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 Rus...
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