Who won the battle against their team mates in 2015

2015 F1 season review

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Sebastian Vettel and Romain Grosjean comfortably beat their team mates in 2015 but there were much closer battles elsewhere on the grid. Find out who came out on top in the all-important intra-team contests.

A clear winner

Lotus

Despite having had a year to settle in at Lotus, a more competitive and reliable car underneath him and not having to miss 13 first practice sessions as his team mate did, Pastor Maldonado took an absolute pasting from Romain Grosjean. He suffered the heaviest defeat of any full-season driver in qualifying, besting his team mate only twice.

This pairing also had the most non-classifications due to accidents of any team: a total of eight, five of which involved Maldonado. On two occasions both drivers were eliminated on the first lap: at Silverstone and Monza.

With Grosjean now off to Haas, Maldonado will be paired with rookie Jolyon Palmer next year, a fellow GP2 champion who must fancy his chances against the more experienced driver on the strength of these results.

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Ferrari

For the second year running Kimi Raikkonen went up against a fellow world champion at Ferrari and came off decisively second best. He was happier with the team’s 2015 car, however, and it didn’t let him down as often as its predecessor, and as a result he was slightly closer to Sebastian Vettel than he had been to Fernando Alonso.

After a patchy spell when the second half of the season began, Raikkonen ended the season strongly and avoided ending up with less than half of his team mate’s points total. Although he usually started behind Vettel there were occasions when he raced more strongly, as in Bahrain. For Vettel, 2015 was a clear return to form after last year’s disappointment: he reached the podium 13 times to his team mate’s three.

Not much in it

Mercedes

Hamilton showed Rosberg the way – until the end of the year

In their three years together as team mates at Mercedes, this was Lewis Hamilton’s clearest victory yet over Nico Rosberg. There was little between them in 2013, Hamilton won in 2014 (though Rosberg qualified better) and this year Hamilton was ahead by every measure.

That’s not quite the full story, however. A late-season turnaround by Rosberg saw him end the year with six pole positions in a row and three wins on the bounce. One of the big talking points of the off-season will be whether he can sustain that form into 2016.

Force India

It wasn’t just Rosberg who rallied against his team mate in the second half of 2015. At the mid-point of the season Nico Hulkenberg held sway against Sergio Perez at Force India having out-qualified him 80% of the time and taken the lion’s share of the teams’ points. But that changed after Hungary.

Perez reversed Hulkenberg’s superiority on points over the final races, almost evened up the qualifying and race scores, and grabbed the team’s only podium of the seasons – as he also did last year. It often seemed one Force India driver was up when the other was down, and the team have retained their complementing line-up for a third season.

Sauber

The 2013 GP2 season gave an indication how this battle would turn out: Felipe Nasr, starting his first season in the championship at Carlin, out-scored Marcus Ericsson, who had joined champions DAMS for his fourth season.

Sure enough Nasr came out ahead, his points total swelled by fifth in Australia and sixth in Russia. Both drivers will be back for more next year.

Williams

Massa began the season more strongly than Bottas

Last year Felipe Massa seemed to get the worst of the luck at Williams but this year it was Valtteri Bottas, who had an incorrect wheel fitted to his car in Belgium, was rammed out of a podium place by Raikkonen in Russia and unsafely released from the pits in Abu Dhabi.

Bottas generally came out ahead over the course of the season, but having been overlooked by Ferrari for Raikkonen’s drive he would surely desire a more conclusive margin of victory as he seeks a move to a manufacturer team. It can’t have helped matters that on Williams’ best day of the year at Silverstone he stayed behind Massa during the opening stint and fell back when the rain came.

Manor

Manor switched their driver pairings, running Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi for most races but substituting the latter for Alexander Rossi in five of the final rounds. Rossi out-raced Stevens 3-1 and the qualifying scoreline was 2-2. Merhi was at a weight disadvantage compared to Stevens, but on race results the pair were closely matched.

Too close to call

Toro Rosso

Verstappen dives past Sainz on a rare occasion when both Toro Rossos were running

The STR10’s reliability was woeful and while Carlos Sainz Jnr suffered most from that in the races – with seven non-classifications due to technical problems compared to Max Verstappen’s two – its effects were more widely felt. Not least because Verstappen was classified in China despite having stopped with a gearbox problem while running in the points.

