2018 F1 Team-Mate Battles: The Results

Ahead of the 2018 F1 season, we posted ten prediction polls on the Lights Out Twitter account, asking which driver at each team would score the most points. So how many did you get right? And which driver out-performed their team-mate by the largest margin? We’ve got all the answers here!

MERCEDES

Which driver will score more points for @MercedesAMGF1 during the 2018 #F1 season?

— Lights Out ●●●●● (@LightsOutF1Blog) March 16, 2018

YOUR PREDICTION: Lewis Hamilton would outscore Valtteri Bottas

WHAT HAPPENED: Lewis Hamilton outscored Valtteri Bottas

Predictably, Lewis Hamilton once again got the better of Valtteri Bottas in 2018. There were six Saturdays where Bottas lined up ahead of Hamilton on the grid in 2018, but only three Sundays where the Finn finished ahead in the final order. The gap between Hamilton and Bottas in qualifying decreased this season. In 2017, Hamilton was 0.285 seconds faster than Bottas in qualifying, whereas this season he was 0.172 seconds faster on average. 

THE STATISTICS:

FERRARI

Which driver will score more points for @ScuderiaFerrari during the 2018 #F1 season?

— Lights Out ●●●●● (@LightsOutF1Blog) March 16, 2018

YOUR PREDICTION: Sebastian Vettel would outscore Kimi Raikkonen

WHAT HAPPENED: Sebastian Vettel outscored Kimi Raikkonen

Just as 87% of you predicted, Sebastian Vettel scored more points than Kimi Raikkonen over the 2018 season, beating him by 69 points. Raikkonen beat Vettel in qualifying just four times throughout the year, but fared considerably better on Sundays. Raikkonen finished behind his team-mate nine times in 2018, though in the sixteen races they reached the end of, they each finished ahead of one another eight times. The average gap between Vettel and Raikkonen in qualifying this season was 0.02s larger than it was in 2017. 

THE STATISTICS:

RED BULL

Which driver will score more points for @RedBullRacing during the 2018 #F1 season?

— Lights Out ●●●●● (@LightsOutF1Blog) March 15, 2018

YOUR PREDICTION: Max Verstappen would outscore Daniel Ricciardo

WHAT HAPPENED: Max Verstappen outscored Daniel Ricciardo

The average gap between Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo this season increased by almost a tenth in Verstappen’s favour.Verstappen comprehensively beat Ricciardo in 2018, finishing ahead in both qualifying and the Grands Prix 15 times. In the eleven races which they both finished this season, Ricciardo finished ahead at only Australia, China and Monaco.

THE STATISTICS:

RENAULT

Which driver will score more points for @RenaultSportF1 during the 2018 #F1 season?

— Lights Out ●●●●● (@LightsOutF1Blog) March 14, 2018

YOUR PREDICTION: Carlos Sainz would outscore Nico Hulkenberg

WHAT HAPPENED: Nico Hulkenberg outscored Carlos Sainz

The prediction poll between Nico Hulkenberg and Carlos Sainz was the closest, with 52% backing Sainz to out-score Hulkenberg in his first full season at Renault. As it transpired, Hulkenberg out-scored Sainz by 16 points. Sainz finished ahead in more races than his team-mate and Hulkenberg took the brunt of five more DNFs in the season than Sainz. However, in the 12 races which they both finished, Sainz finished ahead in only four. They were the most evenly-matched pairing on ultimate pace on average throughout the 2018 season. 

THE STATISTICS:

HAAS

Which driver will score more points for @HaasF1Team during the 2018 #F1 season?

— Lights Out ●●●●● (@LightsOutF1Blog) March 13, 2018

YOUR PREDICTION: Romain Grosjean would outscore Kevin Magnussen

WHAT HAPPENED: Kevin Magnussen outscored Romain Grosjean

In short, Romain Grosjean was the quicker driver at Haas this season, but Kevin Magnussen scored more points for the team. Grosjean’s error-laden first half of the season goes some way in explaining this trend. Just as in 2017, Grosjean was faster than Magnussen on Saturdays, though the margin by which the Frenchman was quicker grew by over half a tenth in 2018. Magnussen put in a number of eye-catching drives throughout the year to score 56 points, one more than he scored during his season with McLaren.

THE STATISTICS:

McLAREN

Which driver will score more points for @McLarenF1 during the 2018 #F1 season?

