F1 Teammate Battles In 2023 – How Are the Intra-Team F1 Duels Shaping Up?

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The teammate battles are always intriguing, as every driver’s biggest comparison is to the one sitting on the other side of the garage, as that pair is the only driving the same equipment. Thus, the teammate comparison has always been an intriguing fight as each season unfolds. This is what we will look into today, as we will assess every teammate battle on the grid.

Red Bull – Max Verstappen vs Sergio Perez

Ever since the season started, it has become obvious that this teammate battle will decide who will be crowned as the 2023 World Champion. Generally, the reigning Champion, Max Verstappen has been the stronger of the two, although Sergio Perez has been able to beat him three times in racing conditions: in Jeddah and in Baku, both in the sprint and the Grand Prix. The victory in Saudi Arabia came after the Dutchman suffered a technical failure in qualifying and started fifteenth, while in Baku the Mexican was pressuring his teammate for the lead, until he got ahead with the help of a safety car intervention.

Perez has had a bad break as well though, in Melbourne, when brake issues forced him to start last and he was able to drive up to fifth in the Grand Prix. Verstappen’s superiority was obvious in Miami, when he drove from ninth to first, following a sublime first stint on hard tyres, during which he was faster on significantly older tyres than Perez after the Mexican pitted, and eventually overtook him for victory. At this point, it is worth noting that Red Bull the only team to complete all races with both cars.

Aston Martin – Fernando Alonso vs Lance Stroll

A new battle for 2023 is the one between Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll. So far, the more experienced driver has been dominant and the results he has achieved in 2023 have been unexpected, to say the least. Four podiums in the first five races show an impressive run of form for the Spaniard and the teammate battle reflects this fact as well.

Alonso has beaten the Canadian on every race and qualifying session so far and holds a commanding 48-point advantage in the standings. For Stroll, the season’s results show how much the Aston Martin car has improved over the rest of the field, as he has already scored ten more points than he did in the whole 2022 season. That is in spite of an unfortunate retirement due to an engine failure in Jeddah, while he was on course to a top-five finish.

Mercedes – Lewis Hamilton vs George Russell

For Mercedes, the teammate battle is not one of their worries, as the former dominant team in Formula 1 looks to find what is holding them back from a return to the top. Despite the troublesome car, the two British drivers are having a tremendous fight between them. Each driver has won the intra-team battle twice in the Grands Prix, without counting the Australian GP, in which George Russell retired due to a mechanical issue. It was a race that the young Brit briefly led, before an ill-timed pitstop, while Lewis Hamilton went on to finish second, giving the team its only silverware for 2023 so far.

For qualifying though, the story is much different. Russell has been on top of his teammate on five occasions, with the only exception occurring in the GP qualifying in Baku, where the 25-year-old had a surprising Q2 exit. Hamilton is the one on top in the standings though, holding an eighteen-point advantage heading to Imola.

Ferrari – Carlos Sainz vs Charles Leclerc

The start of the season has been horrid for Ferrari, especially when we compare it to last year’s five opening races. At this point in 2022, the Italian team had amassed 157 points and was leading the championship. This year, its 78-point tally is only good enough to place it in fourth. This fact is particularly reflected in the performance of Charles Leclerc, who was also on top of the drivers’ standings with 101, 67 more than this season.

It has been a bad start for the Monegasque, whose only good weekend came in Baku, when he finished second in the sprint and third in the Grand Prix. Another podium slipped through his hands when his car broke down from third in the season opener. It was his first of two retirements, the second coming in Melbourne, because of a spin. Leclerc has made other driving errors, something Carlos Sainz has avoided so far. He has been consistent for the most part, missing out on points only in Melbourne, following a penalty that dropped him from fourth. Despite lacking a bit of pace, Sainz is leading the head-to-head battles, but that could change in the next few races.

McLaren – Lando Norris vs Oscar Piastri

Despite McLaren being fifth in the constructors’ championship, the position very much flatters the team from Woking, which has had a difficult start to the campaign. Of the fourteen points scored so far, twelve came in the Australian GP, where both drivers benefitted from a chaotic finish to open their 2023 accounts. Other than that, the Azerbaijan GP was the only other race the team got the most out of the car, finishing ninth and eleventh. As for the other three races, McLaren very much struggled and remarkably finished no better than fifteenth.

When it comes down to the teammate battle, Lando Norris has clearly got the better of his rookie teammate so far. Oscar Piastri, who retired due to an electrical issue in Bahrain, has only beaten the Brit in three occasions. In Jeddah, Norris made a mistake and damaged his car in qualifying and the two drivers went wheel-to-wheel in the race, with Piastri coming out on top. The other time Piastri was ahead of Norris was in the Baku sprint, where the Brit had to pit.