Should Sainz be worried? Former Toro Rosso driver Jean-Eric Vergne believed Red Bull didn’t take his car’s poor reliability into account when they dropped him from their squad while promoting Daniil Kvyat to the top team.

Red Bull

Having stunned F1 by beating Vettel in their first season as team mates last year, Daniel Ricciardo was narrowly out-scored by Vettel’s replacement Kvyat. Ricciardo started ahead more often than not, however, and also spent more laps ahead, indicating there was more to this contest than meets the eye.

McLaren

The McLaren-Honda MP4-30 was so disastrously uncompetitive in terms of both performance and reliability that it reduced the two world champions who campaigned it to mere bit-players. Jenson Button narrowly edged Alonso, but with some many breakdowns and grid penalties being attributed to the car’s fault there’s no worthwhile conclusion to be drawn here.

Notes on the data

Qualifying scores are based on whichever driver was quickest in the last phase of qualifying where both drivers set a time. Where a driver failed to set a time, e.g. due to a technical failure, this is not considered a ‘defeat’.

Find the data for previous seasons here:

Over to you

Which driver impressed you most compared to their team mates during 2015? And with so many teams keeping the same drivers for next year, how do you think these battles will unfold in 2016? Have your say in the comments.

2015 F1 season review

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Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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70 comments on “Who won the battle against their team mates in 2015”

  1. Massa was also disqualified for a tyre pressure irregularity he knew nothing about.

  2. For me Bottas is just not doing enough to be chosen ahead of the likes of Verstappen, Sainz, Hulkenberg and at this stage even Perez…

    1. @xtwl
      Bottas is certainly a better prospect than Hulkenberg (younger, has proved more) and give or take an equally good prospect to Perez. Verstappen and Sainz are better prospects, probably because they are much younger.

      Bottas lost 2nd place and 18 points in Hungary with a puncture (Ricciardo and Rosberg ahead crashed, Kvyat got a penalty). He lost 15 points in Russia because of a bonehead move by Raikkonen. He had a back injury in Australia, a race where a minimum 5th place was possible (another 10 points). I haven’t even taken Williams’ blunders in Belgium or Abu Dhabi into consideration. Bottas lost circa 50 points due bad luck, Massa nowhere near as much.

      1. @kingshark I didn’t bring up the comparison between him and Massa. Bottas simply is a driver that will bring in guaranteed points if the car and team do their job, nothing exceptional. He scores when the track allowes the Williams car which is very good in a straight line to use its one and only strenght, top end speed. I don’t see him as a superb driver, or even very talented. I don’t even see how he has already proven more than Hulkenberg at all, if anything exept his age there isn’t a single point I’d take him ahead of any of the above mentioned…

        1. @xtwl
          He is beating Massa for one, something Kimi couldn’t do.
          Hulkenberg has been in F1 longer yet still seems more error prone than Bottas. He also does not have a single podium despite driving 5 years in very solid midfield cars.

          Detailed analysis of his on track performance data by the engineers, which Williams management will be studying now, as all the teams do, shows that while he has his moments of magic, he’s not at the level of a Bottas or a Ricciardo.

          http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2015/07/f1-driver-market-on-starting-blocks-with-latest-bottas-development-in-italy/

          Perez is no different from Bottas, the only difference is (perhaps) that Perez has already been tested against a WDC in equal machinery (Button) and did not excel.

          The way I see it: Bottas > Perez > Hulkenberg

          1. I feel Perez might be good for Ferrari. They often leave Kimi on strategy that require some amount of tire saving which is Perez is forte. So Vettel can go with the aggressive approach and if the car has the top speed, Perez will dodge the others when it comes to defending his place.

            I would like for him to be given another go in a major team. McLaren had two of the same kind and I felt they didn’t really manage him properly during his stint.

          2. He is beating Massa for one, something Kimi couldn’t do.

            He is beating Massa (not showing him all corners of the room) when Massa is close to retirement whilst Kimi couldn’t when Massa was at his peak.

            Hulkenberg has been in F1 longer yet still seems more error prone than Bottas. He also does not have a single podium despite driving 5 years in very solid midfield cars.

