The most difficult battles in motor racing are fought at home sometimes.
Beyond the fight against the rest of the rivals on the grid, every driver’s priority task would be beating their own teammates, who have in theory the same racing car.
During the 68 seasons in Formula 1’s history, there have existed duels to the death between teammates. The most memorable would be probably the one starred by Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost in McLaren last century late in the 90’s.
The current 2017 is not an exception, after having finished in Hungary the 11th day out of the 20 scheduled for the campaign.
Within team Mercedes, a fight between Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas, who are barely 19 points apart from each other at the World Drivers’ Championship, is on fire.
The three world titles owned by the British Hamilton, doesn’t seem to intimidate the Finish, Bottas, who is taking advantage of his first year as one of the Silver Arrows by beating the leader of Formula 1 Gran Premio de México de 2016 on five occasions not only in score but in the race itself.
The scale is almost tilted in favor of the German, Sebastian Vettel. The four-time world champion has classified ahead the Finnish, Kimi Räikkönen, in 10 of the 11 tests held in the year.
One of the closest battles is fought within Force India between the Mexican, Sergio Perez and the French Esteban Ocon.
Though the driver from Guadalajara has finished eight races ahead Ocon, in six of them he has been escorted by his Gaul teammate; while both drivers from the Indian team, take positions 7 and 8 respectively on the point table with Checo’s advantage of 11 units over the Frenchman.
Red Bull team deserves a special mention, thanks to the Australian, Daniel Ricciardo, considered the number 1 driver of the team, he has only been surpassed in seven grids by the Dutch Max Verstappen.
The Austrian team has eight drop outs in its record (three from the Australian and five from the Dutch); Verstappen finished ahead Ricciardo in two of the three races in which both drivers have finished,
In the subsidiary team, Toro Rosso, the scale tilts in favor of Carlos Sainz. In the four tests in which both cars got to finish, the Spanish surpassed the Russian Daniil Kvyat in all of them. Each of them have four drop outs in their records, and only during Canadian Formula 1 Grand Prix the two STR12 were left out.
Felipe Massa has proved his experience by defeating his teammate Lance Stroll during sessions scoring 9-1. Only at Baku’s circuit, in Azerbaijan, the Canadian defeated the Brazilian veteran by 45 milliseconds.
The Spa-Franchorchamps circuit will hold the season reopening, on August 27, and the nine dates left, the Formula 1 Gran Premio de México amongst them on October 29, when more battles between teammates will have to be fought.
HEAD TO HEAD
MERCEDES
SCORE: Lewis Hamilton 6-5 Valtteri Bottas
RACE: Lewis Hamilton 6-5 Valtteri Bottas
FERRARI
SCORE: Sebastian Vettel 8-3 Kimi Räikkönen
RACE: Sebastian Vettel 10-1 Kimi Räikkonen
RED BULL
SCORE: Daniel Ricciardo 4-7 Max Verstappen
RACE: Daniel Ricciardo 6-5 Max Verstappen
FORCE INDIA
SCORE: Sergio Pérez 9-2 Esteban Ocon
RACE: Sergio Pérez 8-3 Esteban Ocon
WILLIAMS
SCORE: Felipe Massa 9-1 Lance Stroll
RACE: Felipe Massa 8-2 Lance Stroll
*Due to illness, Felipe Massa did not participate in Hungary.
TORO ROSSO
SCORE: Carlos Sainz 5-6 Daniil Kvyat
RACE: Carlos Sainz 7-3 Daniil Kvyat
*The two Toro Rosso dropped in Canada.
HAAS
SCORE: Romain Grosjean 7-4 Kevin Magnussen
RACE: Romain Grosjean 5-5 Kevin Magnussen
*Both Haas dropped in Australia.
RENAULT
SCORE: Nico Hulkenberg 10-1 Joylon Palmer
RACE: Nico Hulkenberg 7-3 Joylon Palmer
*The two Renault dropped in Azerbaijan.
MCLAREN
SCORE: Fernando Alonso 8-2 Stoffel Vandoorne
RACE: Fernando Alonso 4-5 Stoffel Vandoorne
*Fernando Alonso did not participate in Monaco, and the two McLaren dropped in China.
SAUBER
SCORE: Marcus Ericsson 2-7 Pascal Wehrlein
RACE: Marcus Ericsson 3-5 Pascal Wehrlein
*Pascal Wehrlein did not participate in Australia and China, and the two Sauber dropped in Monaco.