Alpine – Pierre Gasly vs Esteban Ocon

The battle of the two Frenchmen was one of the most anticipated before the start of the season, mostly thanks to their fierce rivalry from a very young age. The two have been racing against each other from their karting days and it has been reported that they were not on speaking terms prior to Alpine signing Pierre Gasly ahead of this season.

The newcomer seems to have a slight edge over his teammate, although the pair have finished one place apart in every race, except for the season opener, where Esteban Ocon had a troublesome race, which included a couple of penalties and ended early after mechanical issues. In that race, Gasly bounced back after shockingly qualifying last and finished ninth. The pair also collided in dramatic fashion in Melbourne, in the restart during the final few laps, which cost the team a large amount of points, since Gasly had restarted from fifth, two places ahead of his teammate. Gasly has beaten Ocon in the last four races, although that includes both races in Baku, where Ocon started from the pitlane after changing setup under parc ferme. However, the battle is far from over and promises to remain tight moving ahead.

Haas – Nico Hulkenberg vs Kevin Magnussen

The American team surprised the F1 paddock when it announced the signing of Nico Hulkenberg, after the German spent three seasons in the sidelines, as a reserve driver for Aston Martin. It placed him next to Kevin Magnussen, a pair that has clashed and famously exchanged words in the past. Their battle as teammates took a surprising twist as the season began, as the German outqualified the Dane in the first five qualifying sessions of 2023.

The races though have been a different, and strange, case though. Hulkenberg is leading the team in the standings, scoring six points to Magnussen’s two, but he has only beaten him once. That one occasion took place in Melbourne, when the 35-year-old took the chequered flag in seventh place, while his teammate touched the barriers and retired late in the event. On the other five races, including the sprint, Magnussen has held a steady advantage of at least two places, including the two Grands Prix in which he scored points by finishing tenth, in Jeddah and Miami.

Alfa Romeo – Valtteri Bottas vs Zhou Guanyu

The only team to maintain its line-up from 2022, outside the top three of last season, is Alfa Romeo, with Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu. The Swiss squad is having an underwhelming campaign so far, especially compared to the first part of the previous season, when it scored 31 points in five races, with only six scored so far by both drivers. When it comes to qualifying, the battle is tied at three all, a somewhat surprising fact, considering Bottas is renowned as a very good qualifier from his time at Mercedes.

As for the races, the gap between two drivers has shrunk as well, if not overturned, with the Chinese driver beating the Finn on three occasions during races, with Bottas ahead only twice. These numbers include the sprint race in Baku, where Zhou finished ahead, but not the main race, in which the younger driver retired with a mechanical issue. However, it is the more experienced driver that leads in the standings, as Bottas’ eighth place in the season opener is enough to put him ahead of Zhou, who only scored once, by finishing ninth in Melbourne.

Alpha Tauri – Yuki Tsunoda vs Nyck de Vries

One of the most cut-clear battles this season is taking place in Alpha Tauri. Nyck de Vries, despite being 28 years old, is only racing in his first full season in Formula 1 and his performances have been underwhelming to say the least. Despite being only five races into the season, his seat is in danger, as Helmut Marko remarked: “Nothing will happen for the next three races. We spoke to de Vries and he agrees with us: he needs to improve. The distance to teammate Yuki Tsunoda, who is doing a great job, is too big. To use footballer jargon, Nyck got the yellow card, but not the red yet.”

The Dutchman has beaten his younger, but more experienced, teammate only once in all sessions. This occurred in the Miami qualifying session, when de Vries was a tenth faster and was promoted to Q2. Other than that, and a retirement in the Baku sprint because of a damaged car, Tsunoda has been very impressive and consistent. This is obvious when looking at his results in the five Grands Prix: the Japanese driver has finished two times in tenth and three times in eleventh. In the meantime, de Vries’ best race result is fourteenth, placing him at the bottom of the standings.

Williams – Alex Albon vs Logan Sargeant

Finally, we visit the battle at Williams. It is another one-sided battle of teammates, as Alex Albon has commenced 2023 the way he left off at the end of last season, with some impressive performances. His dominance is particularly reflected in qualifying, where he has beaten Logan Sargeant in all sessions so far. His best performance came in Australia, where he qualified eighth, a result that surprised everyone.

In the races, Albon has also been consistently ahead of his teammate. He finished tenth in the season opener at Bahrain to score his only point so far. Another good result was on the cards in Albert Park, but making a mistake led to an accident that cost him the opportunity. It was his second retirement, after a brake failure in Jeddah. In the meantime, Sargeant started his rookie campaign with an impressive debut in Bahrain and finished twelfth, but things have gotten tougher since. He crashed out of the restart in Melbourne and had a terrible Saturday in Baku, crashing in sprint qualifying and sustaining damage that could not be repaired in time for the race later that day.

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