            As I said, Bottas would be without podiums too if it had not been for the straight line speed of the Williams. He isn’t a spectacularly good qualifier either and really only goes well on tracks where straight line speed matters. Holding his podium count against Hulkenberg is hardly fair as the Force India is not podium material. Perez lucked into two over two years.

            Neither of the three are superstars of the sport if you ask me but if I was Ferrari and I had to choose one of the three it would certainly not be Bottas.

          3. Massa was WDC for a few seconds

          4. Perez has proven he can pull something out of his car on many occasions. Bottas hasn’t.
            Perez>Bottas=Hulk

  3. ast year Felipe Massa seemed to get the worst of the luck at Williams but this year it was Valtteri Bottas, who had an incorrect wheel fitted to his car in Belgium, was rammed out of a podium place by Raikkonen in Russia and unsafely released from the pits in Abu Dhabi

    I think both Williams drivers had similar luck, although Bottas has complained about his luck for a while.
    Massa had to start from the pit lane in Bhrain (before his diffuser was damaged by Pastor), had to start from the back in Canada after a turbo issue in the qualifying, contacted with Hulk in Singapore and got a unfair DSQ in his home race.
    To be fair, all things considered, VB deserved another 5~7 points over FM.

    1. TYPO:Bahrain

      1. agreed

    2. Bottas lost many more points than Massa last season. He was quite unlucky in Hungary and Russia. Massa gained more points due to other drivers’ misfortune than he lost due to his own misfortune, so in the end Bottas should have been well ahead.

  4. in all honesty Kimi should have been dropped by Ferrari, his performances are quite poor compared to Vettel.
    Expect it to be the same next year between these two.
    In 2017, Kimi will probably be replaced:
    Driver’s who deserve to replace Kimi at Ferrari
    Daniel Ricciardo, Sergio Perez, Romain Grosjean, Valtteri Bottas

    1. OmarRoncal - Go Seb!!! (@)
      7th December 2015, 16:06

      @fish123 IMHO:
      Ricciardo: can be vetoed by Seb, even if it’s denied publicly (tough luck Dan!).
      Perez: might have a chance due to Ferrari’s Mexican sponsors.
      Romain: going to Haas which has become Ferrari B (again, even when denied publicly) so he has a chance, depending how he performs.
      Bottas: I think not. The same as Hulk, I think these are 2 strong drivers but lack the “real deal”. Unless Ferrari wants a clear N°2.

      1. i agree with you their, Vettel probably has a Veto against team-mates. @omarr-pepper

        Though personally, i would really really love to see Sergio Perez in a competive car again! He deserves another chance, hopefully he can prove that next year!

        1. They didn’t want to sign Alonso again because he wanted veto against his teammates. At least one of the reasons. Why would they give it to Vettel…

          1. Maybe because disrupting the harmony now could be the worst. Vettel is “building a team around him” and he needs to be the leading driver. I doubt Ric could jeopardize that again, but he could bring uncomfortable memories about 2014, don’t you think?

      2. @omarr-pepper the sad reality in this little debate though is that if Perez resisted the temptation of joining McLaren and waited it out at Sauber for 1 more year, he could’ve easily have been on the grid for Ferrari in 2014, instead of Kimi, due to his contract with the Ferrari Driver Academy. Now look at him, had a year to forget at McLaren and has had to grind out the points at Force India. I guess you can say that it’s a butterfly effect.

        1. OmarRoncal - Go Seb!!! (@)
          8th December 2015, 5:08

          @mattypf1 nobody (me included) thought McLaren was about to go that deep, when he got sacked, KMag was the next unlucky guy to be sacked. It’s as if Ron needs a young gun to burn so he can mislead everyone and hide how bad he’s been at managing the things inside his team.

        2. but i think Perez has a really good chance of driving with Ferrari in 2017.
          a) Ferrari’s Mexican Sponsors
          b) Raikkonen’s Best is Tyre Management and Perez is great at Managing his Tyres.
          c) Perez is 25, this year and Grosjean and Hulkenberg are already 28, So Perez has a few more years in him
          than the latter 2.

    2. Let’s just hope that Kimi will perform better next season and that he can saty at Ferrari for the 2017 season as well.

  5. I managed to find the article from March where we had the opportunity to express who we felt was going to perform best. https://www.racefans.net/2015/03/10/who-will-win-the-battle-of-the-team-mates-in-2015/

    The polls show that there were few surprises but I’m going to cover mine in more detail.