— Lights Out ●●●●● (@LightsOutF1Blog) March 12, 2018

YOUR PREDICTION: Fernando Alonso would outscore Stoffel Vandoorne

WHAT HAPPENED: Fernando Alonso outscored Stoffel Vandoorne

There wasn’t really much of a ‘battle’ between Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne this season at McLaren, with the Spaniard qualifying ahead of the Belgian at every round in 2018. Of the 63 track sectors this season, Vandoorne set a faster time than Alonso in only 12 of them, and from the 27 total qualifying sessions they were both competing in this year, Vandoorne finished ahead in only two. On Sundays, Vandoorne fared slightly better, finishing ahead of his team-mate nine times. However, Alonso failed to finish five more races than his team-mate this year. When looking at the ten Grands Prix which both reached the end of, Brazil was the only one where Vandoorne finished ahead.

THE STATISTICS:

FORCE INDIA

Which driver will score more points for @ForceIndiaF1 during the 2018 #F1 season?

— Lights Out ●●●●● (@LightsOutF1Blog) March 15, 2018

YOUR PREDICTION: Esteban Ocon would outscore Sergio Perez

WHAT HAPPENED: Sergio Perez outscored Esteban Ocon

At the start of the year, the feeling was that Esteban Ocon would have the upper-hand over Sergio Perez in his second season with the Force India team. That didn’t quite happen though, and Perez outscored the Frenchman by 13 points. Ocon did have the better of Perez in qualifying, though, and out-qualified him 16 times over the season. Ocon also suffered four more non-finishes than Perez in 2018 (three DNFs and a disqualification on technical grounds compared to Perez’s two DNFs). Therefore the points tally could easily have been closer; in the 14 races in which both Force India drivers were classified, Ocon finished ahead in nine of them.

THE STATISTICS:

SAUBER

Which driver will score more points for @SauberF1Team during the 2018 #F1 season?

— Lights Out ●●●●● (@LightsOutF1Blog) March 12, 2018

YOUR PREDICTION: Charles Leclerc would outscore Marcus Ericsson

WHAT HAPPENED: Charles Leclerc outscored Marcus Ericsson

Even before his first Grand Prix, 81% of you backed Charles Leclerc to out-score Marcus Ericsson in his first season in F1 – and he did. Ericsson was one of the most comprehensively beaten team-mates this year, with Leclerc scoring 30 points more than the Swede over the season. On average, the gap between Leclerc and Ericsson in qualifying was 0.605s, larger than at any other team this season. Perhaps Leclerc’s quality is most striking by comparing Ericsson’s average gap to  Pascal Wehrlein in 2017, which was just +0.032s. From the 63 track sectors, there were just seven (Australia S1, Bahrain S1+2, China S1, Belgium S1, Mexico S3 and Brazil S2) where Ericsson set a faster time than Leclerc during the qualifying hour. 

THE STATISTICS:

TORO ROSSO

Which driver will score more points for @ToroRosso during the 2018 #F1 season?

— Lights Out ●●●●● (@LightsOutF1Blog) March 13, 2018

YOUR PREDICTION: Pierre Gasly would outscore Brendon Hartley

WHAT HAPPENED: Pierre Gasly outscored Brendon Hartley

Pierre Gasly scored the highest percentage of any team’s total points this year, scoring 88% of Toro Rosso’s total. The gap between the pair in qualifying wasn’t that large (0.119s) but Gasly was able to convert his grid positions into point-scoring races on more occasions than Brendon Hartley. From the ten races which both drivers finished, Gasly finished ahead in 6 of them. 

THE STATISTICS:

WILLIAMS

Which driver will score more points for @WilliamsRacing during the 2018 #F1 season?

— Lights Out ●●●●● (@LightsOutF1Blog) March 14, 2018

YOUR PREDICTION: Lance Stroll would outscore Sergey Sirotkin

WHAT HAPPENED: Lance Stroll outscored Sergey Sirotkin

Williams scored points at just two Grands Prix in 2019 – in Azerbaijan and Italy, and Sergey Sirotkin’s only point, at Monza, came as a result of Romain Grosjean’s disqualification. From the 16 races which both drivers finished, Lance Stroll finished ahead 9 times. Stroll scored 86% of the team’s points, with a best finish of eighth in Baku, but it was Sirotkin who was quicker on average in qualifying. Stroll was out-qualified 12 times by the Russian this season. 

THE STATISTICS: