first F1 driver in a weak place.
The supertimes additionally level out who’s most below strain on the grid
Photograph by: Mark Sutton
Logan Sargeant has chipped away on the hole to Alex Albon at Williams, however it’s nonetheless a sizeable 0.675% behind in what appears set to be his remaining season in F1. Which brings us to the largest deficit…
A lot has been mentioned and written about Perez’s struggles at Purple Bull alongside Verstappen, but it surely’s price placing the present 0.953% hole into context.
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Firstly, it’s the largest hole between the 2 we’ve seen since they grew to become team-mates for 2021, the closest being 0.545% in 2022. That means that regardless of the root of Perez’s issues are, they don’t seem to be bettering.
Supertimes aren’t the whole lot, as Button scored extra factors than Hamilton throughout 2010-12, however that isn’t a consideration relating to Verstappen-Perez. Perez is at the moment seventh within the championship, 146 factors behind his team-mate
The closest a Purple Bull team-mate has bought to Verstappen throughout a full season is 0.138% and 0.186%, which Ricciardo managed in 2018 and 2017 respectively. Perez is at the moment even additional behind than Albon was in 2020 (0.784%).
Throughout his difficult second stint at Ferrari, Kimi Raikkonen was on common of 0.284% behind Sebastian Vettel throughout their 4 seasons collectively, whereas the hole between Hamilton and Jenson Button at McLaren was 0.306% in 2010-12. That serves to remind us that supertimes aren’t the whole lot, as Button scored extra factors than Hamilton throughout these seasons, however that isn’t a consideration relating to Verstappen-Perez. Perez is at the moment seventh within the championship, 146 factors behind his team-mate.
If we take a look at extra apparent primary/quantity two line-ups in latest historical past, we see a 0.390% hole between Michael Schumacher and Rubens Barrichello at Ferrari throughout 2000-05, and a 0.277% margin separating Vettel and Mark Webber at 2009-13 Purple Bull.
It ought to be famous that the varied qualifying format modifications of 2003-09, together with automobiles working on the gasoline load they needed to begin the race with, skews the information. Curiously, Barrichello tended to be nearer to Schumacher when the Ferrari was dominant.
The hole the scale of Verstappen to Perez at a frontrunning workforce hasn’t been seen since Schumacher and Irvine have been companions at Ferrari
Photograph by: LAT Photographic
To discover a hole between two frontrunners that’s just like that between Verstappen and Perez, you need to take a look at Schumacher-Eddie Irvine at Ferrari. Throughout their three full seasons collectively, the common was 0.908%, although it ought to be famous that Irvine bought nearer every year after beginning a whopping 1.286% behind within the troublesome F310 of 1996.
Riccardo Patrese was 0.999% behind Nigel Mansell in 1992 however, such was Williams’s benefit with the FW14B, the Italian nonetheless completed second within the drivers’ championship. That hole can be largely attributed to 1 driver gelling with the gizmo-laden, lively suspension automotive and the opposite not, given the margin was a mere 0.111% with the extra typical FW14 of 1991.
The Verstappen-Perez disparity is genuinely uncommon within the trendy period, which helps to clarify the widespread shock that the Mexican has thus far held on to his drive.
In abstract, Gasly-Ocon are essentially the most evenly matched, the gaps at Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren and RB are all sensibly shut, Alonso might be underperforming given his earlier hole to Stroll however remains to be forward, and the remaining 4 groups all have severe deficits that put constructors’ factors in danger and F1 careers within the hazard zone.
Can Perez flip round his fortunes at Purple Bull after the summer season break?
Photograph by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Photographs