    Mercedes: I predicted that if Hamilton had no challenge from anyone other than Rosberg that he would walk this and he did. I have respect for Rosberg’s end to the season but see it as being as much of a reflection on Hamilton as I do him.
    Ferrari: I had no reason to think Raikkonen would improve on 2014 where I feel most of the grid could have beaten him and Vettel proved me right by getting back to his best.
    Red Bull: I voted for Ricciardo simply because I felt it was a season too soon for Kvyat. I rate Kvyat extremely highly but felt Ricciardo would have the measure of him over a season. However I think it was too close to call and both performed very well this season. Makes for a great 2016 between them and I think more fans will be back Kvyat this time.
    Williams: I went for Bottas and he was the better driver. However, I am increasingly worried that he never appears to be obliterating Massa like a potential multi-champion should. 2016 could be make or break with regard to the Ferrari drive which he may already be second favourite for. Even with a strong 2016 I see him having to go to McLaren to fight for the title.
    Force India: I have always been firmly in the Hulkenberg camp and the first half of the season proved he is a top driver. But Perez deserves an enormous amount of credit for his second half of the season and I did not expect such a strong turn around. Nico will argue he was ahead and had car failures and bad luck but Sergio always appears to bring the performance when there is a potential podium on offer. 2 great drivers, 2016 will be interesting again.
    Toro Rosso: I went for Sainz on the basis that I felt he was an underappreciated talent who deserved to be on the grid. I felt his drive in Melbourne was top class and he too suffered badly from reliability. But he also made rookie errors so I rate his 2015 as on par with Verstappen. Max will win titles, that I am sure of, but Sainz had a strong debut season.
    Lotus: Pastor has proven time and again to be a waste of a seat and I was disappointed that this season again we got to see all of his negatives but very few of his positives. Grosjean was the easy choice and so it proved. I hope Haas can allow him to at least challenge Renault next year.
    Sauber: I actually went for Ericsson as I felt a season in F1 and stronger showings at the back end of 2014 in difficult circumstances would be enough to beat an average Nasr. But as much as Ericcson disappointed me Felipe impressed me particularly at the start of the season. I don’t think either is a future world beater and I would prefer other drivers not on the grid in their place.
    Manor and McLaren: very difficult to differentiate between these pairs. Further proof that the faster your car is the easier it is to impress. Manor were simply far too slow and I felt both drivers had good seasons but had nothing on Bianchi’s 2014 season. McLaren had made such a mess of reliability and grid penalties that I don’t think this season ever reflected their true performance.

    1. Nice to see that article back:
      Hamilton: nailed it
      Kvyat: nailed it, unlike 95% of the people here
      Massa: yeah this one didn’t go as planned. Still think Bottas is overrtaed though.
      Vettel: surprised 35% thought Raikkonen would beat his team mate. The Vettel hate must have been strong back then.
      Alonso: I’m a bit surprised Button won this one, but in the end they were very close so I wouldn’t read too much into it.
      Hulkenberg: Perez was the surprise of the season for me. Already looking forward to the FI 2016 intra-team battle.
      Verstappen: the hype around him proved to be deserved
      Grosjean: obviously …
      Nasr: the nickname Ericcslow already existed last year, so no surprises here
      Merhi: they were very close on track and Merhi missed 5 races so I wouldn’t read too much into thi seither.

      6/11, pretty average score …

      1. Merhi: they were very close on track and Merhi missed 5 races so I wouldn’t read too much into this either.

        Wouldn’t read to much into? In the races that they started together Will Stevens out qualified Roberto Merhi 9-3. That’s a 75% success rate! Merhi is a pay driver in every sense of the word and his results this year showed that.

        1. @macca, Mehri didn’t pay a penny. He’s a payless driver.

        2. @macca I have to disagree. Merhi is a F3 Euro winner and one of the top runners (in his rookie year) in FR3.5 last year. If it wasn’t for rotten luck at the last round he would have been runner up. That’s not your typical average pay driver, to be honest.

          Also, you’re only mentioning qualifying, and you’re not taking into account what was being said all year, that Merhi didn’t have the latest/best material available.

    2. I ,I ,I ,I , eye’eye! :-)

  6. Button was better than Alonso. Period.

    1. Based on what else of yours I’ve read, I get the feeling you’d say the leftover Thanksgiving turkey is better than Alonso.

      1. Absolutely cracking call!! Right on the money!! ;-)

      2. OmarRoncal - Go Seb!!! (@)
        8th December 2015, 5:10

        @raceprouk hahaha he will say that leftover smells better than Alonso… or something like that.

      3. They say love is blind, but then hate…

        And btw it is really difficult to rank drivers when their machines and so underperforming. Even when the machinery is the same, the unreliability lottery makes it very hard to compare.
        The f1metrics math model, which is admittedly flawed but downright impartial, gives very strong rankings to both Alonso and Button (I’d bet much higher than they are going to get here in F1F, but we’ll see about that) Alonso gets the 2nd place, after Vettel (who tops him for the first time), and Button 4th after Hamilton.

        1. Two interesting things about the f1metrics article:
          In the Button section, a race-by race discussion on how they score and how Alonso comes (slightly) ahead.
          And the Toro Rosso drivers, who are unranked as they have had no other teammates so the model can neither insert them in the network nor rate the car. However, if the assumption (external to the model) is made that the Toro Rosso ranked halfway between the Lotus and the Sauber, Max Verstappen comes out 5th, rookie of the year.
          A big surprise for me was the low ranking of Nico Hulkenberg (clearly not in his best year, unless we consider Le Mans), 17th of 19.
          Finally one of the comments to the article link to a totally different new mathematical model, also impartial but with quite different mechanics and assumptions. In it the best all-time F1 drivers were Fangio, Prost, Alonso, Clark, Senna, Stewart, Piquet, Fittipaldi, Schumacher and Vettel (to me it sounds about right).

    2. Of course the 2015 McLaren was volatile, but over 19 races Alonso and Button still went head to head enough times to make the numbers somewhat indicative of relative strength… kudos to Button.
      At the same time World Champion Button beat a rookie in 2014 whom still had to learn some race craft, but clearly proved his speed in qualifying (and the 2014 McLaren car was by no means easy to drive: It had much worse handling than the 2015-car, just more power). Similarly, Button beat the highest rated driver on the grid in 2015. Seems like McLaren could’ve put more faith in Magnussen to develop further, and could’ve saved 20 million in the process, and then later paired Magnussen and Vandoorne once Button retired as a “youth dream-team”.

    3. You’re like a broken disc dude.

    4. and your pics stink

  7. Very interesting to see all graphs together.

    It’s also extremely interesting to see it through “hard statistics” like here:

    https://f1metrics.wordpress.com/2015/12/02/2015-model-based-driver-rankings/

    This guy have some brilliant arcticles there!

    1. Vettel for 2015 WDC!

    2. I imagine that some would find some of his conclusions a bit surprising though – for example, ranking Hulkenberg 17th in the field and saying that he seriously underperformed, or putting Nasr 5th.

  8. Interesting how some people have now decided Bottas isn’t as good as they thought, because he’s not crushing Massa – maybe Massa is just better than they remember…?

    1. That’s how I see it. But Bottas seems like one of those drivers who gets used to the Formula 1 cars and sticks a level best suited to his speed and driving skills but doesn’t seem to get too far past that level. If that makes sense

  9. I do wonder if Alonso has reconsidered his opinions on Vettel and if he now considers him in the same class as himself and Hamilton. This season reminds me a lot of 2011 and 2013 where we would see Webber battling with other cars and Vettel was off down the road in a race of his own. We always just thought Webber was under performing but I think you have to consider maybe this Vettel boy is something special.

    I don’t think anyone else in the field can poach midfield positions like Alonso does, give him the fourth or fifth best car and he’ll sneak a 4th and 5th place finish more than anyone else. But we’ve seen for a while now that you really have to be on the front row of the grid to be taking the championship. Having a qualifying edge and then driving a metronomically consistent race is pretty much unbeatable.

    1. I think you have to consider maybe this Vettel boy is something special.

      That cracked me up. He’s not a teenager anymore. He’s been around for 10 years now. You are not talking about the teenage rookie, how did it take this long for you…

      1. He’ll always be Baby Schumi.

  10. Grosjean really had the season of his life and Maldonado had a dreadful one.

  11. I still think Rosberg’s turnaround had more to do with the team worried he’d fall into Vettel’s clutches.

    1. I agree…

    2. @wildfire15
      Not really, because Rosberg was already quicker than Hamilton before his winning streak began. This “2nd in the WDC” is just an excuse used by a certain group of Hamilton fans who find the idea of Rosberg simply being faster than Hamilton for some consecutive races a pill too bitter to swallow.

      1. Rosberg’s not slow, but if he had this level of pace in him all along then where was it before Singapore? And with Rosberg’s improvement, where did Hamilton’s pace go?

    3. Hit the nail on the head. It was a given Lewis would win from Singapore onward so maybe the team thought they could tilt the game-board a bit towards Rosberg?

  12. Sainz is the unsung hero of the grid and especially the rookie class. I’m looking for much more from him next season when they have an actual power unit and not a lump of fail in the car.

    Rossi too I thought showed mettle and should probably get another look.

  13. Sainz will still be a rookie by Abu Dhabi’16 with the rate his car is going out. Confirmed.

  14. It will be interesting to see what happens between Verstappen and Sainz when they finally get their hands on a reliable car. Should be a good battle… Likewise Button & Alonso and even the Haas team. I think 2016 will be a good year.

    Any word on Renault drivers? It sounded as if Renault weren’t too committed to Maldonado and Palmer..

    1. It would only get less interesting. If Verstappen didn’t had so many mechanical problems in qualifying he would have won that battle easily too (somehow the mechanical problems of Sainz in the races are always mentioned, yet the mechanical problems of Verstappen in qualifying are always ignored while they have made him lose lots of points in the races too)…they seem to want to talk Sainz up…less mechanical problems for both and the difference would only have gotten bigger.

      Verstappen lost two 5th places (SNG and BEL), two 6th places (MON (team sending both drivers out in Q3 with not enough time to get heat in the tyres due to cloudiness and bad pit stop) and RUS (damage because of Hulk), and lost at least one 7th places (AUS) all not by his own fault. You can also debate about other races like Silverstone (he would not have spun without the wastgate problem in qualifying and the team putting new clutches without start profile in both cars), the strategic screw up of Toro Rosso in Spain (putting him on the wrong tyres (and he had also engine problems having to do a reset during the race)), Monza, Japan and Austria (brake problems due to not enough cooling).

      So no, the battle this year wasn’t actually there, only a lot of mechanical problems for both drivers and one driver who can use the mechanical problems as an excuse.

      1. VES lost a lot of points in Shanghai too…..

      2. They both had their share of bad luck. Therefore it will be interesting to see them battle against eachother in a reliable car. I’m not so sure Max will have the upper hand in the end. Sainz is maybe not the fighter on track, but I suspect him to be more consistent. I’m afraid that Max is gonna overdo it next year…

      3. Apparently you decided that since Verstappen had problems in quali that means he would have won that battle without it. That makes sense. NOT
        Apparently you know by heart how all the races went for Verstappen and all the mistakes made by his pit crew, but you don’t bother to take a look at all the problems Sainz had.
        You even found excuses for his personal mistakes. That’s rich.

        1. He is going a bit overboard but pointing out Sainz problems and ignoring Verstappen’s makes no sense either. If Sainz had more engine trouble why did Verstappen had to use one more engine this season?

          Both drivers are closer than expected, I expected the older and more experienced Sainz would have been the clear winner but instead a 17 y/o who was driving go-karts two years ago won by a small margin (apart from the points).

        2. Of course it makes sense he would have won most of them, because he did win all of them, accept the last one in Abu Dahbi, after Austria when he didn’t had any mechanical problems. You do know when they have fresh set of tyres in FP they always do a qualifying simulation run at the beginning which shows what they can do ?

          I also had a look at Sainz’s problems and what would have happened when he had been able to finish based on race pace and positions. Now mind you, his mistakes were in some cases self inflicted while that wasn’t the case with Verstappen (accept Silverstone, but that one also would not have happen without the mechanical problems which preceded it).

          In Monaco Sainz could have finished 7th if he hadn’t missed his weighing. In Hungary Sainz was actually 3.5 seconds behind Alonso already in lap 35 when they both made a pit stop, and seeing the end result was Alonso 5th, Hamilton 6th 3 seconds behind that, and Grosjean/Rosberg 6 seconds behind that on 7th & 8th, while Alonso switched to the faster tyres under the SC, it would have been doubtful Sainz would have held onto P7 and more likely would have ended 9th. In Austria, Silverstone and Belgium (despite being 2 laps down at Spa he still was told to push and show what he got) Sainz’s race pace would not have brought him anything more as 9th or 10th in those races. In Russia and Singapore he could have a decent result if it hadn’t been for his self-inflicted mistakes (the crash in Sochi in FP3 made they had to rebuild the car which lead to his brake problems). In Japan he also could have had a bit better result if he hadn’t touched the pit entry bollard.

          Now even if you discount all the self-inflicted mistakes and mechanical problems of Sainz, the total point tally of him would still have stayed below 40. Now if you count the non self-inflicted mistakes and mechanical problems of Verstappen, he would have ended up at 80+ points.

          I’m guessing the season of Verstappen was already that good that they don’t even have to mention all his problems while those of Sainz are being mentioned all the time. And I don’t see next season it’s going to be any different if they have less problems (but Toro Rosso always has lots of problems, and it would surprise me if that would be any different next season, even with a more trouble free engine they most likely still will have more than they should have).

  15. Keith, with regards to the comments about Maldonado – I think that saying that Maldonado had better reliability than Grosjean is inaccurate.

    Grosjean is listed as having retired three times from mechanical failures – an engine problem in Australia, a gearbox failure in Austria and a brake failure in the USA. Maldonado had three retirements due to brake failures in Malaysia, China and Monaco – now, although you could debate over whether or not the electronics failure in the Belgian GP counts, you have to concede that both drivers had at least the same number of retirements due to mechanical failures.

  16. Correct me if Im wrong but, If pilot X ends the race at 10 for example and his teammate didn´t, shouldnt it be consider as the pilot x finish ahead of his teammate? cause in your data is not considering that and that changes everything.

    1. OmarRoncal - Go Seb!!! (@)
      8th December 2015, 3:33

      @Paulmaster How would you know if, for example, Alonso could have had his best race before Kimi crashed on him? Or would you say Kimi had a better race than Seb in Canada just because Seb had that unlucky tyre explosion?
      That’s why this comparison only takes into account racea when both teammates finished.

      1. That’s not Canada. It’s Belgium. But apparently they included Canada quali in Raikkonen’s favor.

      2. I think facts and data are mesured by things that actually hapen, no about what could hapened. And it’s also an important ability of a driver to stay out of danger, away from crashes etc. In Hulkenberg vs Perez comparison, Perez ended 11 times in better position than Hulk they are 11-7 and 12-9 finishing in the points with 1 podium, so we can say Perez season was way better than what graphics and data above shows. Same happened with other drivers comparisons.

  17. Guybrush Threepwood
    8th December 2015, 8:37

    I can’t believe people are so blinded by the championship points they don’t understand what happened during the races.

    For example, Kvyat never once beat Ricciardo this season when Ricciardo didn’t have an issue (and none of those issues were of his own doing).

  18. Button certainly proved his worth, Ricciardo slightly outperformed by Kvyat but not as much as he outperformed Vettel last year
    Vettel have a great year, but its clear

    1. Ahhhh I haven’t finished my reply yet…
      Anyway : its clear that Raikkonen form have dip since 2014, but the gap is too big now and last year.
      Grosjean wil give Haas a good run,
      Bottas will have to do something special to get a Mercedes seat and make a title bid
      Since there is only 1-2 team competing for WCC (and effectively WDC) in near future good drivers in midfield will have a slim chance to take the title, unless there is a big change in Mercedes or Ferarri, and thats unlikely to happen.
      Verstappen is in tough spot right now, Red Bull is not looking any better and it would be weird for him to go for Mercedes when Hamilton/Rosberg move or retire.
      My predictions for next year
      – There will be a three way championship between Rosberg, Hamilton and Vettel
      – McLaren Honda will improve, not much. But both Button and Alonso will punch above their weights, which make that McLaren improve alot.
      – Raikkonen will leave Ferrari at the end of 2016.
      – Perez will shine more than Hulkenberg
      – if Hamilton and Rosberg have even more tense feud, Vettel will seize the chance and grab his 5th title

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